These Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cookies are deliciously delightful way to welcome fall🍂 These pumpkin cookies are healthier than most other recipes out there with less sugar, no cream cheese, no icing and MORE pure canned pumpkin. These pumpkin cookies are also soft and chewy - each bite is packed with fresh pumpkin and a hint of sweetness from the dark chocolate chips.
Gluten free pumpkin cookies are calling your name!
What better way to welcome fall and pumpkin season over all with some soft pumpkin cookies🎃
Jump to:
- 📝Ingredients for gluten-free pumpkin cookies
- 🔪Instructions
- 🔄Substitutions
- 🥣Equipment
- 🥶Storage and Freezing
- 🏅Top Two Tips
- ❓What are pumpkin cookies made of?
- 🤷♀️Should pumpkin cookie dough be refrigerated before baking?
- 🎃Can I use pumpkin pie filling for cookies instead of canned pumpkin?
- ✅What makes these pumpkin cookies healthy pumpkin cookies?
- 📖 Recipe
- 💬 Comments
In my house, we've got all things pumpkin going once October hits: Pumpkin candles, pumpkin decor and pumpkin cookies.
Pumpkin everything!
In my quest for a soft, chewy and moist yet healthier pumpkin cookie than most other recipes out there, I had many failed attempts to get it right.
But finally, I got the ratio of pumpkin purée to flour where it needed to be and...
...ka-plow!
These gluten-free pumpkin cookies are now here😄
If you're looking for a pumpkin cookie that doesn't have icing or cream cheese BUT you still want a cookie - aka a sweet, delicious pumpkin cookie - then this recipe is for you.
Check out these other fall desserts - some have more pumpkin too!
If you love baking with pumpkin and want to try a few other healthier-than-most recipes, check them out too.
📝Ingredients for gluten-free pumpkin cookies
Making these cookies is pretty straight-forward to make = yay.
You just need a few simple ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry and fridge.
- Butter - unsalted
- Sugar - I use regular white sugar for the recipe testing for this recipe. I would love to try this with dark brown sugar or even pure maple syrup. Until then, if you try it with a different sugar, be sure to comment and let me know how they turn out
- Eggs
- Canned pure pumpkin purée - do NOT, I repeat, do not use pumpkin PIE filing in place of the pure canned pumpkin. Pumpkin pie filling has added sugar and spices in it
- Vanilla extract
- Gluten-free flour blend - I've used both Bob's Red Mill 1:1 Baking Flour and Robin Hood's 1:1 Baking Flour, both successful for this recipe
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Pumpkin pie spice - this is a spice mix that's a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and ginger
- Dark chocolate chips - because, well, cookies and they bring some more texture and obviously sweetness
See recipe card for quantities and below for more tips.
🔪Instructions
It's pretty easy to make these pumpkin cookies. They're fool-proof with no complicated steps because that's just annoying🚫
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Put the dry ingredients into a bowl and stir to combine.
With an electric mixer, beat the butter, eggs, and sugar together.
Stir the pure canned pumpkin into the butter mixture. And that pumpkin mixture to the bowl of dry ingredients. Stir until just combined.
Add chocolate chips in and give a final stir, by hand. Divide cookie batter onto a prepared baking tray and bake in a pre-heated oven for 15-18 minutes.
🔄Substitutions
Listen, I don't want you making a bunch of swaps and then the recipe ends up not turning out (eek) so take these as possible but untested variations:
- Butter-free - if you're looking for cookies with no butter you can try a vegan butter substitute
- Egg-free - you can use a flax egg in place of the egg in this recipe
- Dairy-free - you can buy vegan chocolate chips at most bulk food stores or just try using chopped walnuts for some texture without the dairy
🥣Equipment
For this recipe, you'll just need a couple mixing bowls, measuring cups, a spoon and spatula, a hand-held electric mixer (or stand up mixer), a cookie sheet and some parchment paper.
A wire rack or other cooling rack is useful to have too once the cookies are done baking.
For most cookie recipes, using a cookie scoop helps to get a uniform and non-wonky looking cookie.
Of you have one, bust it out and use it here. If not, no worries because I don’t use one either. You don't have to press this cookies down; they'll spread out when baked but not a lot.
