Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
This sugar cookie is ready for fall! Our favorite pumpkin sugar cookies are chewy, soft and will give you sweater weather vibes.
One of the best pumpkin cookies I’ve ever made! I’ve probably made this recipe at least 5 times and every time it’s a winner! I love it!
-Karen
Each cookie is like a mini pumpkin patch in your hand, with its rich orange hue and a sprinkle of cinnamon and nutmeg that evokes the essence of fall.
Whether you enjoy them with a hot mug of apple cider, as an afternoon snack, or as a sweet ending to your Thanksgiving feast, pumpkin cookies are the ultimate treat for celebrating the joys of autumn.
So, don your coziest sweater, grab a plate of pumpkin cookies, and savor the flavors of fall in every delectable bite.
It’s a small, sweet reminder that even as the days get shorter and the nights get cooler, there’s always room for a little more warmth and happiness in our lives. Happy fall, y’all! 🍂🎃🍪
Why You’ll Love These Pumpkin Cookies
- Quick and easy recipe made with pantry staples
- Packed with fall flavors – hello sweater weather!
- Made ahead and freeze the dough for later
- CHEWY!!!!
Ingredients
- all purpose flour: flour is necessary to build structure in cookies
- baking soda: helps to leaven and lift the dough, affects browning and flavor
- cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves: adds warmth and spice
- salt: enhances the other flavors in the cookies
- unsalted butter: adds flavor and and tender texture
- granulated sugar: adds sweetness, flavor and encourages browning
- brown sugar: adds sweetness, flavor and moisture
- pumpkin puree: binds the cookies together by providing structure like eggs would. Also adds pumpkin flavor.
Be sure to remove the excess moisture from the pumpkin puree using the paper towel method. See below!
How to Make Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
- In a small mixing bowl combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and salt. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar with an electric mixer. Add in the pumpkin, beat again to combine.
- Gradually add in the dry ingredients, mixing on low or by hand with a spatula.
- Use a cookie scoop to form balls. Place the dough balls on a silicone lined baking sheet and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Pre-heat the oven to 350ºF. Place 1/4 cup sugar in a bowl for rolling the cookies. Roll each ball in the sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart on a silicone lined baking sheet. Bake for 15-19 minutes.
How to Properly Measure Flour
The most accurate way to measure flour is to use a kitchen scale, weighing it in grams.
If you don’t have a kitchen scale, follow this method.
- Aerate the flour with a whisk or spoon. Flour becomes heavy and compact as it sits. Aerating is the same as fluffing the flour, but not the same as sifting it. Do not sift the flour unless the recipe specifically calls for it.
- Use a spoon to sprinkle the flour into the measuring cup. Do not tap the cup against the counter, as this will compact the flour.
- Use the back of a butter knife to level off the excess.
Total Time Required
- 15 minutes to make the cookie dough
- 30 minutes to chill the dough in the fridge
- 15-19 minutes to bake the cookies
- 15 minutes to cool the cookies
Why Refrigerate Cookie Dough?
The King Arthur website explains, “Chilling cookie dough before baking solidifies the fat in the cookies. As the cookies bake, the fat in the chilled cookie dough takes longer to melt than room-temperature fat. And the longer the fat remains solid, the less cookies spread.”
Refrigerating the cookie dough will help produce cookies that are chewier and softer because they won’t spread as much.
But I get it. Sometimes I really dislike chilling dough. So here’s my suggestion – if you can fit it in, refrigerate the dough, even for 15 minutes. If not, at least refrigerate the dough between baking batches. For example, if you can fit 8 cookies on one baking sheet, bake those and put the dough in the fridge while you’re waiting.
How to Store Cookies
Store soft pumpkin cookies in an airtight container on the counter for up to 5 days.
How to Freeze Pumpkin Cookie Dough
- Form the dough balls. Place them on a baking sheet lined with silicone mat. You can place the dough balls close together since you won’t be baking them.
- Place the baking sheet in the freezer until the cookies are frozen solid, about 1 hour.
- Remove the baking sheet from the freezer and transfer the frozen cookie dough balls to a ziplock freezer bag. Label the bag with baking directions.
- Freeze the cookie dough for up to 3 months.
To bake: remove the dough from the freezer. Pre-heat the oven to 350ºF. Roll the balls in sugar and bake for 15-19 minutes. Frozen cookies may need to bake for 1-2 minutes longer than non frozen cookies.
How To Get Moisture Out of Pumpkin Puree
To remove excess moisture from pumpkin puree, place the pumpkin puree in a few paper towels on a plate. Fold the paper towels over the puree, so it’s completely enclosed. The excess moisture will soak into the paper towels within a few minutes.
How to Make Gluten Free Pumpkin Cookies
I have made these cookies multiple times with King Arthur’s Gluten Free Measure for Measure Flour with great success.
Tips for Success
- Properly measure the all purpose flour using the spoon and level method.
- Use room temperature butter for easier creaming of the butter and sugar.
- Refrigerate the cookie dough for 30 minutes. I’m telling you, this helps to make the best thick & chewy cookies!
- Use a cookie scoop to form cookie dough balls.
- Bake cookies on a silicone baking mat.
More Cookies
- Caramel Apple Cookies
- Frosted Sugar Cookies
- Classic Monster Cookies
- Maraschino Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies
Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 3 cups all purpose flour, 360 grams
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature, equal to 1 cup or 226 grams
- ¾ cup granulated sugar, 149 grams
- ¾ cup brown sugar, 160 grams
- ⅓ cup pumpkin puree, 76 grams, paper towel method – see note below
Instructions
- This recipe requires the dough to chill in the fridge for 30 minutes before baking. It helps make the cookies chewy!
