Chewy Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

Pumpkin oatmeal cookies are chewy and a little bit crispy, with the perfect amount of pumpkin spice flavor. Make this delicious and cozy fall cookie anytime you’re craving pumpkin!

 

Why We Love Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

Have you been feeling in a fall mood yet? Here in Arizona it stays pretty warm through most of the beginning of fall. But being originally from the midwest I can’t help but start thinking about baked apple, warm sweaters and pumpkin bread.

This pumpkin oatmeal cookie recipe is soft and chewy with just the right amount of pumpkin spice and pumpkin flavor. So it means we can start fall baking a little early whether the leaves are changing or not.

Ingredients For Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

• butter softened, salted is fine
• white sugar
• brown sugar
• egg
• vanilla
• pumpkin puree– canned or fresh pureed- blot away some of the moisture with a paper towel before adding this ingredient to the dough.
• flour – all purpose
• rolled oats sometimes these are called “old fashioned oats”. You can use quick oats in place of rolled oats in this recipe, but the cookies will be less chewy with this swap. You can not swap steel cut oats into this recipe.
• baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon – homemade pumpkin pie spice or storebought pumpkin pie spice can be substituted for the cinnamon and nutmeg, you’d need 1 1/2 teaspoons.
• nutmeg
• salt
• semi-sweet chocolate chips optional, white chocolate chips are also delicious

How To Make These Pumpkin Cookies! (With Optional Chocolate Chips)

1. Layer a cookie sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mats can be used, then set to the side.
2. In a large bowl add softened butter, white sugar and brown sugar. Mix together the butter, white sugar and brown sugar until fully mixed.

3. Add the egg and vanilla to the butter and sugar mixture, then stir until well mixed.
4. Blot the pumpkin well with a paper towel to remove any excess water. Add the pumpkin to the sugar mixture and mix until well combined.

5. In a medium bowl add the flour, oatmeal, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Mix the dry ingredients together well until combined.
6. Stir the dry flour and oatmeal mixture into the wet pumpkin batter a little at a time, mixing in between. Mix just until a dough forms and there is no visible flour.
7. Fold in the chocolate chips into the cookie dough ball and mix well.

8. Place the bowl of cookie dough in the refrigerator. Chill the dough for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheight.
9. Drop batter with a cookie scoop by the spoonful onto the prepared baking sheet.

10. Bake the cookies for 18-21 minutes until soft and chewy. The middle will still be a little soft, but not raw when finished cooking. Then allow the cookies to cool on a wire rack and enjoy!

How To Make Pumpkin Cookies Chewy Not Cakey

One of the things that can turn these cookies into more of a cakey cookie then chewy is too much moisture so it’s important to get the moisture out of the pumpkin.

While the oats do absorb quite a bit of the moisture in this recipe, sometimes the pumpkin holds too much moisture. It can actually vary from pumpkin to pumpkin how much moisture is inside!

Blotting the pumpkin on a paper towel removes that excess moisture and can result in a more chewy pumpkin cookie. You can use canned pumpkin puree, or you can make your own homemade pumpkin puree.

How To Keep Chewy Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies From Spreading Too Thin

Like most butter-based cookie doughs, chilling the dough can be super important to help keep the cookies from spreading too much. Chilling the dough helps the butter start to become a little more solid again within the dough.

If your butter is too soft, your cookies might spread a little extra. You can put the dough in the fridge for longer than 30 minutes, in the freezer, or even pop the whole pan full of balls of cookie dough in the freezer before you make these cookies. Cooling the dough a little extra can help save a batch of cookies that are spreading too much.