If you're a fan of crisp mornings, the leaves turning colors, and seasonal lattes, you'll fall in love with these soft pumpkin cookies! It's not Autumn until I bite into this cookie's delectable, soft center and taste those delicious pumpkin spices.
If you're ready to say goodbye to Summer – or if you're desperately wishing it would never end – this recipe makes the change in season taste all the sweeter!
The super soft consistency and delicate pumpkin flavors will surely be a big hit, even among the pickiest of eaters!
It's difficult to find recipes my 6-year-old daughter enjoys, but this pumpkin recipe wins the gold seal of approval. Since they're made from egg yolks, they're extra soft and full – which is perfect for children who are starting to lose their baby teeth!
Another reason you'll love them? These soft pumpkin cookies are super simple to whip together! Especially if you have leftover egg yolks, you're trying to use!
Jump to:
🥘 Ingredients
- Pumpkin Puree – Store-bought or homemade if you've recently caved pumpkins with your family!
- Unsalted Butter
- Brown Sugar
- White Granulated Sugar
- Egg Yolks - save the egg whites to make more delicious cookies!
- Cinnamon - Reach for Ceylon cinnamon when buying. Ceylon cinnamon, which is more expensive than Cassia cinnamon, contains hardly any Curamine. Curamine in large amounts can be toxic and should not be consumed, especially by pregnant women.
- Vanilla Extract
- All-Purpose Flour
- Baking Powder
- Salt
- Baking Soda
See the recipe card for quantities!
🎃 Soft Pumpkin Cookies Step-by-Step
These cookies pair perfectly with a delicious pumpkin cocktail!
🔪 Instructions - detailed
If you plan to use store-bought pumpkin puree, feel free to skip down below to the instructions for the cookie dough.
Homemade Pumpkin Puree
If you make your own homemade pumpkin puree, you'll first want to cut the pumpkin into a few pieces and throw them on a prepared baking sheet.
You'll need to bake them at 200 C / 400 F for about 30-40 minutes until the pumpkin starts to brown and caramelize. Baking the pumpkin is going to remove the excess liquid and will enrich the flavor of the puree.
Once your pumpkin has begun to brown and caramelize, you will scrape the pumpkin from the peel. Using a fork press, you'll squish these bits of pumpkin into a fine puree.
Allow a few minutes for the puree to cool down.
Pumpkin Cookie Dough
Before you jump in, make sure you're working with pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling. We need pumpkin puree. The premade filling has spiced and sweeteners inside, which will throw off the entire recipe!
To get started on your pumpkin cookie dough, you'll need to break out your electric mixer and begin beating the butter at room temperature.
Next, add your brown sugar and granulated sugars and keep mixing for another 2-3 minutes.
While everything's still mixing, add the egg yolks, vanilla extract, and pumpkin puree.
All of your remaining dry ingredients –a half teaspoon of baking soda, half a teaspoon of cinnamon, a teaspoon of baking powder, ¼ teaspoon salt, and three cups all-purpose four – will need to be sieved into the mixture at medium-low speed. Continue mixing until everything is well combined.
You'll need to preheat the oven to 190 C/ 375 F. On a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper, you'll place your balls of dough at least 4 cm / 2 inches apart from each other. You can either make your balls of dough using an ice cream scoop or by hand. If you decide to make them by hand, just be sure to use at least two tablespoons for each ball of dough.
Once you've fully lined your baking sheet with cookies, you'll be baking them for 10-15 minutes.
Let the cookies cool down for several minutes before removing them from the baking tray. Because they're so soft, they might crumble if you try transporting them to a wire rack right away.
Once they've had a few minutes to cool down, feel free to plate the delicious pumpkin treats and say Bon Appétit!
Fall in Love with these Autumn Recipes
- Rum Muffins
- Negroni Cocktail Recipe
- Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Old-fashioned Maraschino Milk Cocktail
🥜 Substitutions
If you want an even more intense pumpkin spice flavor, you can replace the cinnamon with a pumpkin spice mix.
🍽 Equipment
- Parchment Paper
- Sieve
- Ice Cream Scoop or Teaspoons
- Baking Rack/Baking Sheet
- Hand/Stand Mixer with a Flat Beater Attachment
- Cooling Rack
🌡 Storage
This recipe makes 40 cookies, so you're bound to wind up with some leftovers! If you keep them in an airtight container, they'll keep up to five days!
💭 Top tip
If you don’t feel like making your own pumpkin puree or haven't been able to find pumpkins at the grocery store yet this season, you can use store-bought pumpkin puree from the can. The only really important thing you need to remember is don’t use pumpkin pie filling! The premade filling has spices and sweeteners inside that will throw off your entire recipe!
