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Everyone goes crazy for this pumpkin cookies recipe! They come out ultra soft, chewy, and cozy-spiced, drizzled with a sweet and simple icing. In our opinion, it’s the perfect fall cookie!

Pumpkin cookies with powdered sugar icing
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When it comes to favorite pumpkin recipes, here’s one at the very top for us: these chewy iced pumpkin cookies! Whenever we make these for someone, they rave (recently, our son’s teacher couldn’t say enough about them).

These sweet morsels are lusciously pillowy and chewy, scented with a burst of fall spices and a hint of molasses. The exterior has a subtle sugar crunch and a drizzle of simple sweet icing. Even better, the soft texture holds up for days. They really are the best: great for fall desserts, Halloween, Thanksgiving and everything in between.

Ingredients in this pumpkin cookies recipe

We’re not huge fans of cakey pumpkin cookies. You know, the kind that are basically like little round pumpkin cakes? To us they’re not really cookies, more like cake bites. So with this recipe, we created pumpkin cookies that are soft and chewy, with the texture of a molasses ginger cookie but with pumpkin and pumpkin spices. The key here? Don’t use too much pumpkin puree: it adds lots of moisture which leads to cakey cookies. Here are the ingredients you’ll need for this pumpkin cookie recipe:

  • Pumpkin puree: Too much pumpkin makes for cakey cookies. This recipe uses just enough pumpkin.
  • Unsalted butter: Heat the butter until it starts to turn brown and smells nutty, then immediately remove from the heat. Using brown butter adds a deep nuance in flavor (and smells incredible).
  • Egg yolk and molasses: Egg yolk and a bit of molasses helps to make the perfect chewy texture.
  • All-purpose flour and granulated sugar: We don’t recommend using substitutes in this recipe because it significantly alters the texture.
  • Cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, baking soda, vanilla extract and salt: These baking ingredients bring together the spiced pumpkin flavor.
Pumpkin Cookies on baking rack

Tips for baking pumpkin cookies

Cookies can be temperamental, and pumpkin cookies are no different. It’s challenging to get cookies that look perfectly identical. Here are a few tips for upping your baking game:

  • Use a cookie scoop. If you have a 1 ½ tablespoon cookie scoop, it’s helpful for portioning the dough perfectly.
  • Bake the trays separately. This is one of our biggest baking tips: bake only one tray of cookies at a time! This ensures the best consistency between the trays because the oven heat is the same for each. (This is even true with new ranges like ours.)
  • Refrigerate the dough in between baking the trays. It’s not required, but it also yields the most consistency. When you don’t chill in between baking, the cookies have slightly more crinkles—while it looks nice, it’s appears slightly different from the first batch. If you’d like you can chill the dough longer than it takes to bake the first tray, but let it come to roughly room temperature before making the balls.

Tip for pumpkin puree brands

There’s a fair amount of variation between pumpkin puree brands. Some are rather dry, and others are very wet.

We’ve found from experimentation that Libby brand of canned pumpkin has the best dry texture for baking. We’re not affiliated with the brand; we’ve just noticed that other brands can be very wet. If you have access to this brand, we’ve found it yields the most consistent results.

Iced Pumpkin Cookies

Storing leftovers

These pumpkin cookies hold up well over time. This is a must for cookies in our opinion, since you’re making them in such a big batch. Here’s what to note about storing these cookies:

  • Store in a sealed container at room temperature for 1 week. The texture holds up well: no need to add anything to the container.
  • Store refrigerated for 2 weeks. Allow to come to room temperature before serving.
  • Store frozen for up to 3 months. If you can, freeze the cookies un-iced: it doesn’t hold up as well frozen.
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Iced Pumpkin Cookies

Pumpkin cookies
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Everyone goes crazy for this pumpkin cookies recipe! They come out ultra soft, chewy, and cozy-spiced, drizzled with a sweet and simple icing. In our opinion, it’s the perfect fall cookie!

  • Author: Sonja Overhiser
  • Prep Time: 30 minutes
  • Cook Time: 25 minutes
  • Total Time: 55 minutes
  • Yield: 26 cookies 1x
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Baked
  • Cuisine: Fall
  • Diet: Vegetarian

Ingredients

Scale

For the cookies

  • 10 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour (280 g)
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon ground allspice
  • ½ teaspoon nutmeg
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 cup granulated sugar, plus more for rolling
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 tablespoon molasses
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ cup pumpkin puree (Libby brand is most consistent for baked goods*)

For the glaze (or Maple Glaze)

  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • ½ tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
  2. Place the butter (sliced into pieces) in a skillet over medium heat. Heat for about 5 minutes until it melts, turns foamy, and then becomes golden brown in color and smells nutty. Immediately remove from the heat and transfer to a bowl. Transfer to the freezer for 15 minutes to cool (you can also do this in advance and cool it to room temperature).
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, and salt.
  4. Add the cooled browned butter to the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the sugar and mix on High speed for 1 minute, until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolk, molasses and vanilla extract, and beat on High speed for 1 minute. Add the pumpkin puree and mix just until incorporated, scraping once. Pour in the bowl of dry ingredients and mix on Low speed until just combined.
  5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place ¼ cup granulated sugar on a plate. Roll the dough in 1 ½ tablespoon balls, using a cookie scoop if possible, then roll the ball into the plate of sugar. Repeat for a tray of 12 cookies. Add a single tray to the oven and bake 12 to 13 minutes, until puffed. Chill the remaining dough while baking (recommended but not required; without it the second batch comes out with slightly more crinkles**). Allow to cool on the pan 5 minutes before removing to a baking rack.
  6. Repeat for the second batch of cookies (baking the trays separately yields more even results).
  7. Allow the cookies to cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes. For the glaze, mix the powdered sugar, milk and melted butter in a small bowl until a thick icing forms (add slightly more sugar if it’s too runny or a hint more milk if too thick). Use a fork to drizzle the icing over the cookies. Wait for about 20 minutes for the icing to dry before serving.
  8. Store at room temperature for about 1 week, refrigerated for 2 weeks (bring to room temperature before serving), or frozen for 3 months (un-iced cookies freeze best).

Notes

*Don’t use pumpkin pie filling! Canned pumpkin can vary in moisture level, and too much moisture makes cakey pumpkin cookies. We’ve found Libby brand canned pumpkin has the best dry texture for baking, while other brands can have more moisture than others.

**You can also chill the dough longer than it takes to bake the first tray, but let it come to roughly room temperature before making the balls. (Baking the dough right from chilled yields different results.)

Variation: Try this Maple Glaze for topping the cookies. 

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About the authors

Alex & Sonja

Hi! We’re Alex & Sonja Overhiser, authors of the acclaimed cookbooks A Couple Cooks and Pretty Simple Cooking—and a real life couple who cooks together. We founded the A Couple Cooks website in 2010 to share seasonal recipes and the joy of home cooking. Now, we’ve got over 3,000 well-tested recipes, including Mediterranean diet, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, smoothies, cocktails, and more!

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  1. Sonja Overhiser says:

    Let us know if you have any questions!