Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies — Between the molasses, pumpkin pie spice, and pumpkin pie spice extract that I used, these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies beautifully showcase the flavors of fall!
Soft Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
A few years ago, I posted another recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. And there’s a version in my cookbook, Cooking With Pumpkin. But this pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipe trumps all. Practice makes perfect when it comes to cookie-making and anything pumpkin.
After many trials and lots of cookies, these are my favorite pumpkin chocolate chip cookies yet because they’re soft, thick, perfectly chewy and not cakey, which is a problem that often plagues pumpkin cookies.
I love pumpkin cake, muffins, and bread but I don’t like cakey cookies.
To combat the cakiness, there’s no egg in the dough. Eggs make things fluffier but pumpkin puree does that naturally, much like bananas do.
I’ve baked plenty of vegan pumpkin cakes and muffins and know from experience that many times when you’re baking with pumpkin you don’t need eggs, and these cookies are a prime example.
The cozy and comforting pumpkin flavor just shines. Between the molasses, pumpkin pie spice, and pumpkin pie spice extract that I used, the cookies beautifully showcase the flavors of fall.
And as a bonus, there’s loads of chocolate in every bite.
What’s in These Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies?
To make these soft pumpkin chocolate chip cookies , you’ll need:
- Unsalted butter
- Pumpkin puree
- Granulated sugar
- Light brown sugar
- Molasses
- McCormick Pumpkin Pie Spice extract
- All-purpose flour
- Pumpkin pie spice
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Chocolate chips
How to Make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Whisk together the melted butter, pumpkin puree, sugars, molasses, and pumpkin pie spice extract. Add the dry ingredients and stir until just combined, then fold in the chocolate chips.
Scoop the cookie dough into balls and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, and up to 5 days. Once chilled, bake the cookies until the edges have set and tops are just set, even if slightly undercooked, pale, and glossy in the center.
Can I Double This Recipe?
This is a recipe I haven’t ever doubled and while sometimes some recipes double great, others don’t. If you do double this easy pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipe, leave me a comment below letting me know how the cookies turn out!
Can I Make This Recipe Into Cookie Bars?
I’ve never tried baking the cookie dough as bars rather than as individual cookies. However, I have a great recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars that I’ve made many times and know works!
Can I Freeze Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies?
Yes, you can freeze the cookies once they’ve been baked and have cooled completely.
You can also freeze unbaked cookie dough in the freezer for up to 4 months, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.
Can I Omit the Pumpkin Pie Spice Extract?
If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice extract on hand, you can substitute regular vanilla extract instead. Your soft pumpkin cookies won’t be as spiced, but they’ll still be delicious.
Tips for the Best Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Make sure you’re using pumpkin puree and NOT pumpkin pie filling. Pumpkin puree is neutral in flavor and adds lots of moisture to these easy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.
- Also note that you should use a mild molasses in these cookies. Blackstrap molasses is too strong, so avoid using that.
- Finally, feel free to add chopped nuts or dried fruit to these pumpkin spice chocolate chip cookies. I like them as is, but there are lots of fall mix-ins you can incorporate into the cookie dough.
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Soft and Chewy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
- ½ cup pumpkin puree
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 tablespoon mild or medium-flavored molasses, not blackstrap, too intense
- 1 ½ teaspoons McCormick Pumpkin Pie Spice Extract, McCormick Vanilla Extract may be substituted
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice, a mixture of cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg if you don’t have pumpkin pie spice
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- To a large, microwave-safe bowl add the butter and heat on high power to melt, about 1 minute.
- Add the pumpkin puree, sugars, molasses, pumpkin pie spice extract, and whisk to combine until smooth.
- Add the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, salt, and stir until just combined.
- Add the chocolate chips and stir to combine.
- Using a large cookie scoop, 1/4-cup measure, or your hands, form approximately 11 equal-sized mounds of dough and flatten slightly. Tip – Strategically place a few chocolate chips on top of each mound of dough by taking chips from the underside and adding them on top.
- Place mounds on a large plate or tray, cover with plasticwrap, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, up to 5 days. Do not bake with unchilled dough because cookies will bake thinner, flatter, and be more prone to spreading.
- Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking sheet with a Silpat or spray with cooking spray. Place dough mounds on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart (I bake 8 cookies per sheet) and bake for about 12 to 14 minutes (12 1/2 minutes is perfect in my oven), or until edges have set and tops are just set, even if slightly undercooked, pale, and glossy in the center; don’t overbake. Cookies firm up as they cool.
- Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for about 10 minutes before serving. I let them cool on the baking sheet and don’t use a rack.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Pumpkin Desserts:
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Cream Cheese-Filled Pumpkin Bread — Pumpkin bread that’s like having cheesecake baked in! Soft, fluffy, easy and tastes ahhhh-mazing!
Soft Vegan Pumpkin Bread with Brown Sugar Streusel Crust — You won’t miss the eggs or the butter in this fast and easy bread with a great streusel crust!
Soft Vegan Pumpkin Cake with Pumpkin Spice Buttercream Frosting — Fast, easy cake you’ll never guess is vegan!
Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Marshmallow Buttercream Frosting – Small batch recipe of just 6 cupcakes when you have just a little leftover pumpkin puree to use!
The Best Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread — Super soft, moist, rich pumpkin flavor, and loaded with chocolate chips! Easy, no mixer recipe that’s the BEST!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Brownies — Rich, fudgy brownies topped with pumpkin and chocolate chips!
Pumpkin Crumb Coffee Cake – A FAST and EASY no-mixer coffee cake with rich pumpkin flavor!! Super soft, tender, and topped with the BEST crumble topping that you’ll fall in love with!
Wait. Your old recipe for pumpkin chocolate chips was my ultimate favorite pumpkin cookie recipe. Is it still on the site?
I love it so much I am hesitant to try this new one.
This is the only recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies I have. I have oatmeal pumpkin choc chip. And I have pumpkin whoopie pies. And pumpkin spice cookies. Everything is here https://www.averiecooks.com/tag/pumpkin/
OMG! I’ve died and gone to Heaven. Amazing recipe, thank you so much. I mixed everything & left in the mixing bowl overnight & then placed them on a cookie sheet to bake. Turned out Perfect! Will be making these a lot this fall. I also used dark chocolate chips….. Amazing! Run don’t walk to your kitchen & makes these ASAP 😉
OMG! I’ve died and gone to Heaven. Amazing recipe, thank you so much. I mixed everything & left in the mixing bowl overnight & then placed them on a cookie sheet to bake. Turned out Perfect! Will be making these a lot this fall. I also used dark chocolate chips….. Amazing! Run don’t walk to your kitchen & makes these ASAP 😉
Thanks for the five star review and I’m glad these are absolutely perfect for you!
I made the recipe for Soft and Chewy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies tonight. Of course, as what is usual for me, I didn’t read the recipe all the way through, I just read the ingredients and started mixing. I doubled the ingredients with no problems, however, I only used about 3 1/2 cups flour, not 4 cups as I should have if the recipe was truly doubled because the batter seemed thick enough. I did not use any of the spices mentioned as I did not have any of them on hand, but I did sub the Pumpkin Pie Spice Extract for Vanilla. I also omitted the molasses. After mixing everything I realized there were no eggs in the recipe and was worried I missed a step. I went back to read the blog that went with the recipe and saw it does not use eggs. I also saw it is suggested to refrigerate the batter for 3 hours! I couldn’t believe it. I wanted to make the cookies and bring them to work with me in the morning, and it was already 9:30 pm. However, when I informed my boyfriend he said ‘What are cookies that spread look like”? What difference does it make?” Lol, I knew he just wanted to eat them and didn’t care what the shape was after baking! So, I told him I would bake a test batch, and then make the rest of them after work the next day, after cooling the dough. Well, I baked 4 cookies at 350 degrees for about 9 minutes. The cookies came out just right and did not lose their shape at all. They were nice and cakey, and soft and wonderful. I would make this recipe over and over, and probably not worry too much about cooling the dough.
These pumpkin choco-chip cookies are super-duper amazing. Can’t wait to make it.
Hi Averie,
As a Brit, we don’t eat much pumpkin, but my daughter loves to cook and we eat pumpkin pie at Christmas. Where can I get the spices and molasses? O know we don’t have molasses here, would dark treacle do? But, the spices I may have to get online! I know cinnamon is one used in the pie she makes, but not what else could be in the mixes you have in the cookie recipe!
I would check Amazon or possibly some online grocery shopping/online food sites but you should be able to get everything you need on Amazon.
Hi Averie,
I made those cookies last year, and they were such a hit with my colleagues, I’ve heard about them all year long!
