These chewy pumpkin cookies are irresistibly chewy with lots of pumpkin spice flavor! Like a classic chocolate chip cookie, these festive Fall cookies are soft in the center and slightly crisp around the edges. They’re made with delicious ingredients like pumpkin, brown sugar, vanilla and cinnamon with a hint of salt for balance. The result is a bakery-style cookie that everyone will love this Autumn!
Why You’ll Love These Chewy Vegan Pumpkin Cookies
- Vegan! Egg-free and dairy-free
- Soft and Chewy with Crispy Edges
- Full of Pumpkin Spice Flavor!
- Stays soft and chewy for days after baking
- Meal-prep and freezer friendly
Ingredients to Make Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
You can make this vegan pumpkin cookie dough in a matter of minutes with these simple ingredients:
- Canned Pumpkin Puree
- Flour, Baking Powder and Baking Soda
- Cinnamon, Allspice, Ginger and Cloves
- Salt
- Vanilla Extract
- Cane Sugar + Brown Sugar
- Vegan Butter
- Vegan Chocolate Chips + Chopped Pecans
How to Make Soft Pumpkin Cookies
The full recipe and instructions can be found on the recipe card below, but here’s the basic rundown. This is a very easy cookie recipe!
Prep. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and then line two large cookie sheets with a non-stick silicone baking mat like this one or parchment paper.
Mix the dry ingredients You’ll need flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, ground ginger, ground cloves and salt. Whisk it all up and set aside.
Whisk wet ingredients. Mix cane sugar and brown sugar with canned pumpkin puree, melted vegan butter and vanilla. Mix well for 2 minutes.
Combine. Add half of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until most of the flour is combined. Then add the remaining flour. Add vegan chocolate chips and chopped pecans and stir to combine.
Scoop + Chill. Scoop 25 cookies and place on two cookie sheets and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes or until firm and slightly matte on the surface. This step is important so don’t skip it 😊 I use this time to tidy the kitchen and start brewing some coffee or tea to enjoy with the cookies.
Bake. Bake for 14-15 minutes and then allow the cookies to rest on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before serving. For jumbo sized cookies see the recipe card below for the bake time.
Vegan Pumpkin Cookie Baking Tips:
Spoon instead of Scooping. Instead of using the measuring cup as a scoop, I fluff up the flour with a spoon so that it’s not too compact and then spoon the flour into the measuring cup. I add more than I need to create a dome shape on top and then level it off with a butterknife. Same goes for measuring the canned pumpkin.
Whisk the Dry Ingredients Together. This simple step will ensure that the baking powder, baking soda and cozy spices are evenly dispersed throughout the flour. This leads to more cohesive, bakery-style cookies.
Mix the wet ingredients very well for the best texture! I whisk for 2 minutes by hand or 1 minute if I’m using an electric mixer. It seems like a long time while you’re doing it, but really working the wet ingredients together will ensure you have a soft, tender cookie with the perfect amount of chewiness!
Don’t over mix the dry ingredients. Once you combine the wet and the dry ingredients, stop mixing. It’s ok to mix until well combined but I used to kind of mindlessly mix and mix and mix thinking “more = better” but that’s really not the case. In fact, over mixing the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients will lead to tough, hard cookies so just mix until combined and stop there for best results.
Make Ahead + Freezing Instructions
There’s a few ways you can prep this pumpkin cookie dough to use for later:
- Freeze the Dough. Make the dough, scoop it out onto baking sheets and freeze until solid. Then transfer the frozen cookie dough balls to an airtight container and store in the freezer until ready to bake. Add two to three additional minutes to the bake time when baking for frozen.
- Freeze the Cookies. If you find yourself with leftover cookies, allow the cookies to cool completely and then store in an airtight container with a layer of parchment paper between the cookies to prevent sticking. Store for up to 6 months and thaw in the microwave in 10 second intervals until warmed through.
- Make Ahead. This dough actually tastes better the longer it sits so you can make this dough, scoop it onto the cookie sheets and cover tightly. Store in the fridge for up to 48 hours and then bake. You may want to add 1-2 minutes to the bake time.
More Pumpkin Recipes You Might Enjoy!
