Pumpkin oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are soft, chewy, and deliciously spiced.
With the start of fall we welcome new routines, cooler temperatures, and the fall baking season—the best baking season! We’re talking cozy fall spices, pumpkin treats, decadent desserts, and pies galore. I always like to kick off the fall baking season with cookies—we’ve done pumpkin snickerdoodles and brown butter pumpkin oatmeal cookies, but let’s get back to basics.
These are pumpkin oatmeal chocolate chip cookies in all their soft, chewy, deliciously comforting, pumpkin spice glory. Like chocolate chip cookies and pumpkin pie in one. Fall doesn’t *truly* begin until we crack open that first can of pumpkin, so let’s get started!
These Chewy Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies Are:
- Extra chewy
- Soft-baked
- Quick & easy like these pumpkin donuts
- Perfectly pumpkin spiced (you can use homemade pumpkin pie spice here!)
- A no chill cookies recipe, just like shortbread cookies, snickerdoodles, and giant chocolate chip cookies.
Tricks to Chewy Pumpkin Cookies
These aren’t your average cakey and crumbly pumpkin cookies. My pumpkin oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are seriously CHEWY. After lots of recipe testing, here are 3 tricks to guarantee dense and chewy pumpkin oatmeal cookies.
1. The Egg Trick
We’ve explored chewy pumpkin cookies at length before. Back in 2013, I discovered that pumpkin can replace eggs in cookies. (See my pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.) This was a game changer for me! When both are used in cookie recipes, the resulting cookie is more cakey and less dense/chewy. By the way, for a cakey cookie, see my soft pumpkin cookies.
Things were a different story when I threw oats into the cookie dough. Testing pumpkin oatmeal cookies proved that an egg—or at least part of an egg—is necessary. Why? Without an egg, they are a little dry and crumbly because of all the oats. So in my pumpkin oatmeal cookies, I add an egg yolk. That little extra fat is perfection and the cookies remain remarkably soft and chewy. Same applies when making these pumpkin oatmeal cream pies.
2. Use Melted Butter
For chewy cookies, melted butter wins.
3. Blot the Pumpkin
Here’s another chewy pumpkin cookie secret. Blot your pumpkin. You see, pumpkin puree is extremely wet and extra moisture in cookie dough results in cakey cookies that spread too much. Take the 15 seconds to blot it before using. Simply measure your pumpkin puree, then squeeze out some moisture with a paper towel.
See a side-by-side cookie comparison of blotted/non-blotted pumpkin cookies in my recipe for pumpkin oatmeal cookies.
A little something extra: Add some maple syrup. I made pumpkin oatmeal cookies a few years ago and used molasses. Delicious, wonderful, superb! But maple syrup tastes even better and it doesn’t take away from the pumpkin flavor.
Baker’s tip: I suggest using a cookie scoop. I always use a cookie scoop when I make oatmeal cookies. Once you scoop each, slightly flatten them down. The cookies don’t spread *too much* but they will spread a little if you flatten it out first. Just like this:
Customize These Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies!
Want to change things up? Instead of chocolate chips, you can use white chocolate chips, cinnamon chips, chopped pecans, dried cranberries, or be a total rebel and leave the pumpkin oatmeal cookies plain. There’s enough pumpkin spice (!!!) in each cookie that you don’t even need add-ins.
But those melty chocolate chips when the cookies are fresh out of the oven? I strongly encourage you to experience that magic firsthand. HAPPY FALL!!!
Chewy Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 13 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 30 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Pumpkin oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are super soft and CHEWY. These cookies will be your new favorite fall dessert!
Ingredients
- 2 cups + 1 Tablespoon (258g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons store-bought or homemade pumpkin pie spice*
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 and 1/2 cups (128g) old-fashioned whole rolled oats
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 3 Tablespoons (45ml) pure maple syrup
- 3/4 cup (150g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 3/4 cup (170g) pumpkin puree (see note)
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 and 1/2 cups (270g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and oats together in a large bowl. Set aside.