🥶Storage and Freezing
These pumpkin cookies stay fresh on the counter in an air-tight container for 4 day.
Like soft and fresh😋
You can also freeze these pumpkin cookies.
Let the cookies cool down a bit after baking. Then wrap them in parchment paper and place them in an airtight container.
Freeze for up to 3 months.
Take the out of the freezer the night before you want to eat 'them.
🏅Top Two Tips
You know I'm keeping as simple as possible over here and these are very easy to make cookies.
But as always, here are two tips to make sure these cookies turn out as delicious as possible:
First tip: DO use room temperature butter. This will help make sure the cookie dough is as uniform as possible, especially after mixing it.
Second tip: don’t over-bake these pumpkin cookies. These cookies are moist and soft and melt-in-your-mouth delicious but if you over-bake them, they won’t be so keep an eye on that baking time!
❓What are pumpkin cookies made of?
Pumpkin cookies, like a lot of cookie recipes out there, typically have that classic base of butter, sugar and eggs.
They also have pumpkin in them. Like actual real, canned flesh-of-a-jack-o-latern pumpkin. Which is pretty cool.
To know for sure, check the label for the ingredients in your canned, pure pumpkin - sometimes it's a mixture of squashes and / or pumpkin.
Pure canned pumpkin doesn't have much taste-if you’ve never had it, think of a mild squash - pumpkin is like that.
But that’s why pumpkin cookies often have the spices that go so well with pumpkin like nutmeg, cinnamon, all spice, and ginger.
For these pumpkin cookies, I bought a spice mix called - what else - “pumpkin pie spice”, which is a combo of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and all spice.
Adding that spice mix to pumpkin cookies is a great way to really compliment the actual pumpkin in the cookies.
🤷♀️Should pumpkin cookie dough be refrigerated before baking?
I don’t refrigerate this dough before baking these pumpkin cookies.
Now, I developed this recipe as an easy recipe for healthy pumpkin cookies so the cookie dough is ok NOT to be refrigerated.
Other recipes for pumpkin cookies do need the dough refrigerated to ensure the cookie stays together when baking.
🎃Can I use pumpkin pie filling for cookies instead of canned pumpkin?
No, nada, nope🙋♀️ You should definitely not use pumpkin pie filling instead of canned real pumpkin for these pumpkin cookies.
Here's why: pumpkin pie filling has added sugar, spices and even oils.
All of this will mess with the taste and texture of the end result.
For best results, use pure and real canned pumpkin for these cookies.
✅What makes these pumpkin cookies healthy pumpkin cookies?
Ok well, this is a cookie recipe so you know, these are meant as a treat or dessert to enjoy at the end of a meal.
But! I did develop this recipe to make them healthier than most other cookies out there.
- These delicious cookies are packed with the pure pumpkin, boosting the vitamin C and magnesium content
- They have no icing
- No cream cheese
- And less sugar than most
BUT they do have dark chocolate chips and taste sweet and delicious with a soft, pillowy bite🍪
It's my best crack at healthy(er), gluten-free pumpkin cookies.
I hope you love them!
If you make these pumpkin cookies, please rate and comment below.
April
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📖 Recipe
Gluten Free Pumpkin Cookies
Ingredients
- ¼ cup butter at room temperature
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- ¾ cup canned pure pumpkin
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cup gluten-free flour blend
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
- ¼ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Add room temperature butter, sugar, and eggs to a large mixing bowl. Mix with an electric mixer until smooth. It takes about 60 seconds.
- Add vanilla and pumpkin purée. Stir together. If it has little "flecks" of butter in it, that's totally fine. Put that to the side.
- In a separate bowl, add the flour, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice. Stir once or twice with a spoon until all mixed together.
- Take your butter, egg, sugar mixture and pour it into the bowl with the flour. Stir together. It'll start to become like a dough.
- Finally, add the chocolate chips and stir them in.
- Place small scoops of the pumpkin cookie dough onto a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. No need to press down but shape them if you care how round they are. They will spread slightly once baked.
- You'll get about 18-20 small cookies.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for ~12 minutes. Let them cool (if you can.) Sometimes I'lll eat them right out of the oven = HOT and YUM.
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