These soft pumpkin cookies are thick and cakey with extra pumpkin spice flavor. The maple cream cheese icing is a delicious addition, but the cookies are just as wonderful plain. They’re quick, easy, and best of all—there’s no cookie dough chilling required! My advice is to blot the pumpkin puree to rid excess liquid and use a cookie scoop.
Pumpkin cookies! The two most beautiful words in the baking language. Well, besides apple pie and chocolate cake.
Diving into the fall baking season feels great and these pumpkin cookies are the best place to start. I’ve been perfecting cookie recipes for years and these, along with my pumpkin snickerdoodles, are some of my best. If you crave chocolate, my chewy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies use the same delicious cookie dough as the snickerdoodles. And if you prefer oats in your cookies, you will FLIP for my brown butter pumpkin oatmeal cookies and pumpkin oatmeal cream pies.
Search my pumpkin recipes for more cookies because I’ve published A LOT. For even more inspiration, here are my 30+ best pumpkin dessert recipes.
Why You’ll Love These Pumpkin Cookies
- Texture: Unlike my pumpkin chocolate chip cookies where we play with ingredients to produce a chewy cookie, today’s cookies are soft and cakey. They aren’t dense and chewy like a traditional cookie. I wouldn’t describe them as fluffy as a cake—probably closer to a muffin. (Like little muffin top cookies.)
- Flavor: What they lack in chew/density, they make up for in flavor. By using extra cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and ground ginger, as well as using more brown sugar than regular white sugar, I guarantee these will be more flavorful than any traditional pumpkin cookie you’ve had before. We’ll also blot excess liquid out of the pumpkin so we’re left with more concentrated flavor.
- Ease: No cookie dough chilling! They’ll go from mixing bowl to oven in minutes, which is especially helpful if you’re baking with kids or if you’re as impatient as I am. This recipe joins 30+ others in my collection of Quick Dessert Recipes—ready in 1 hour or less!
Best Pumpkin Cookie Baking Tip
Blot the pumpkin puree. I discovered this trick when I worked on my brown butter pumpkin oatmeal cookies recipe. Pumpkin is a water-heavy ingredient. Its moisture is wonderful for quick breads and cakes, but not necessarily cookies. By removing some of the moisture, you’re left with dense and flavor-packed pumpkin without all of the excess liquid. (Think about it: you don’t usually put liquid in cookie dough, right?) Using a paper towel, blot out some of the pumpkin’s moisture. No need to squeeze it completely dry.
Blotting the pumpkin is actually one of my tricks to prevent a cakey tasting cookie..) Today’s pumpkin cookies are still going to be cakey because we’re using a lot of pumpkin. Still, ridding some of its moisture will improve the flavor and texture. Does this make sense?
Overview: How to Make Soft Pumpkin Cookies
The full detailed instructions are provided below, but let me guide you through the process first. Start preheating that oven now!
Maple Cream Cheese Icing
The cookies are wonderfully flavorful on their own, but I wanted to see how they’d taste with a little accessory on top. I love pumpkin and cream cheese together (hello, pumpkin cake), as well as pumpkin and maple together (hello, pumpkin scones). I tested a hybrid cream cheese frosting/maple glaze topping and definitely don’t regret it! This maple cream cheese icing is phenomenal. Give the cookies a quick dip and taste for yourself.
Note: the icing doesn’t really set so if you want to stack/transport these pumpkin cookies, skip the icing. Or for a different flavor, these cookies would also be delicious with salted caramel frosting.
These are honestly the only thing I want to eat for the entire fall season.
Soft Pumpkin Cookies Recipe
Ingredients You’ll Need
Instructions
- In this recipe, it’s best to use pumpkin that has had some moisture removed. Blot the pumpkin with paper towels to rid excess moisture. No need to squeeze it completely dry. I usually place it in a paper towel lined bowl and let the paper towel soak up some moisture. A clean kitchen towel works too, but the pumpkin can stain. After ridding some moisture, you’ll have a little less than 1 and 1/2 cups of pumpkin—I usually have about 1 and 1/3 cups (315g). Using anywhere between 1.33 – 1.5 cups of pumpkin is fine. Set aside until step 4. Or cover and refrigerate for up to 1 day. It can be cold when you add it to the dough.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and ginger together in a large bowl. Set aside.
- Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream the softened butter and both sugars together on medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and mix on high until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Add the maple syrup, vanilla, and blotted pumpkin and mix on high until combined. Mixture will look a little curdled—that’s ok.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, then mix on low speed until combined. Dough is thick and sticky. Scoop or roll cookie dough, around 1.5 Tablespoons of dough per cookie, and place 3 inches apart on the baking sheets.
- Bake for 14-15 minutes or until edges appear set. The centers will look soft. Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. The longer the cookies cool, the better their flavor—I like them best on day 2!
- Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese in a medium bowl on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy. Beat in the butter until combined. Add the confectioners’ sugar, maple syrup, and a pinch of cinnamon (about 1/8 teaspoon), then beat on low speed until smooth and creamy. Taste. Add more cinnamon if desired. Dip the tops of the cooled cookies into icing or spread it onto each cookie with a knife.
- Cover leftover iced cookies tightly and store at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Cookies without icing can be covered tightly and stored at room temperature for up to 1 week.
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