These are the best chewy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies you’ll make. So easy to whip together and the perfect texture - there are no cakey cookies here! The best part is you don't even have to wait to chill the dough - you can bake straight away!
We know there are loads of pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipes out there BUT we're here to tell you that ours are particularly special! This recipe is adapted from our popcorn chocolate chip cookie recipe, which you also need to try! But these pumpkin cookies are totally perfect for fall. Chewy and soft and full of chocolate chips, what's not to love?!
We love using pumpkin spice at this time of year, it's just so warming and comforting. And if you're looking for other uses for your pumpkin purée and spices, try this pumpkin gingerbread loaf recipe out - it’s so moist!
As promised, you won't find any cakey cookies here. We know you’ll absolutely rave over these chewy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, so don't forget to leave a comment telling us how much you love them and drop us a star rating too.
Jump to:
- ⭐ Why you'll love this recipe
- 📋 Ingredients
- 📖 Customizations
- 🔪 How to make pumpkin spice mix
- 🔪 Step by step instructions
- 👩🍳 Expert tips and tricks
- 📋 The secret to chewy cookies
- 🥗 How to store the cookies after baking
- 📖 How to freeze cookie dough
- ⏲️ How to bake from frozen
- 💭 FAQs
- Related recipes
- Chewy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
⭐ Why you'll love this recipe
Reasons we know you'll love these easy chewy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies:
Accuracy! - Weighing your ingredients provides consistent results. Every. Single. Time. If you don't have them, get yourself some digital scales . Less washing up too!
Chewiness - chewy cookies are the best! Especially when they’re still slightly warm from the oven. See the tips for ensuring you get a chewy cookie!
Freezer stash - we're cookie soul mates if you have a freezer stash of cookies. They are perfect to make ahead and ready to provide you with delicious chewy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies at a moment's notice.
No chill! - We’ve got this recipe down so it’s no frill or faff. You don’t have to chill this cookie dough at all unlike many other recipes out there, which is why they’re also easier and quicker. Whip it together and bake!
Buttery - Forgotten to take your butter out of the fridge to get it to room temperature so it will cream easily? No need to worry! This recipe uses melted butter and you don’t have to wait very long for it to cool before using either! Easy peasy.
📋 Ingredients
For this easy chewy pumpkin chocolate chip recipe you only need simple ingredients which are readily available at any supermarket - recommended substitutions are included in the tips below too:
Fall spices - You’ll need pumpkin spice or pumpkin pie spices - if you want to make up your own blend check out our ratio in the post below. You’ll also use a little fine sea salt which enhances the flavour of everything.
Sugar - You’ll need light and dark brown sugar along with granulated sugar. All of the different sugars will have different effects on the texture and structure of your pumpkin chocolate chip cookie (see FAQs below). Most importantly, the brown sugars add lots of yummy caramel flavour.
Pumpkin - You can’t have a pumpkin cookie without pumpkin! We highly recommend using Libby’s pumpkin puree. We find this to be the most consistent in texture and not overly watery. If you use homemade - see the tips below and be sure to follow them!
Egg - You’ll only need the egg yolk, as using the whole egg will produce a cakey cookie. You can whip up a batch of Coconut Tahini Pistachio Granola using the leftover white!
📖 Customizations
We recommend these alternative mix-ins to customize your cookies:
Chocolate - use white chocolate chips instead of semi sweet chocolate chips to create some pumpkin white chocolate chip cookies.
Nuts - get a bit nutty and use some chopped walnuts or pecans to add a little crunch.
Dried fruit - Use some dried cranberries to make pumpkin cranberry chocolate chip cookies.
🔪 How to make pumpkin spice mix
Pumpkin spice is very simple to put together and is made up of 5 spices - these can vary depending on the brand and also vary in quantity but here is a basic ratio for you that you can use in all your fall baking recipes.
This is the ratio we use: 4 : 1 : 1 : ½ : ½
- 4 teaspoons - ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon - ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon - ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon - ground allspice
- ½ teaspoon - ground cloves
You can scale this pumpkin spice mix up to make a larger batch, just make sure to store it in an airtight container. We recommend starting with smaller batches as ground spices can get old and lose their flavour after a while if you don’t end up using them all.
🔪 Step by step instructions
These chewy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies take no time to whip together and this easy step by step guide will lead you to the consistent success you can always expect from recipes here:
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Set aside to cool for a few minutes whilst you prepare the rest of the ingredients. (don’t let it cool too much!)