- Whisk the melted butter, maple syrup, brown sugar, granulated sugar, egg yolk, blotted pumpkin, and vanilla extract together until combined. Pour into dry ingredients and mix everything together until completely combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Scoop cookie dough, about 1.5 Tablespoons of dough per cookie, and place 3 inches apart on the baking sheets. Flatten slightly. Bake for 13-14 minutes or until lightly browned on the sides. The centers will look very soft.
- Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. While the cookies are still warm, I like to press a few more chocolate chips into the tops—this is only for looks!
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week. You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Allow to come to room temperature then continue with step 4. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Rubber Spatula | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- Pumpkin Pie Spice: You can find pumpkin pie spice in the baking aisle of most grocery stores or make your own homemade pumpkin pie spice. If you don’t have either and want to use individual spices, use 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger + 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg + 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice + 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves + (an extra) 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon. This is in addition to the 2 teaspoons of cinnamon—you will still add that.
- Pumpkin: Squeeze as much of the moisture out of the pumpkin puree as you can before adding it to the cookie dough. I simply squeeze the puree with paper towels. See photo in the post for a visual. This will help produce a less cakey cookie. Less moisture is a good thing in these cookies!
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
For the pumpkin purée, how much should you start out with before blotting to get 170g? Or do you start with 170g, then drain/blot (and if so how much should one end up with?)
Hi Kris, for this recipe, measure out the pumpkin first and then blot. Hope you enjoy the cookies!
You’re amazing. Every recipe, every time!
This is my new favorite pumpkin chocolate chip cookie. They’re sweet, but not overly so, and the oatmeal adds a wonderful chewy texture that you don’t usually get with normal pumpkin cookies. Highly suggest!
I can not find pureed pumpkin anywhere. Is there substitute for puréed pumpkin?
Hi Anne, depending on where you live, it may not be available. Here in the U.S. it’s sold in the baking aisle of most grocery stores. If you can’t find canned pumpkin, I would recommend making a recipe that doesn’t require it, such as these chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Hope this helps!
If you’re in Australia, you can buy the Libby’s brand on Amazon 🙂
Loved this pumpkin, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I used King Arthur keto flour, and added walnuts to the mix. Baked it for 15 min. It was so good! I will make this again.
These cookies are delicious and will be added into my favorites for fall.
I have been in the mood to make *autumnal* cookies and came across this recipe after seeing Sally’s Recipes over the years and decided to try! So glad I did! Despite the amount of cinnamon, all of the flavors came together beautifully. I didn’t have enough chocolate chips so I used raisins for the final .5 cup. They’re not too sweet, soft but not too chewy and pumpkin-y but not overpowered by pumpkin. These feel like cookies where you want pumpkin in your sweets, but not the only flavor to be pumpkin like a lot of recipes are. My whole family liked it! Definitely recommend!
Thanks to the other reviewers for the coffee filter trick to squeeze out the moisture from the pumpkin! I split my bath and did half with chocolate chips and pecans and half with golden raisins and pecans. I actually liked the raisin version better and my husband who was quite skeptical loved them too! I think the pumpkin flavors worked better in that version. Save the chocolate chips for peanut butter oatmeal cookies!
Great recipe! I think next time I will brown the butter. Coconut flakes or raisins are great additions. (I know coconut flakes sounds weird with pumpkin, but trust me, it’s good) Was a hit at thanksgiving!
Just made my first batch of thse – the second batch is in the oven – but they are delicious! I followed the recipe very closely with only a couple hiccups – I only had 1/8 cup of regular sugar so I subbed the rest with light brown sugar. And I also almost forgot to add the egg yolk entirely – I had to mix it in after I’d already added and mixed the chocolate chips. But it still turned out delicious! Not a ton of spread (possibly due to my hiccups) but chewy and delicious. 🙂 If I had to offer any feedback, the pumpkin flavor is really subtle, so I think they could be good if the pumpkin flavor was increased.
Thanks for the great recipe! I’ll be sharing these with my neighbors. 🙂
I made these and they turned out amazing, thanks Sally!
Bought quick steel-cut oats because that was all they had. I think it made the cookies a little drier than intended but OMG they are SO good.