- Creamy Pumpkin Soup ( POPULAR RECIPE! )
- Savory Pumpkin Tart
- Spicy Pumpkin Pasta
- Pumpkin Samosa Soup
Chewy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2⅓ cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 1.25 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground allspice
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ½ tsp kosher salt I used Morton's
- ¾ cup melted vegan butter I used Earth Balance
- ¾ cup cane sugar
- ¾ cup packed light brown sugar
- ½ cup canned pumpkin puree
- 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup vegan chocolate chips
- ½ cup chopped pecans
Instructions
Prep
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and then line two large cookie sheets with a non-stick silicone baking mat like this one or parchment paper.
Mix the Dry Ingredients
- Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, ground ginger, ground cloves and salt to a large mixing bowl. Whisk it all up and set aside.
Whisk Wet Ingredients
- Combine the cane sugar and brown sugar in another large mixing bowl and then add the pumpkin puree, melted vegan butter and vanilla. Mix well for 2 minutes. Pro Tip: measure the butter when it's melted instead of solid for best results.
Combine
- Add half of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until most of the flour is combined. Then add the remaining flour.
- Add the vegan chocolate chips and chopped pecans and stir to combine.
Scoop + Chill
- For regular sized cookies: Use a medium sized ice cream scoop or a soup spoon to scoop out 24-25 cookies.
- For jumbo sized cookies: Use a medium sized ice cream scoop or a soup spoon to scoop out 12 cookies.
- Divide the cookie dough balls between the two cookie sheets and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes or until firm and slightly matte on the surface. This step is important so don't skip it 😊 I use this time to tidy the kitchen and start brewing some coffee or tea to enjoy with the cookies!
Bake
- For regular sized cookies: Bake for 14-16 minutes and then allow the cookies to rest on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before serving.
- For jumbo cookies: Bake for 18-9 minutes and then allow the cookies to rest on the cookie for 5 minutes before serving.
- Pro Tip: When you remove the cookie sheet from the oven, gently bang it against the oven rack or counter 2-3 times to release some of the air from the cookies. This will deflate the cookies slightly and create crispy edges as the cookies cool (optional step)
Hey! I’m Nicole and I make practical vegan recipes for REAL life. I cook with simple, easy to find ingredients and I’m passionate about creating delicious plant-based meals that everyone will love!
I hope you enjoy my recipes and videos :) Happy Cooking!
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Could I switch flour for oat flour?
These are delicious! I had to stop myself from eating the raw dough haha. I made the larger cookies, however they looked totally different from yours! The dough was much drier than yours appears in your video, and the cooked cookies ended up thick and cakey. I have no complaints because they’re so tasty; they just didn’t come out thin and chewy for me. Any idea why?! Thanks 🙂
Author
Hey Lydia! I’m so glad you enjoyed them! It sounds like you added a little too much flour, which leads to drier more dome-shaped cookies. Try fluffing up the flour with a spoon to aerate it before measuring and then spoon it into the measuring cup and level it off for best results. Hope that helps!
Made these today and they are so good! I didn’t want to melt butter so used soft tub and used your tip to stir for two minutes so batter was soft and fluffy.
The cookies puffed up and were such a beautiful fluffy texture. I think this was the best cookie recipe I ever made, thanks to your tips so thank you for sharing!
Author
Yay! I’m so happy to hear that you liked this recipe and good to know about the tub butter working well! Thanks for letting me know 🙂
Best of luck!
These are wonderful! I made them with normal flour and with a gluten free flour. Both turned out awesome!!
Thanks for the great recipe and directions! Worked like a charm!
Author
That’s great to hear! I’m so glad you enjoyed both versions of the cookies 🙂 Thanks for letting me know!
Could you please tell me how much pumpkin pie spice I would use to replace all the individual spices..? I never use all these autumnal spices.
Author
Hi Samantha 😊 To make pumpkin pie spice you’ll need about 3 tbsp cinnamon + 2 tsp ground ginger + 1 tsp ground nutmeg + 1/4 tsp ground cloves. Mix the spices together in a jar and then measure out the amount of pumpkin pie spice the recipe calls for. You can use leftovers to sprinkle into oatmeal or to season apples for a homemade apple crumble. Hope you enjoy!
Ifor anyone who uses gf flour, I substituted using walmart brand gluten free flour. The flavor was great but the cookies didn’t get thin and chewy (I think too much flour) so l flattened them before baking and that worked better. But I think for this recipe I will use less gf flour next time and maybe a different brand and let you all know how they turn out.
Author
Thanks Christy! Yes, if the cookies were thick and cake-like that usually means too much flour. The issue could also be the canned pumpkin. Some brands contain more moisture/liquid than others so that might have been effected the dry to wet ratio. I’m glad you liked the flavor though! Hope you enjoy them 🙂