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the all-purpose (plain) flour, cornstarch (cornflour), baking powder, baking soda (bicarbonate of soda), pumpkin spice and fine sea salt. Stir together using a whisk, to ensure all the ingredients are evenly distributed.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the brown sugars and granulated sugar with the slightly cooled (but still warm) melted butter. Mix on medium speed, just until well combined. (Alternatively use a large mixing bowl and an electric hand mixer).
- Add the pumpkin puree, egg yolk and vanilla to the butter and sugar mixture.
- Mix the egg and pumpkin puree in on medium speed until well combined and you get a smooth caramel-like mixture.
- Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until no streaks of flour remain and you have a nice pumpkin-coloured cookie dough.
- Add the chocolate chips to the cookie dough. Mix on low speed until evenly distributed throughout the dough.
- Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop and roll the dough into approximately 2 tablespoon-sized balls (you should get 22-24 cookies from this mixture) and place on the prepared baking sheet.
- You should bake 6-8 cookies on a tray at a time with 2-3 inches space between them.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes until lightly golden at the edges. They should still feel soft and undercooked in the centre – that’s what you want! They’ll continue to bake as they cool. Leave them on the tray for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
👩🍳 Expert tips and tricks
Follow these tips to guarantee that you get the best results for chewy pumpkin cookies:
Warm butter - make sure your melted butter is still warm as it will help dissolve the sugar; this also helps with the final texture and structure of the cookie.
Blot - If you’ve got a wetter pumpkin purée or are using homemade pumpkin purée, make sure you blot the excess visible moisture off with a kitchen towel or place a kitchen towel in a sieve and put your purée on top to let it drain for 10 minutes.
Cover - make sure you don’t leave your cookie dough uncovered between baking for too long as it’ll dry out. Use some cling film to cover the cookie dough whilst waiting to bake them. If they dry out a bit - just roll the cookie dough ball to warm it up between your hands before baking - otherwise they will not get the smooth feel and look you are after.
Roll - to get a smooth topped cookie, roll them into balls from the scoop. It isn’t essential - it depends on how rustic you want them to look.
Underbake - Underbaking is best. 8-10 minutes is plenty enough to bake the cookie, ours are perfect after 8-9 minutes in a fan-assisted/convection oven. The longer you bake, the less chewy and more dry the cookie will become.
📋 The secret to chewy cookies
The secret to making chewy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies involves multiple factors:
1. For this recipe we use warm melted butter to partially dissolve the sugar in the process of making the dough. This does two things, it helps the cookie spread on baking and the melted butter in general makes the cookie softer and chewier once baked.
2.The blend of sugars in this recipe (molasses that are in the brown sugars) leads to a chewier caramel flavoured cookie. The addition of granulated sugar helps the cookie spread the perfect amount whilst baking - it does this as the sugar melts whilst being baked. No need for cookie cutters to round off your cookies!
3. We're only using an egg yolk in this recipe, instead of the whole egg. The protein in the egg yolk helps to make the cookies fudgy and chewy whereas the relatively watery whites would cause them to become more cakey.
4. Cornstarch - the use of cornstarch makes for a softer thicker cookie and it also helps with the absorption of some of the moisture from the pumpkin purée.
5. Raising agents - The mix of baking powder and soda will give lift and help the cookie spread. We personally believe that it helps the texture to have the correct level of raising agents.
6. No chill - Chilling dough for this recipe will mean the middle of the cookie will not get warm enough before being overbaked. Being chilled, the dough will not spread as much either. This dough is soft yet manageable to scoop (without the risk of breaking your scoop with the dough straight out of the fridge).
🥗 How to store the cookies after baking
We recommend storing your chewy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies in an airtight container and they will keep just fine for up to 3 days as long as they were slightly underbaked.
📖 How to freeze cookie dough
Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop out the pumpkin cookie dough and place it on a parchment lined quarter baking sheet. You can then place this tray directly in the freezer for 2-3 hours.
Once frozen, remove the tray from the freezer and place the uncooked frozen dough balls in a freezer bag. These cookies will keep for up to 3 months in the freezer and are a great way to have a stash to bake up with no effort in the kitchen!