This was such a great recipe! I decided to add 1/4 cup of chia seeds for a little crunch and fiber, and it turned out great!
This was such a great recipe! I decided to add 1/4 cup of chia seeds for a little crunch and fiber, and it turned out great! Thinking I will try some apple sauce instead of butter next time I make these to add some more fruit in there!
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I follow this recipe, but just changed the amount of sugar.
I was really looking forward to a chewy cookie, but mine were not chewy. I made sure to blot out the pumpkin purée, so I’m not sure where I went wrong? Do you think I overmixed the batter? They were still good, but not expecting the texture that I would like, they were more cakey and I didn’t really taste of pumpkin as much as I would like.
Hi Sarah, I recommend following the recipe for best results. Sugar not only sweetens baked goods, it also helps the cookies spread which helps them develop a chewier texture after cooling. Over-mixing wouldn’t be the culprit here. For more pumpkin flavor, I don’t recommend increasing the pumpkin because that will bring out the cakey texture even more. You can certainly add more spice flavor though, which would help bring out that pumpkin flavor a bit more.
Could these be pan cookies? Need to take a breakfast treat to a meeting, so think they’d be great bars.
Hi Patti, you definitely can. Use a 9×13 inch baking pan for cookie bars. We’re unsure of the best bake time though. Hope they’re a hit!
Can you make these with quick oats?
Hi Johanna, that would work in a pinch, but quick oats are thinner and much more powdery, so your cookies will be a bit dry. We highly recommend making them with whole rolled old fashioned oats if you can.
Thank you. I will use whole oats.
Any way to decrease butter? I’m trying to make cholesterol friendly cookies for my hubby. Would subbing in apple sauce change the texture or taste too much? Any recommendations?
Hi Michelle! We would love to help but don’t have a lot of experience with subbing out butter in recipes. These healthier pumpkin chocolate chip oatmeal bars are a favorite if you’re interested 🙂
I always sun out butter with apple sauce and it works perfectly.
These are fantastic. My boys enjoyed helping me make them, and the whole family loves them. Thank you!
Made this for the first time today. And as usual, it was amazing. Sally, your recipes never disappoint.
These pumpkin cookies are so Yummy. Not hard to make, and I was thinking of putting a pumpkin cream cheese glaze drizzled on top.Thank you for your awesome recipes.
This is one of the best recipes I’ve ever made! I love the soft, chewy texture; and the taste of the pumpkin was a perfect balance with the chocolate. I usually don’t like cookies too sweet so I cut 20% of the brown sugar and it still had a nice spread. LOVE this recipe! Thank you!!!
These are the best cookies that I have ever made with pumpkin. I made a second batch and used golden raisins instead of chocolate chips! I don’t imagine these cookies will last very long either! Absolutely perfect recipe.
I used a medium size strainer and a paper towel folded in half to “blot the pumpkin” There is a lot of liquid in pumpkin, more than I thought! The cookies turned out perfect.
Can’t wait to bake again with all your cookie recipes! I can say that I am a huge fan and hooked for sure!
I only have fresh pumpkin that has been pureed. Will that work ?
Hi Annette, While canned is definitely best here, homemade puree works as well– make sure you blot out a lot of moisture before adding to the cookie dough Enjoy!
I made one batch and it was sooooo good that I used the rest of the pumpkin for a second batch…that one I mixed 1/2 butterscotch and 1/2 choc. chips. This recipe is an absolute winner!!!! I have enough cookies to share or not!
Very tasty cookies! Mine are not as chewy tasty or looking…. followed recipe exactly. Is it possible to over blot the pumpkin? Ooops! cuz I may have…
I made these with butterscotch chips and it really complimented the other flavors. I’d highly recommend that addition!!
These are literally the best cookies I’ve ever made! I made them twice now, once as traditional cookies and once as cookie bars (king arthur flour has a good article on how to convert a cookie recipe to cookie bars) and it was amazing both times. I was a little heavy handed with the cinnamon and other spices and it didn’t feel like too much. From now on I will baking these frequently from september 1st through november 30th (and probably the rest of the year too).