Soft Pumpkin Cookies with a muffin-top texture and soft, gooey chocolate pockets! They’re bakery-worthy and come together in just one bowl.
For pumpkin cookies without chocolate chips, try these soft and thick Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting.
Soft Pumpkin Cookies
Last year, I worked hard to perfect a pumpkin cookie recipe with the texture of classic Chocolate Chip Cookies. After much experimentation, I created Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. These offer the rich flavors of pumpkin pie in a cookie that’s soft and chewy with crisp edges.
These cookies stand out from the usual varieties. They’re thick, chewy, soft, and cake-like, much like a muffin top. This recipe echoes the Soft Pumpkin Cookies my mom made during my childhood. While they might not fit the traditional cookie definition, they’re one of my favorite fall treats. If you’re a fan of thick, soft pumpkin cookies with chocolate, this recipe is for you!
Ingredients
- Canned Pumpkin: Use pure pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling.
- White Sugar & Brown Sugar: Makes the cookies sweet and soft.
- Vegetable Oil: If you want a richer flavor, swap some oil with melted butter.
- Egg: Helps hold everything together.
- Vanilla Extract: Adds a sweet, warm flavor.
- Cinnamon & Pumpkin Pie Spice: Brings in that warm, spiced pumpkin flavor.
- Baking Powder & Baking Soda: Helps the cookies rise and stay fluffy.
- Salt: Balances the sweetness and boosts flavor.
- Flour: Spoon flour into the cup and level off to avoid making the cookies dense.
- Chocolate Chips: Save some chips to press onto the cookies after baking.
Quick Tip
Pumpkin pie spice is a delicious combination of warming spices (like cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and allspice). Find it with the other spices in the grocery store, or you can make your own!
How To Make Soft Pumpkin Cookies
- Wet Ingredients: Stir pumpkin, sugars, oil, egg, and vanilla until smooth.
- Dry Ingredients: Mix in spices, baking powder, baking soda, salt, flour, and chocolate chips. Stir just enough to combine.
- Chill (Optional): Put the dough in the fridge to make it easier to scoop.
- Bake: Heat the oven, scoop dough onto a tray with parchment paper, and bake.
- Top & Cool: Add extra chocolate chips to warm cookies, then let them cool.
Storage
Storage Tips
Storing Baked Cookies: Freeze Soft Pumpkin Cookies instead of storing at room temperature. Place cooled cookies in a freezer-safe container with parchment paper layers for up to 3 months. Reheat in the microwave for serving.
Freezing Unbaked Cookies: Freeze dough balls on a sheet pan, then store in an airtight container with parchment paper for up to 3 months. Bake directly from frozen, adding extra time, or thaw in the fridge. This allows for quick, fresh baking.
Use Leftover Pumpkin In These
- No-Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake
- Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars
- Healthy Pumpkin Bread
- Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Soft Pumpkin Cookies
Equipment
- large sheet pan,
- Parchment paper or silicon baking mat
- Hand mixer
Ingredients
- 1 cup canned pumpkin not an entire can, not pumpkin filling
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar lightly packed
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice see note 1
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup semi-sweet miniature chocolate chips divided
- 1 cup milk chocolate chips
- Red or orange food dye optional
Instructions
- In a large bowl, add 1 cup canned pumpkin (not entire can), granulated sugar, brown sugar, vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla. Mix until completely smooth. If desired, add in food dye—this will give you a darker, more “pumpkin-looking” cookie. (The photos have 3 drops of orange food coloring.) Mix until completely smooth.
- Without stirring between these additions, add in cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda, salt, flour, 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips, and regular chocolate chips. Mix by hand or with an hand mixer until just combined. Do not overmix. The dough is wet, thick, and sticky!
- Cover tightly and chill dough for 30 minutes up to 10 hours. Chilling is not necessary, but it makes dough easier to work with and intensifies flavors.
- Preheat oven to 350℉ and line a large sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicon baking mat. Use a 1-tablespoon measuring spoon to scoop out balls of dough onto the sheet pan. Try to smooth or round the balls, but it’s okay if they’re a bit bumpy; the dough is messy to work with. Bake for 8–11 minutes and remove. Use remaining 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips to press a few more chocolate chips on the tops of the cookies straight out of the oven.
- Let cookies stand on the sheet pan for 3–4 minutes before using a spatula to transfer cookies to a cooling rack. Repeat baking process with remaining dough, keeping dough in the fridge until it’s scooped into cookies (colder dough = easier to work with!) For a fudgy pumpkin pie-type cookie, chill cooked cookies in the fridge—delish!
Video
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hi, can these be made just as great with gluten-free flour?
Sorry, no. The two don’t interchange perfectly!
I just made these with whole grain Cup4Cup (gf flour), subbed applesauce for the oil & added 1/4 tsp additional pumpkin pie spice. Absolutely delicious & I’m not a big pumpkin fan!
Hey I love this recipe but always get a little confused because when I make it I’m not sure what flour you mean. Do you mean all purpose or am I supposed to use white whole wheat flour. If you could respond I’d really appreciate.
All purpose
Love these cookies and have been making them for years!! Random question – Did the recipe change recently by chance? I was positive that these were large cookies and you scooped like 1/4 cup instead of 1 teaspoon. I have this saved on Pinterest so maybe it changed?
Hey Brittany! I’m so glad you’re enjoying this recipe! I did update it after lots of testing and found they were the absolute best a bit smaller! 🙂
I literally cannot believe how amazing these cookies were! This was the first ever healthier alternative dessert I’ve had that actually tasted like real cookies. Recommend to everyone!
Yay! I’m seriously so happy to hear this! Thanks so much Larissa! 🙂
There was nothing wrong with these cookies, they are the best cookies in the history of the world
Yay!! So happy to hear these were the best 🙂 Thanks Ethan! 🙂
Has anyone tried to freeze these after they’re baked? Wondering if I can make these ahead of time and then bring them out day of. Thank you!
These were delicious! I especially liked the taste of milk and semi sweet chips in them, and even decided to add in some white chips, too! I loved them with the three kinds of chips (and every bite was full of them!) but white chip haters (like my daughter) will be happy with just the two other kinds. These were divine frosted with cinnamon cream cheese icing, which you can find on Chelsea’s Pumpkin Cupcakes recipe. Also, I wanted to make these really small to have along with several other desserts at a bridal shower. I needed them even smaller than my smallest cookie scoop would do, so ended up using a melon baller to scoop out the batter, then another spoon to get it out of the melon baller. It was a little tedious, as the dough is pretty sticky, but they were just the right size that way! I did wet my hands with cold water (you just want them damp so your hands don’t stick to the dough) to shape them a little rounder before I baked them, so they were more uniform in shape without jagged edges. They needed to bake for 8-9 minutes at that size.
Oooh the white chocolate sounds amazing! I need to try that! Thank you so much Jana!! <3
I made these the other day with my two little girls and we LOVE them. Even my husband, who doesn’t usually like sweets or pumpkin, ate a bunch of them. This is officially my go-to recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Thanks!
Ahhh i’m sooo happy to hear this!! Thanks Candiss!! 🙂
Hi there, can you make the batter the night before and refrigerate the dough overnight ?
Yes! 🙂 Enjoy!
I made these wonderful cookies tonight with a few substitutions you may be interested in… for the oil I used coconut oil softened/melted in the microwave. I doubled the cinnamon to 2 teaspoons… and instead of food coloring, I added 1 teaspoon of turmeric! It enhanced to color and added a nice spice note to the blend.
Thanks so much for sharing! 🙂