⏲️ How to bake from frozen
There are two ways to bake the frozen cookie dough:
- Place the desired number of frozen cookie dough balls onto a lined baking sheet and place in a preheated oven at 180oC/350oF for 8-12 minutes (you may need to increase it by a few minutes to get it baked just right, it depends on your oven). You may find that the cookies don't spread as much when baked straight from frozen but they'll still be delicious.
- Get the frozen cookie dough balls out of the freezer and place on a lined baking sheet for 10 minutes. Then preheat the oven to 180oC/350oF for 10-15 minutes and bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes. They'll spread a bit more using this method.
Enjoy your soft pumpkin chocolate chip cookies! They are to die for!
💭 FAQs
This will be because of one of two reasons; either the dough is too dry from not enough liquid or too much flour which will only happen if you scoop your cup into your flour to measure it out. The other reason would be that the dough is too cold. This is more likely to happen if you cook the dough from frozen if following the guides above.
Also - the best way to avoid these issues and mistakes is to follow the accuracy rule - using digital scales to create the best cookie. It’ll be the best decision you make for baking in the kitchen!
Usually the dough is too wet either from melted butter or a form of liquid sugar, such as maple syrup. But this could also come from excess liquid in your pumpkin purée. It could also be down to using too little flour - which if you use digital scales you would avoid the risk of having these inconsistencies in your results.
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Chewy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Equipment
- Cookie scoop
Ingredients
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, 170g
- 2 ¾ cups all-purpose (plain) flour, 330g
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch, (cornflour)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda, (bicarbonate of soda)
- 1 ¾ teaspoons pumpkin spice
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½ cup packed light brown sugar, 100g
- ½ cup packed dark brown sugar, 100g
- ¼ cup granulated sugar, 50g
- ⅓ cup pumpkin puree, 85g
- 1 egg yolk, see notes for uses for leftover white
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup chocolate chips, plus a few extras for the tops, if desired, 200g
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper or a silicone mat.
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Set aside to cool for a few minutes whilst you prepare the rest of the ingredients.¾ cup unsalted butter
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the all-purpose (plain) flour, cornstarch (cornflour), baking powder, baking soda (bicarbonate of soda), pumpkin spice and fine sea salt. Stir together using a whisk, to ensure all the ingredients are evenly distributed.2 ¾ cups all-purpose (plain) flour, 1 tablespoon cornstarch, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 ¾ teaspoons pumpkin spice, ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the brown sugars and granulated sugar with the slightly cooled (but still warm) melted butter. Mix on medium speed, just until well combined. (Alternatively use a large mixing bowl and an electric hand mixer).½ cup packed light brown sugar, ½ cup packed dark brown sugar, ¼ cup granulated sugar
- Add the pumpkin puree, egg yolk and vanilla to the butter and sugar mixture and continue to mix on medium speed until well combined.⅓ cup pumpkin puree, 1 egg yolk, 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until no streaks of flour remain.
- Add the chocolate chips to the cookie dough. Mix on low speed until evenly distributed throughout the dough.1 cup chocolate chips, plus a few extras for the tops, if desired
- Use a medium cookie scoop to scoop and roll the dough into approximately 2 tablespoon-sized balls (you should get 22-24 cookies from this mixture) and place on the prepared baking tray. You should get 6-8 on a tray at a time. Add a few extra chocolate chips to the tops, if desired.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes (mine are perfect after 8 minutes in a fan-assisted/convection oven) until lightly golden at the edges. They should still feel soft and underbaked in the centre – that’s what you want! They’ll continue to bake as they cool. Makes 22-24 cookies.
- Leave to cool on the tray for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely (or for as long as you can bear to wait!) Enjoy!
Notes
- We highly recommend using the gram measurements for the consistent success we have had with baking these cookies. Using digital scales to do this is the easiest way.
- The cookies can be frozen pre or post baking for a freezer stash.
- Use up the leftover egg white in this chunky coconut tahini granola recipe.
Kate says
If I could give this 6 stars I would! I love the taste of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and grew up eating them every autumn. But I haven't had one in over 10 years. I stopped making them mostly because, while I love the taste, I hate the cakey texture. This recipe is the only one I will ever make again! It has the perfect flavour to take me back to my childhood, but has the texture of a beautiful chocolate chip cookie. The only problem was that when I shared the cookies with my children, my youngest try to hide all the cookies so she could eat them all and wouldn't have to share with anyone else. Mass panic ensued. We have already made three batches.
Sally says
Oh my! These were perfect! so chewy and gooey. The kids loved these. Definitely making them again!