- To remove excess moisture from pumpkin puree, place the pumpkin puree in a few paper towels on a plate. Fold the paper towels over the puree, so it’s completely enclosed. The excess moisture will soak into the paper towels within a few minutes.
- In a small mixing bowl combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and salt. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar with an electric mixer for 1-2 minutes.
- Add in the pumpkin, beat again to combine.
- Gradually add in the dry ingredients, mixing on low or by hand with a spatula until combined. The dough will be thick.
- Use a cookie scoop to form balls. Roll between your hands. My dough balls were about 3 tbsp, which is large. Place the dough balls on a silicone or parchment paper lined baking sheet and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Pre-heat the oven to 350ºF. Place 1/4 cup sugar in a bowl for rolling the cookies.
- Roll each ball in the sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart on a silicone lined baking sheet – I fit about 8 cookies per sheet. Bake for 15-19 minutes or until the edges have a faint golden color. Keep the remaining dough balls in the fridge while baking in batches.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 15 minutes, then move to a cooling rack to cool completely.
No egg ?
Yep, no eggs! The pumpkin acts as a binder for the cookies.
7 ingredients is great for me for any baking recipe, otherwise its too much chemistry class! And just in time for pumpkin, thank you!
Made this recipe today and the entire family loves them! I got 60 small cookies, baked for 13 minutes.
I made these pumpkin sugar cookies for the instagram pumpkin challenge . They are delicious. I used a medium size cookie scoop and got 33 med size cookies.Interesting recipe with no eggs or vanilla but turned out perfect!
My daughter and I made these for the November 2021 challenge and they were SO good! My daughter is not huge on sweets as she’s only 2, but she absolutely loves these. These will be made frequently for sure!
Wonderfully soft and flavorful!!!
Love this for the october halloween challenge
I like make them every october! such a crowd pleaser!
I made these as part of the October 2022 baking challenge and they were super good! They had a nice pumpkin flavor and a perfect chewy texture that I prefer for sugar cookies. I managed to shape them into little dog faces too so an extra star from me for being able to hold shape well enough for me to do that!
One of the best pumpkin cookies I’ve ever made! I’ve probably made this recipe at least 5 times and every time it’s a winner! I love it!
Can you use canned pumpkin pie filling?
No, be sure to use 100% pure pumpkin puree.
Can I chill the dough as one thing in my mixing bowl? I don’t have the fridge space to do like it says?
If possible, I recommend rolling into balls then refrigerating. If you refrigerate the bowl of dough, it will be hard to scoop later.
is it really 303 cal per cookie? I really like your site and explanation of each ingredient and why I need to refrigerate the dough!
The nutritional information is an estimate!
Haven’t tried it yet but can you substitute pumpkin pie spice for the individual spices – the cookies sound delicioud
Yes you can! Use about 2-2.5 tsp pumpkin pie spice.
Can you make this keto? Sub almond flour & sweetners?
Love this recipe, a huge hit with the whole family. Soft and flavorful. Will for sure make them again and again.
I just made these. Outstanding! Thanks for sharing!
Oh goodness…”100% pumpkin puree”…do you mean cut open a pumpkin and scrape it out? I saw a recipe on how to make pumpkin puree, so will do it this way…but just checking.
100% CANNED pumpkin puree 😂
Simple and delicious! I used margarine instead of butter and they turned out fine. It is amazing that the recipe does not use eggs, vanilla or milk. Everyone loved them!
Do you Chill them after you roll them into balls or the dough after mix them up?
I chill them after they are rolled into balls.
I just baked these and they didn’t spread at all like in the picture. They stayed almost like mounds. Not sure what I did wrong.
Hi Maureen! How did you measure the flour?
The most accurate way to measure flour is to use a kitchen scale, weighing it in grams. If you don’t have a kitchen scale, follow this method.
• Aerate the flour with a whisk or spoon. Flour becomes heavy and compact as it sits. Aerating is the same as fluffing the flour, but not the same as sifting it. Do not sift the flour unless the recipe specifically calls for it.
• Use a spoon to sprinkle the flour into the measuring cup. Do not tap the cup against the counter, as this will compact the flour.
• Use the back of a butter knife to level off the excess.
I have baked for decades, and have never had this happen. I did not sift the flour. I carefully followed all the ingredient measurements. They just would not spread in the oven.
Hi Maureen! How did you measure the flour?
This also happened to me. I followed recipe as well, and I’ve also been cooking and baking for 20+ years professionally. They taste great, but didn’t spread.
Made these today. They are really good! I will definitely make again!
Will not make these again. They did not spread even after the dough sat on the counter while the 1st couple pans were baking.
Hi Barbara! How did you measure the flour? The most accurate way to measure flour is to use a kitchen scale, weighing it in grams.
If you don’t have a kitchen scale, follow this method.
• Aerate the flour with a whisk or spoon. Flour becomes heavy and compact as it sits. Aerating is the same as fluffing the flour, but not the same as sifting it. Do not sift the flour unless the recipe specifically calls for it.
• Use a spoon to sprinkle the flour into the measuring cup. Do not tap the cup against the counter, as this will compact the flour.
• Use the back of a butter knife to level off the excess.
Can you use Gluten free flour instead of All purpose flour?
Yes! I use and test recipes with King Arthur’s Gluten Free Measure for Measure Flour.
I don’t have parchment paper or a silicone mat, do I HAVE to use it?
Hi Sam! I haven’t experimented a ton with baking cookies without parchment paper or a silicone mat. It will still work, the bottoms might become more done.
These are delicious and very addictive! I made them small- got about 70 cookies. They are a big hit! Thank you!