The BEST Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies [+ Video]

It was hard work but someone had to do it. We searched for the best pumpkin chocolate chip cookies recipe and today we are sharing it with all of you!!

Why are pumpkin chocolate chip cookies so popular? Even if you don’t like them, you probably know someone who can’t get enough of these festive cookies. We are going to walk you through the steps for making them.

These pumpkin cookies thick and chewy, loaded with chocolate chips and perfectly spiced with those fall flavors we love!

Creating This Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

You know where this all started for us, don’t you? The grocery store. It’s not very often that I buy cookies at the grocery store because:

1. We enjoy making cookies together.
2. We love cookie dough (don’t you dare pull the egg thing on me. I know, I know).
3. I happen to think we make really good cookies, so why buy them?

None of that matters when it comes to pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. We tried so many recipes and just didn’t love them so we kept buying the big, pillowy cookies on a tray from the store. Until last year. Last year everything changed. We discovered the most melt in your mouth pumpkin cookie recipe EVER.

You see, Pinterest was bonkers about pumpkin last year. I’d say it was one of the biggest pumpkin years ever, and with all of the pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipes we just had to start testing them all. And you know what, it was the one that was plastered all over Pinterest we liked the least. 

We discovered that often those really high cookies were either too dense and soggy or 90% of the time way too dry. So scratch that. We needed pillowy but height was no longer a concern.

Too little or too much pumpkin led to flavorless or eating squash tasting cookies. We found that 1 cup was the perfect amount. Recipes that were doubled or even tripled didn’t come out as well so we stuck to our 3 dozen batch.

It took some time and patience, but now that we’ve discovered the secret to making truly phenomenal pumpkin cookies with gooey chocolate chips, we’ll never go back to the store-bought kind. 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies Ingredients

The ingredients for these pumpkin cookies are nothing out of the ordinary, but the amount of certain ingredients is what makes these cookies so addicting. For these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies you’ll need:

• Oil: vegetable oil works great
• Granulated Sugar: adds sweetness
• Brown Sugar: adds sweetness and rich flavor
• Pumpkin Puree: make sure you get pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling
• Egg: adds structure to the cookies and binds everything together
• Vanilla Extract: adds flavor
• Flour: just regular all-purpose flour is all you need
• Baking Powder: acts as a leavening agent to give the cookies rise
• Baking Soda: acts as a leavening agent to give the cookies rise
• Salt: balances and enhances all the flavors
• Pumpkin Pie Spice: a combination of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves
• Chocolate Chips: We like the flavor of semisweet chocolate chips in these, but you could use milk chocolate or even white chocolate if you want!

See? Nothing fancy here. We didn’t want to think too far outside the box for this cookie recipe since we wanted to stay true to the classic flavor and texture we love. 

All the measurements can be found in the recipe card at the end of the this post.

Variations

If you want to change things up with this recipe, you can take out the chocolate chips and replace them with chopped pecans, walnuts or raisins. Another delicious option would be to top them with cream cheese frosting! Yum!

How to Make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you’ve made classic chocolate chip cookies before, you can certainly handle this pumpkin version! Here’s how to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies: 

1. Prep: Preheat the oven and line a baking sheet with a silpat or parchment paper.
2. Wet Ingredients: Start by creaming together the oil and sugars in a large bowl, then add the remaining wet ingredients and mix until combined.
3. Dry Ingredients: Add all the dry ingredients to a separate bowl and add the chocolate chips and fold them in until they are coated in the dry ingredients. Then combine the dry ingredients and wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
4. Scoop: Using a cookie scoop, scoop the cookie dough onto the prepared cookie sheet.
5. Bake: Bake until the edges are set and the tops look firm. Allow the cookies to cool on a wire rack.

The complete instructions can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post.

How to Make Gluten and Dairy Free

We had a reader reach out to us with some tips on making this recipe gluten free and dairy free that we wanted to share with you. The butter was replaced with fake butter, Bob’s 1 to 1 Gluten Free Baking Flour was a substitute for the regular flour, replace the baking powder with baking soda and vinegar, and swap the chocolate chips for dairy free chocolate chips. The reader said you couldn’t taste the difference at all!

Why You Will Love This Cookie Recipe

Easy: My 8yo has been making these this fall. They are that easy!

Pantry Ingredients: All the ingredients are likely items that you’ll have in the pantry or fridge already.

Texture: These cookies are thick, cakey, and so soft with the perfect amount of crumble. You will love the chewiness!

Flavor: The pumpkin with the perfect amount of warm spices creates the best flavor in these cookies.

Tips for Making Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

To ensure the chocolate chips get evenly distributed throughout the cookie dough, we tossed them with the dry ingredients before mixing them into the wet dough. Coating the chocolate chips in the flour mixture prevents them from sinking to the bottom of the dough and makes for a prettier cookie! 

You can use any chocolate chips you’d like in these pumpkin cookies, but MINI chocolate chips work the best. Semi-sweet chocolate chips pair nicely with the sweet cookie dough and warm spices, but milk or even white chocolate chips would work here too. 

Lastly, make sure you’re using pure pumpkin puree and not canned pumpkin pie filling in these cookies! Pumpkin pie filling is pre-sweetened and would make these cookies far too sweet. 

How to Store Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

These pillowy, cakey cookies can be stored for 2-3 days in at room temperature in an airtight container. Pumpkin cookies are very soft and cake like, so when storing you’ll want to place them in an even layer at the bottom of a large cake pan or tupperware. Place a sheet of parchment on top, add more cookies and then cover with plastic wrap. 

You can also wrap them up and freeze them for later. When you’re ready to enjoy a frozen cookie, either reheat it in the oven or microwave. 

How to Freeze Cookie Dough

You can safely freeze cookie dough for up to 3 months. Honestly, ours has never kept that long. Because once you know you have cookie dough you can pull out and bake quickly, there’s no stopping late night cookie cravings. Just make sure to freeze the cookie dough after you’ve rolled it into balls, because it’s impossible to scoop it into balls once frozen. 

After testing and testing different recipes and ingredient ratios, we have created the best pumpkin chocolate chip cookies! Celebrate the arrival of fall with these thick and chewy pumpkin cookies with mini chocolate chips!

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Watch How to Make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies