The Best Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are a fall essential – this recipe creates a soft pumpkin cookie with an amazing blend of fall spices.
Delicious Pumpkin Cookies Recipe
Fall is here, and with it comes all things pumpkin. This pumpkin chocolate chip cookie will be the one thing you crave all season long, and since it makes about 80 cookies, you’ll be all set (for at least the weekend)!
What makes this the best pumpkin cookie?
I’m pretty confident these are the best pumpkin chocolate chip cookies around because I have perfected the important factors in this recipe: spice level, chocolate, texture, and cooking time. This cookie should be made with a dark chocolate chip unless you absolutely hate dark chocolate. Lighter or milk chocolate will not balance the strong spices and bring out the pumpkin flavor like a dark chocolate will. My absolute favorite chocolate chip is Hershey’s Special Dark chocolate chip. It’s as cheap or cheaper as other name brands, which is a bonus.
This is a wet mixture. As you mix in the pumpkin, it will look curdled and split. Do not panic, you have not ruined the mix. When you’ve added all the ingredients, it will look wetter than most cookie mixes; don’t add more flour. That will make the cookie dry and cakey and crumbly, not the soft, fluffy and yet perfectly dense cookie you want and deserve.
What type of mixer should I use?
While you can hand mix these cookies together, an electric mixer will be your best bet.
The Kitchen Aid or Bosch Mixers are both excellent choices. Bosch Mixers can hold a bit more than most Kitchen Aid mixers, so if you are a big batch cooker..this might be the best one for you. Be sure to check out our comparison of these two mixers here – Bosch Mixer versus KitchenAid Mixer: EVERYTHING You Need to Know
A good hand mixer can be a great option as well.
Can I use a different type of chocolate chip?
Dark chocolate tastes great in this recipe, but if you’d prefer to use a different type of chocolate chip, that’s great too. Here are some ideas:
- Milk Chocolate
- White Chocolate
- Semi-Sweet
- Semi-Sweet and Milk Chocolate mixed together (this is an awesome combo for any chocolate cookies)
How do I get a perfectly cooked cookie?
This cookie takes about 11-14 minutes to cook, at 350 degrees. Do not rush it, or the outside will be dry and cooked while the inside will be doughy and raw.
Watch through the oven window with the light on, and the moment the cookies lose their glossy shine, you’re about 30 seconds from them being done. So, throw on the oven mitts and get them out! Another way to know they’re done is to touch the cookie, if it feels damp or sticky, it’s not done. If the top is soft but dry, it’s perfect. Remember, cookies continue to cook as they cool.
Soft Pumpkin Cookies
Ingredients
- 1-1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 2-1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
- 1 cup white sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 can (15 ounces/2 cups) pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 4-1/2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1-1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon ginger
- 1/2 tablespoon nutmeg (scant if using fresh)
- 1/2 tablespoon cloves
- 1 bag dark chocolate chips
Instructions:
- Mix the softened, room temperature butter and the sugars together until fully creamed. This can take five minutes or more, so don’t rush it.
- Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, the pumpkin, salt, spices, and finally flour.
- Add the flour carefully, as the 4-1/2 cups can turn your whole kitchen white if you aren’t slow starting your mixed up after adding.
- Fold the batter with a spatula a few times to make sure everything from the bottom is incorporated.
- Stir in the chocolate chips. Because there’s so much mixture, you may have trouble getting the chips fully incorporated using the mixer, so don’t be afraid to fold the batter a few extra times to make sure the chips are distributed evenly.
- Bake the cookies at 350 for 11-14 minutes, until they are just no longer shiny, are soft but not damp, and don’t indent when you touch them.
- Let them cool completely before stacking, as they will stick together.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1-1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 2-1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
- 1 cup white sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 can (15 ounces/2 cups) pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 4-1/2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1-1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon ginger
- 1/2 tablespoon nutmeg (scant if using fresh)
- 1/2 tablespoon cloves
- 1 bag dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Mix the softened, room temperature butter and the sugars together until fully creamed. This can take five minutes or more, so don't rush it.
- Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, the pumpkin, salt, spices, and finally flour.
- Add the flour carefully, as the 4-1/2 cups can turn your whole kitchen white if you aren't slow starting your mixed up after adding.
- Fold the batter with a spatula a few times to make sure everything from the bottom is incorporated.
- Stir in the chocolate chips. Because there's so much mixture, you may have trouble getting the chips fully incorporated using the mixer, so don't be afraid to fold the batter a few extra times to make sure the chips are distributed evenly.
- Bake the cookies at 350 for 11-14 minutes, until they are just no longer shiny, are soft but not damp, and don't indent when you touch them.
- Let them cool completely before stacking, as they will stick together.
Cooking Baking Essentials
Here are a couple of tools to consider getting for making cooking baking even easier:
- Hand Mixer or Stand Mixer like Kitchen Aid or Bosch
- Silicone Baking Mats
- Good quality baking sheets
- Cookie Scoop – this one is awesome, and it works great with this recipe
Can I freeze pumpkin cookies?
This recipe makes a lot of cookies, because it uses the whole can of pumpkin (two cups/15 ounces). Therefore, you’ll have about 80-100 cookies, depending on the size of your cookie. You can freeze the dough by scooping balls onto a plate or cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Put the cookie dough balls into the freezer for four hours or overnight, then you can move them to a freezer-safe bag. They will stay fresh for four months, if you don’t eat them all first. However, it’s easier to cook first then freeze. Once cooked and cooled, put the cookies on a lined plate or cookie sheet and freeze for at least one hour. Once they’re frozen, you can move them to a freezer-safe bag, stacked or layered, and freeze for four to six months.
How long will these cookies stay fresh?
When stored in an air tight container, they will last about five days – they are best when eaten within a day or two. This cookie jar is amazing for keeping cookies tasting fresh!
Can I halve this recipe?
You sure can!
What spices are best for pumpkin cookie?
A pumpkin cookie without spice is just an orange cookie.
Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves are the key to success. This recipe has the best proportion for a flavorful, cravable cookie.
Even though I’m confident the spices in this recipe are correct, it’s helpful to taste the dough before baking it, preferably before you add the chocolate chips.
If it’s not yummy then, it won’t be when it’s cooked. The cooking process mutes the spices a tiny bit and also melds them together to be a perfect treat.
I suggest using fresh nutmeg in this recipe, and every recipe when you can. Whole nutmegs can be bought online at Amazon, and at more and more grocery stores.
Use a microplane or zester, and don’t add quite as much fresh nutmeg as is called for in a recipe. It’s more potent and you want to control the level of heat and spice.
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