These pumpkin chocolate chip cookies have soft chewy centers, buttery crisp edges, and layers of bittersweet chocolate laced throughout. We fill the dough with cozy pumpkin pie spice, nutty brown butter, and just enough pumpkin puree to look and taste like fall-- without losing that delicious fudgy texture.
Why I love them:
We love celebrating the seasons around here and for me, fall always feels a little extra special. The cool days, gorgeous colors, and cinnamon-scented air never get old.
I’m always looking for ways to bring more seasonal fun into our days, and these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are a total win.
But when I first started dabbling in pumpkin cookies, they were terrible. As in, giant puffballs that looked more like muffin tops than cookies. And they tasted even worse. Fluffy, cakey, and not at all like the kind of chocolate chip cookie I crave.
It took some serious re-engineering to arrive at a crispy, chewy, dense pumpkin cookie with gorgeous rippled edges and big pools of chocolate.
Once I got a good base recipe, I optimized the flavors with a decadent note of brown butter, cozy pumpkin pie spice, giant wafers of bittersweet chocolate, and plenty of vanilla.
Every ingredient in this recipe has been tweaked and perfected for spread, flavor, and texture.
I hope you LOVE these crispy, chewy brown butter pumpkin chocolate chip cookies as much as we do!
pumpkin chocolate chip cookie ingredients:
- unsalted butter
- all-purpose flour
- baking soda
- baking powder
- pumpkin puree
- granulated sugar
- egg yolk
- vanilla extract
- pumpkin pie spice
- kosher salt
- bittersweet chocolate
how to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies:
- Brown the butter, and let cool.
- Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and spices. Set aside.
- Use cheesecloth to squeeze liquid out of pumpkin puree, reserving 2 tbsp liquid. Recombine puree with reserved liquid to loosen it, then whisk in egg and vanilla.
- Combine pumpkin mixture, sugar, and salt with cooled brown butter.
- Stir in dry ingredients.
- Fold in chocolate.
- Scoop dough and bake cookies for 12 minutes.
- Swirl a round cookie cutter around the edges to shape the cookies into a perfect circle.
- Let cool and enjoy!
Pro-tip:
Every pumpkin puree is a little different, but most have about 6 tablespoons of extra liquid per ½ cup of puree. That’s too much water for a cookie and results in a puffy, cakey texture. Strain out as much liquid as possible then add back 2 tablespoons for the perfect consistency.
Why these are the best pumpkin chocolate chip cookies:
Chewy, never cakey: Pumpkin puree throws a huge wrench in the texture of cookies. It brings a lot of water to the dough, which makes fluffy and cakey cookies. This is great for some, but I wanted rich, fudgy, and chewy cookies with pumpkin flavor. We drop the egg white, strain out the liquid from the pumpkin, and use melted butter to combat this issue.
Browned butter: Melted butter helps make a chewy cookie, and we take it a step further to add a layer of toasty, nutty flavor. It goes so well with pumpkin spice!
Just a yolk: Pumpkin puree brings enough moisture with it, so we drop the eggwhite in favor of the fudgy, dense texture from just 1 yolk.
Just enough flour: Make sure to fluff your flour, then spoon and level it into the measuring cup. Too much flour (from not measuring this way) will give thicker, puffier cookies. The dough will look wet and soft-- that’s okay!
Pumpkin pie spice: Can you actually have a pumpkin baked good without the warm spices of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, clove, and allspice? Don’t worry about having the spice blend, either. You can mix up your own blend of warm spices as long as the total amount of spice equals 2 ½ teaspoons. If you’re feeling bold, try adding ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper!
Perfect circles: I LOVE this technique. Use a round cookie cutter, slightly larger than the finished cookie, and swirl it around the edges of a just-baked cookie. Keep gently but quickly swirling until the cookie is perfectly round. It’s optional, of course, but so satisfying.
Make these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies your own:
- Oatmeal: Substitute ½ cup flour with rolled oats.
- White chocolate: Swap dark chocolate with white chocolate chips or feves.
- Nuts: Mix in ½ cup chopped toasted pecans.
- Pumpkin snickerdoodle: Skip the chocolate and roll the dough balls in cinnamon sugar before baking.
- Coconut: Fold in ½ cup shredded coconut (bonus if you lightly toast it first!).
- Pepitas: Press a few salted pepitas on top of the dough balls before baking.
- Ginger: Fold in ¼ cup finely chopped candied ginger.
- Orange: Mix the zest of 1 orange into the batter, or ¼ cup chopped candied orange peel.
- Butterscotch: Swap the dark chocolate for caramelized white chocolate or butterscotch chips.
- Caramel: Fold in ¼ cup of chopped caramel bits.
- Harvest: Fold in ¼ cup dried cranberries and ¼ cup salted pepitas.
More chocolate chip cookies to try:
coconut chocolate chip cookies
salted double dark chocolate cookies
PS: If you love pumpkin desserts, try our pumpkin creme brulee or our pumpkin ice cream!
Printpumpkin chocolate chip cookies (chewy and crispy!)
Chewy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies have crisp edges and soft fudgy centers, with brown butter, warm spice, and melty chocolate throughout.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 27 minutes
- Yield: 15
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Whisk
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 2 ½ tsp pumpkin pie spice
- ½ cup canned pumpkin puree
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- ¾ tsp kosher salt
- 5 oz bittersweet chocolate discs (can substitute chocolate chips)
Instructions
- Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring often, as butter foams and then begins to brown and smell nutty, about 10 minutes. When golden brown, scrape into a medium bowl. Chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes, or until cool to the touch but not solid.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and spices in a medium bowl and whisk until combined. Set aside.
- Lay out a layer of cheesecloth and scoop pumpkin on top. Wrap up the puree and squeeze out as much liquid as possible, reserving it in a bowl. Pull out 2 tablespoons of pumpkin liquid and mix it back into the thick puree to loosen. Stir in yolk and vanilla, mix until smooth.
- Add pumpkin mixture, sugar, and salt to cooled brown butter. Whisk until very smooth and glossy, about 3 minutes.
- Add dry ingredients and slowly mix until just combined. Stir in chocolate.
- Scoop dough into 1 ½-oz (3 tablespoons) balls and roll smooth. Place 5 dough balls on a prepared baking sheet to allow for spreading. Bake for 11- 12 minutes, or until edges are just golden but cookies are very soft in the center.
- Remove the pan from the oven use a round cookie cutter, only slightly larger than the diameter of the baked cookies, and gently but quickly swirl it around the outside of each cookie until perfectly round.
- Let cool 10 minutes on the sheet pan, then transfer to a cooling rack. Cookies will firm up as they cool. Repeat baking the remaining cookies.
Notes
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
- Calories: 314
- Sugar: 20g
- Sodium: 173mg
- Fat: 18g
- Saturated Fat: 11g
- Unsaturated Fat: 6.1g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 35g
- Fiber: 2.2g
- Protein: 3.7g
- Cholesterol: 57mg
Sally says
Love how they are not "cakey "and the browned butter flavor!!