This recipe leaves you with four egg whites, perfect for making coconut cookies, walnut meringue cookies, or cinnamon stars.
If you are a fan of pumpkin cookies, try out these pumpkin whoopie pies for a change of pace.
🙋🏻 FAQ
It's really important that you let these cookies cool completely! If they don't cool completely before you go to serve them, they'll likely crumble! If they don't cool down completely, they'll also likely taste soggy from all the steam from baking.
These pumpkin cookies will last five days if stored in an airtight container, or up to a few months if you store them in the freezer!
If you've got some pumpkins that you're not planning to carve, there's actually several delicious ways you can put your gourd to good use. For starters, you can scoop out and roast your pumpkin seeds with a little salt for a filling, nutrient-rich snack. And if you roast your pumpkin in the oven, you can also make a delicious pumpkin puree!
You can also use it for pumpkin pies, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cheesecake, and even pumpkin chili! My favorite thing to do with pumpkins, though, is make my own pumpkin lattes at home!
An ice cube tray is the best way to freeze egg whites. The tray helps not to get confused with the quantities. Otherwise, two teaspoons of egg white equal one large egg white.
Other Recipes You'll Love
- No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake
- Apple Yogurt Breakfast Granola
- Cinnamon Whipped Cream Recipe
- Easy & Delicious Chestnut Cake
- Cinnamon Cookies
If you make this recipe, let me know how you liked it by ★★★★★ star rating it and leaving a comment below. This would be awesome! You can also sign up for our Newsletter or follow me on Pinterest or Instagram and share your creation with me. Just tag me @combinegoodflavors and hashtag #combinegoodflavors, so I don't miss it.
📖 Recipe
Easy Pumpkin Cookies
Equipment
- Sieve
- Ice cream scoop or teaspoons
- Baking rack
- Stand mixer with a flat beater attachment
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups Butter
- 1 ½ cups Brown sugar
- ½ cup White granulated sugar
- 1 ½ cups Pumpkin puree or pumpkin cubes
- 4 Egg yolks
- ½ tablespoon Cinnamon
- 2 tablespoon Vanilla extract
- 3 cups All-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon Baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- ½ teaspoon Baking soda
Instructions
- Using the mixer, start beating 1 ½ cups Butter that is room temperature.1 ½ cups Butter
- Start adding 1 ½ cups Brown sugar and ½ cup White granulated sugar and keep mixing for 2-3 minutes.1 ½ cups Brown sugar, ½ cup White granulated sugar
- Then while mixing add 4 Egg yolks, 2 tablespoon Vanilla extract, and 1 ½ cups Pumpkin puree.4 Egg yolks, 2 tablespoon Vanilla extract, 1 ½ cups Pumpkin puree
- Sieve in 3 cups All-purpose flour, ½ tablespoon Cinnamon, 1 teaspoon Baking powder, ¼ teaspoon Salt, and ½ teaspoon Baking soda using the medium-low speed on the mixer to make everything combine evenly.½ tablespoon Cinnamon, 3 cups All-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon Baking powder, ¼ teaspoon Salt, ½ teaspoon Baking soda
- Preheat the oven to 190 C/ 375 F.
- On a larger baking tray, place baking paper.
- Using an ice cream scoop (or making balls from the dough by hand using two tablespoons for each ball), place the dough balls at least 4 cm / 2 inches apart from each other before baking them for 10-15 minutes, depending on the oven.
- Let the cookies cool down on a cooling rack.
Notes
- Cut the pumpkin into a few pieces.
- Preheat the oven to 200 C / 400 F and bake the pumpkin on a baking sheet until it starts to brown nicely and caramelize for 30-45 minutes.
- Baking the pumpkin will remove the excess liquid and enrich the puree flavor we need to make.
- Once it is baked, scrape the pumpkin from the peel, using a fork press, and squish it into a fine puree.
- Let the puree cool down.
- Follow the recipe instructions for the pumpkin cookie recipe.
Nutrition values are estimates only, using online calculators. Please verify using your own data.
⛑️ Food Safety
- Cook to a minimum temperature of 165 °F (74 °C)
- Do not use the same utensils on cooked food, that previously touched raw meat
- Wash hands after touching raw meat
- Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods
- Never leave cooking food unattended
- Use oils with high smoking point to avoid harmful compounds
- Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove
For further information, check Safe Food Handling - FDA.
Deborah says
Loved these! I made it non-dairy and they were so good, my kids devoured.
Nora says
Thank you, Deborah! Awesome that it went well and you and your kiddos loved them!