We do not have (or at least I’ve never found) canned pumpkin purée in France, so I use frozen pumpkin purée instead, which I think might be a bit more moist and impact the recipe but not that much.
I was wondering if there is an alternative to the molasses? I do believe we only have blackstrap molasses over here (and can’t remember what I did last year!). Do you think honey would work? Or should I stick to blackstrap?
Many thanks!
Thanks for the five star review and I’m glad these cookies were a hit with everyone and people talked about them all year!
I would go with blackstrap and if you think that could be too harsh or strong maybe go with half blackstrap, half honey.
Hi there! I’ve been making this recipe every fall since you posted it in 2015! It is my husband’s FAVORITE! :) I was just wondering if you have to portion out the dough before refrigerating? Can you just refrigerate the bowl of dough, and portion before baking? Any concerns there?
Thanks!
Ashley
It’s sort of like chiseling out a rock with an ice pik if you do it that way, IMO. I would do it the way I recommend and save yourself a lot of elbow grease. Glad these are a fave of yours!
These cookies are good, although even though I tried to compensate for using vanilla instead of the spice extract by adding extra ground pumpkin pie spice and a small amount of orange zest (I love an hint of orange with most pumpkin recipes), they still seem a little bland. I chilled the dough in a bowl and made small cookies with a 1″ cookie scoop and they have the right look and texture. Just amp up the flavor a little and you’ll have a respectable pumpkin cookie.
Everyone’s tastes, and brands of spices, ingredients, etc vary and for me, 2 tsp of spices in this recipe and the molasses, and the sugar, and the salt, and pumpkin extract (which you should probably have used if you like more robust flavors) – and I don’t find these lacking at all in flavor and think they’re a very ‘respectable pumpkin cookie’ but everyone’s tastes are different.
Big question – what size of pumpkin can are you using for these recipes that say use half or 3/4 of the can? You can get 15 and 30 ounce cans.
In the recipe section, I write the exact amount you should be using. And I always buy 15 ounce cans.
I just made these last night and they were great! I did vanilla extract instead of pumpkin spice extract and I definitely noticed they were less pumpkin flavored than I would want from a pumpkin cookie but they were still good. Now I know for next time to definitely go with the other extract! Also the flattening before baking is important in this recipe because my first batch I forgot to and they came out in the same ball shape they were when I put them in.
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! And yes to flattening them :)
Thanks for trying the recipe, new here recipe
https://www.howtomake.bio
I doubled this recipe because I had 1 cup of fresh pumpkin puree (i.e. not from a can), and I am not sure if it was from doubling the recipe, or from using fresh (although I have had much luck with it in other recipes), but I was a bit disappointed in these :( They turned out quite cakey (ironic..), and hardly pumpkin-ey. I think if I were to make these again, I would double the pumpkin and see what happens (I made the most amazing pumpkin muffins – I’m not even bragging – and it had 1c pumpkin to 1 2/3 c flour). Great tip about the egg though! Thanks for the recipe!
This is a recipe I haven’t ever doubled and while sometimes some recipes double great, others don’t. Also fresh pumpkin puree and canned puree will be different textures, moisture levels, etc. so somewhere in the doubling and also in the puree you used, I am guessing is the culprit. If you do want to re-make, I’d use canned pumpkin puree and make a single batch, as written. Thanks for trying the recipe.
I made these tonight and I find that they taste kind of like glue. Not a huge fan.
I’ve never tried glue, so I don’t know what it tastes like. But with all the pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, the brown sugar, and butter, the cookies definitely don’t smell like glue and I doubt I would have loved them if they tasted like glue. But…we all have different tastebuds. Thanks for trying the recipe.
We have just finished eating some from two separate pans. I made them half the size suggested, so approximately 1/8 cup, and they baked perfectly. We waited impatiently for the 10-minute cooling period and then SMILE, melt in our mouths deliciousness. Thank you. This recipe is a keeper.
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! Glad the recipe is a keeper!
I’m trying to make sure I have this right before baking the second batch. I cooked for 14 minutes and let cool for 10. The center looks very doughy. Is this normal and what should it look like? Thank you!
All ovens, climates, brands of pumpkin puree and how much moisture they contain, etc. – everything varies. So bake until they’re done. I caution against over-baking, but if they seem really, extra doughy in the center, then bake slightly longer. Use your best baking judgment.