The Best Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe Ever

These pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are genuinely my pride and joy. I’ve been making some version of this recipe for more than 10 years, tweaking it along the way until I landed on the soft, chewy pumpkin cookie my family now expects every fall.

And when I say they disappear in my house, I mean they disappear. I make a huge batch and somehow we’re still looking for more a few days later.

These aren’t crisp chocolate chip cookies with a little pumpkin added. They’re thick, soft and almost cake-like in the best way, with pumpkin, warm cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice, and plenty of chocolate chips in every bite.

They’re one of my favorite recipes to make once baking season starts and they’re perfect for fall get-togethers, Thanksgiving dessert, neighbor gifts or holiday cookie trays. If you’re building a cookie tray, add my [soft and chewy snickerdoodle cookies] too.

And yes, this recipe makes a BIG batch. It uses the entire can of pumpkin because I refuse to create a recipe that leaves me staring at half a can wondering what I’m supposed to do with it. 😂 Make the cookies. Share some. Keep more than you planned to for yourself.

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Why You’ll Love These Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

• Soft and chewy. Pumpkin gives these cookies an incredibly soft texture that stays good for days.
• One whole can of pumpkin. No random half-used can going into the refrigerator and being forgotten.
• A true big-batch recipe. This is the recipe to make when you’re baking for family, friends, a party or the holidays.
• You control the pumpkin spice. I originally made these mostly with cinnamon, but my pumpkin-spice-loving husband wanted MORE. Now I add pumpkin pie spice too, and you can easily adjust it depending on how strongly you want those fall flavors to come through.
• They’ve been tested for years. I’ve been making and tweaking these cookies for more than a decade. This isn’t a recipe I made once for the blog — it’s one we actually eat.

Ingredients That Matter

As Papa John’s says, better ingredients… better cookies. Or something like that 🙂 This is true for everything in life, and when you want your cookies to be the star of the show, you are going to get the best ingredients available to you. These are key to a great cookie, so make sure you get the ones that fit your taste.

Pumpkin Puree

Use pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling. Pumpkin pie filling already contains added sugar and spices, so it isn’t interchangeable here.

Grab a 15-ounce can of pumpkin puree. I specifically made this a double batch because what am I going to do with half a can of pumpkin? Wrap it up, put it in the fridge for a few weeks and eventually throw it away?

Yes, I’ve done that. 😂 Then I remembered I’m a fully grown adult and I can double the batch of cookies if I want to.

Pumpkin Pie Spice

For years, I made these primarily with cinnamon. My husband — who is a HUGE pumpkin spice person — kept telling me they weren’t “pumpkin spicy” enough. 😂 I eventually added pumpkin pie spice, and he was right. It gives them that extra fall flavor without changing what I already loved about the cookies. So if you are a pumpkin spice lover, spice it up. If you don’t like that nutmeg flavor, then you can just stick with the cinnamon. Or try it both ways and see which you prefer.

Chocolate Chips

You can play around with the chocolate here. I’ve used chunks, semi-sweet chips, extra-large chips, minis and combinations of all of them. As long as there’s chocolate involved, we’re going to be okay.

I’m also a firm believer that chocolate chips should be measured with your heart and your eyes. My chocolate-to-cookie ratio is admittedly skewed toward chocolate. If you want just a little, add a little. As for me and my house, we will use multiple bags. 😂

What Makes Pumpkin Cookies Different?

Pumpkin adds a lot of moisture to cookie dough, which is why pumpkin cookies tend to be softer and more cake-like than traditional chocolate chip cookies. That’s exactly what I want from this recipe.

The finished cookies should be soft in the center rather than crisp. Don’t keep baking them because you’re waiting for them to look like a traditional chocolate chip cookie — you’ll lose some of that texture that makes them so good.

My Tips After 10+ Years of Making Them

Mix the Wet and Dry Ingredients Separately

Sometimes I’m a throw-everything-in-the-mixer kind of baker. Not with these. I mix the wet ingredients in my KitchenAid and whisk the dry ingredients together separately before combining them. I find this distributes the cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder and salt much more evenly throughout such a big batch.

Cookie Size Is Up to You

The first time I made these cookies years and years ago, I didn’t own a cookie scoop. I had a muffin scoop — so naturally I used that. The cookies were HUGE. Basically Crumbl cookies before Crumbl cookies were a thing. 😂 My husband took some hunting in a Ziploc bag, they all got squished together, and somehow they turned into what we started calling “hobbit bread.” These days I usually use a regular cookie scoop, but you can absolutely make them giant. Just remember that larger cookies may need additional baking time.

Don’t Overbake Them

You want them cooked, but not overcooked. Which sounds ridiculously obvious — very “David, you just fold it in.” You should know. 😂

But seriously: start checking them at the shortest baking time. I usually bake them at 350°F for 10–12 minutes and want the centers to still look slightly gooey when I pull them out. Let them sit on the hot baking sheet for a few minutes before moving them to a cooling rack. They’ll continue to set without losing that soft, squishy texture we’re after.

Tools I Use to Make These Cookies

You don’t need a kitchen full of special equipment to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, but there are a few things I use every time:

Stand mixer: With a batch this large, my KitchenAid gets put to work. I now own two — including the beautiful forest green one my husband bought me — and this is one kitchen appliance I genuinely think you’ll use for years.

Cookie scoop: One of those inexpensive kitchen tools that makes baking SO much easier. It keeps the cookies fairly uniform so they bake evenly and makes portioning a huge batch much faster.

Silicone baking mats: You can absolutely use parchment paper instead, but I love silicone mats because they’re reusable, easy to clean and nothing sticks.

How to Store Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Store the cookies in an airtight container or Ziploc bag. With a batch this big, I usually make little trays for neighbors, friends or family too. Giving some away keeps us from eating all 70 ourselves and spreads a little happiness, so win-win.

My daughters specifically ask for these year-round. They call them the “squishy pumpkin cookies.” 😂

In our house, they rarely make it past a week — mostly because everyone eats them.

FAQ

Can I use pumpkin pie filling instead of pumpkin puree?

No — use plain pumpkin puree. The pumpkin pie filling has added seasonings and sugar. We want to start with a plain base.

Why are my pumpkin cookies soft instead of crispy?

The pumpkin puree is what makes these cookies so soft. It is almost like a little piece of pumpkin bread that is bite-sized, and you don’t have to cut 🙂

Can I make these with less pumpkin spice?

Absolutely. I originally made these with cinnamon only. The pumpkin pie spice was added later for my pumpkin-spice-loving husband. 😂 Use all 3 teaspoons, use less, or leave it out and stick with cinnamon. Adjusting the spice level won’t ruin the cookies.

How many cookies does this recipe make?

A regular cookie scoop gives me roughly 70 cookies from one batch. If you go old-school Jules and make the giant “hobbit bread” version, expect closer to 35 large cookies, depending on the size of your scoop.

Keep On Baking

If you want to try some other delicious baking recipes, check out some of my other favorites:

• Sourdough Discard Banana Bread Recipe
• Soft & Chewy Oatmeal Cookies Recipe
• Peanut Butter Blossoms with Mini Eggs Recipe
• The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe