Soft and Chewy Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
These pumpkin oatmeal cookies are super soft, chewy, thick, and full of pumpkin flavor! The perfect cookie for fall!
Ever since I made my pumpkin snickerdoodles, I’ve wanted to create a pumpkin oatmeal cookie recipe. The problem with pumpkin cookies is that they can sometimes end up cakey. While cakey cookies can be delicious, I wanted to create a cookie recipe that was soft and chewy just like a regular oatmeal cookie.
This recipe took several tries, but after some adjusting, I finally found the winning recipe! These pumpkin oatmeal cookies bake up thick, they’re soft and chewy, and made with pumpkin puree.
You can even customize these cookies by adding some chocolate chips, your favorite chopped nuts, or top them with a simple vanilla glaze!
To make these cookies, you’ll start out by whisking together some all-purpose flour, spices, baking soda, and salt. For the spices, I added some pumpkin pie spice to these cookies along with some extra ground cinnamon for flavor. If you don’t have any pumpkin pie spice you can use my homemade recipe here.
Then, you’ll cream together some butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar for a minute or two until they’re well combined. Once the butter and sugars are mixed together, mix in an egg yolk and vanilla extract.
Since there’s pumpkin puree in these cookies, it’s necessary to remove some of the moisture from the cookie dough. Too much moisture in your cookie dough will result in a cakey cookie, but we’re going for a chewy cookie here. Just like my pumpkin snickerdoodles, I removed the egg white and stuck with just the egg yolk to add a little chewiness.
For the last of the wet ingredients, you’ll be mixing in the pumpkin puree. I found that just mixing in the pumpkin resulted in a cookie dough that was sticky and the cookies ended up softening quite a bit after a few hours.
The solution? You need to squeeze some of the moisture out of the pumpkin puree. The easiest way that I’ve found to get some of the moisture out of the puree is to line a plate with a few paper towels, spread the pumpkin on top, then top with a few more paper towels and blot out as much moisture as possible.
You may need to use a few more paper towels to get some more moisture out. You won’t get every last bit of moisture out of the pumpkin, but it should look drier and be easy to peel up off the paper towels.
Once you’ve removed as much moisture as you can from the pumpkin puree, you’ll mix it in with the wet ingredients. Then, mix in the dry ingredients and the oats. At this point, you can also add some chocolate chips or nuts to the cookie dough.
It’s also best to allow the cookie dough to chill for about 30 minutes because it makes it easier to work with and the cookies bake up nice and thick. After you bake the cookies and let them cool, they stay soft and chewy for days!
Baking Tips for Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
- When measuring your flour, avoid scooping it from the container. Instead, stir the flour around, spoon it into your measuring cup, and level it off with the back of a knife.
- Make sure to press some of the moisture out of the pumpkin puree before mixing it into the wet ingredients. I like to spread the pumpkin onto a few paper towels then use some more paper towels to press out as much moisture as possible.
- The cookies don’t spread too much in the oven so it helps to slightly flatten them, before baking, to help them spread a little.
Soft and Chewy Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (125 grams) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (115 grams) unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) brown sugar lightly packed
- 1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg yolk room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup (80 grams) pumpkin puree squeeze out excess moisture with paper towels*
- 1 and 1/2 cups (150 grams) old-fashioned rolled oats
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Set aside
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl using an electric mixer, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar for 1-2 minutes until well combined. Add the egg yolk and vanilla extract and mix until fully combined. Then mix in the pumpkin puree until well combined.
- Slowly mix in the dry ingredients, making sure to stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Then mix in the old-fashioned rolled oats until just combined.
- Cover the cookie dough tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Using a 1.5 tablespoon cookie scoop, scoop the cookie dough and drop onto the prepared baking sheets. Roll the cookie dough into balls and very gently press down with your hand to flatten each ball of cookie dough slightly. Make sure to leave a little room between each ball of cookie dough as they will spread a little while they bake.
- Bake in separate batches at 350°F for 9-12 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are lightly browned and the top is set. Remove from the oven and cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Exactly what I was looking for. These are literally perfect.
Good cookie, I baked longer than directed. Added white chocolate chips and Crasins. Yummy. I will add walnuts on pecans next time. And keep some plain.
So tasty! I did not ring out the moisture in the pumpkin purée, but added some chopped walnuts. Turned out great! Also added a maple glaze once cooled. Will absolutely be making again!
The maple glaze sounds as if it would be a delicious addition, to this yummy cookie. :p
I had some leftover pumpkin purée from another recipe and found this one! Omg! They’re exactly what I was expecting and oh so yummy!
Trying these next week! I had just a bit of pumpkin leftover and found this recipe! I can’t wait to try them!
These cookies were exactly what I was hoping they’d be. Perfect texture and a nice subtle flavor. So many pumpkin recipes call for chocolate chips; I was glad this wasn’t so sweet. Thank you!!
Perfect cookies! Just what I wanted
Amazingly good cookies….not too sweet, just right taste and texture. Recipe was easy to follow. Perfect combination of pumpkin, oatmeal and spice! Lovely and light & delicate cookie!
I plan on making these forThanksgiving, qould salted butter be okay? I also plan on getting the pumpkin puree from my jack-o-lantern. Tia
Yes, that would be fine! You can use salted butter and omit the salt in the recipe.
Not enough pumpkin flavor. Just tastes like oatmeal cookies.
The reason i rated 4/5 I followed the recipe exactly. Spooned flour into my cup. Been doing this for years. Mine did not melt into a cookie but stayed as a ball. ( I always do one sample cookie when I try a new recipe). I had to manually flatten them, then bake them. Taste is really good. We enjoyed them.
You do have to flatten each ball of cookie dough before baking. I mentioned it in the blog post and recipe. Step 6 says “Roll the cookie dough into balls and very gently press down with your hand to flatten each ball of cookie dough slightly.” and the baking tips section notes this as well “The cookies don’t spread too much in the oven so it helps to slightly flatten them, before baking, to help them spread a little.”
We used canned pumpkin, added more spice, instant oats, used the whole egg, didn’t press them down. Will make them again but with even more spices. And, yes, will use rolled oats, as the instant just got lost (it’s what we had on hand).
Barely got 18 cookies. How did you get 24?
I used a 1.5 tablespoon cookie scoop. If you used a larger cookie scoop or didn’t level off the cookie dough on the scoop, that may be why you only got 18.
So so good. I added pecan pieces and ooo yum. Thank you for this new favorite recipe.
These cookies were so good I could cry, I made these for my lunch table and everyone loved them so much! I folded in white chocolate chips too for funsies, which i highly recommend doing. Def gonna make these a second time !!
I made these and they are fabulous. I always use a recipe I find as a base and tweak to my taste so I added more spice and when I flattened the cookies I used a sugar coated jelly jar. I didn’t take th moisture out of the puree and vevn added a little extra.
Would have liked to know how many the recipe made so i could double or triple the recipe.
It makes 24 cookies – this is noted in the recipe right above the ingredients.
I’ve made these about 5 times and they really hit the spot! Tonight I used the whole egg and the cookies were great.
For anyone who doesn’t love clove or allspice flavor — I recommend using cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom. So delicious.
Soooo good! Love this recipe!
I was disappointed in first batch because they were dry. So, the second batch I only lightly flattened and they came out nice .
Note: after cooling I put the cookies in resealable bags. When I tasted the first batch they had softened up!
These were okay. They were easy enough and nicely chewy but didn’t really have much of a pumpkin flavor.
When I read the recipe, I thought the same, so I added more pumpkin and it still came out just fine!
Yummy!! These are wonderful! I added a little extra baking soda then called for. I like thick cookies! I also used butternut squash instead of pumpkin! Will definitely be making these again!
Is the 1/3 cup of pumpkin measured before or after you squeeze out excess moisture?
It’s 1/3 cup before you squeeze out the excess moisture.
Made these today! Got all the way to adding in the old fashion oats before I realized I only had steel cut. I substituted the 1.5c old fashion for 1c steel cut and did not have high hopes for the change. They still turned out really well! Might add more pumpkin pie spice next time but still excellent as is!
These are delicious! I used more pumpkin (1/2 cup of homemade puree) and the whole egg. My scoop is only 1 tablespoon so I baked them the minimum time of 9 minutes. They came out perfect-soft, slightly chewy and just sweet enough. One to keep!
These pumpkin oatmeal cookies are very boring. Not much taste. Would benefit from some nuts, craisins or raisins. Pumpkin flavor is very obscure. There are better pumpkin cookie recipes available.
So good