This pumpkin cookies recipe starts by blotting canned pumpkin until it packs like paste, then mixing it with brown sugar and egg yolks so the cookies bake chewy instead of puffing into muffin tops. I leave the whites out on purpose – that extra water is what turns the dough into cake. If you already made a pan of pumpkin muffins, these use the rest of the can, and a loaf of chocolate chip pumpkin bread uses the same puree if you’d rather slice than scoop.
Ingredients
- ½ cup (122 g) canned pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling
- ½ cup (1 stick / 113 g) unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup (165 g) packed light brown sugar
- 2 large egg yolks
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1¾ cups (220 g) all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- 3 tablespoons (38 g) granulated sugar, for rolling
- ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, for rolling
Instructions
- Blot the pumpkin: Spread the ½ cup puree on a plate in a thin layer. Press a paper towel onto it, lift, and repeat with fresh towels until a dry towel comes away with almost no orange stain and the puree looks like thick tomato paste. You should have about ¼ cup (60 g) left. If you skip this, the dough bakes up puffy and pale, more like a mini muffin than a cookie.
- Heat the oven and mix dry: Heat the oven to 350°F (177°C) with a rack in the center and line two baking sheets with parchment. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until the spice looks even. Spoon the flour into the cup and level it off, because a packed cup is the fastest way to a dry, sandy cookie.
- Cream butter, sugar, and yolks: Beat the softened butter and brown sugar with a hand mixer on medium-high until the mixture looks lighter and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the yolks and vanilla and beat 1 minute more, until it looks pale. Beat in the blotted pumpkin on low just until combined. The mixture may look slightly curdled from the pumpkin hitting the fat, and it smooths out when the flour goes in.
- Scoop and roll: Add the dry mix and mix on low just until the last streak of flour disappears. The dough should hold a scoop, not slump like batter. If it slumps, chill it 10 minutes. Scoop 2-tablespoon balls, roll them in the granulated sugar mixed with the remaining ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, and set them 2 inches apart on the sheets.
- Bake until puffy, then cool: Bake one sheet at a time for 12 to 13 minutes, until the edges look set and the centers are still puffy and pale. Cool on the sheet 5 minutes, then move to a rack. As they cool, the centers fall and the tops wrinkle, which is the chewy texture setting, not a collapse.
Chocolate chips, pecans, and a plain top
- Fold ¾ cup (130 g) semisweet chocolate chips in after the flour and skip the spice-sugar roll so the chips stay put instead of sliding off in the oven.
- Use ½ cup (60 g) chopped toasted pecans the same way. Start with already-toasted nuts, or they taste raw in the center of a 12-minute bake.
- Leave the sugar roll off if you want a plainer top to frost later. Frost only after they are fully cool or the frosting slides.
Keep the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Let them cool completely before you lid the container or the tops turn sticky. Freeze cooled cookies for up to 2 months and thaw on the counter.
