It wasn’t until the summer breeze had gone and the first leaf had turned that I realized it was time for a pumpkin cookie recipe.
Imagine sitting in the backyard with your friends, holding a cup of hot chocolate in the fall twilight. What’s better than a scrumptious plate full of soft, warm pumpkin cookies to go with it?
Eating cookies when they’re still warm makes them extra delightful: a little crunchy with an exquisite pumpkin flavor, and the perfect amount of sweetness. With their salty taste and melted chocolate, these cookies are a must for fall— give them a try before the season passes by!
An Easy Recipe for Healthy Pumpkin Cookies
The traditional pumpkin cookie is often deemed unhealthy, high in calories and fat. Not to worry! We have a healthier and even simpler version for you.
Let me show you how simple this recipe is. All you need is a bowl and four essential ingredients: pumpkin puree, quick oats, peanut butter, and maple syrup. If you don’t have every single ingredient, this recipe is very forgiving. You can tweak dark chocolate with other ingredients like walnuts or almonds to make it work for you.
You may wonder why I use maple syrup instead of the usual white granulated sugar, let me tell you. Maple syrup is less processed, has a richer flavor and more pleasant sweetness. It is also healthier for you even though it’s three times as sweet, it comes with fewer calories.
Can Pumpkin Cookies Be Chewy?
From my experience, most store-bought pumpkin cookies either have a tough texture or taste like soft pumpkin cake. How to make pumpkin cookies with crisp-edges and chewy-centers has haunted me for years.
By making small changes in the ingredients and playing around a bit, I discovered that pumpkin can replace eggs! Using pumpkin puree instead of eggs gave the cookies a soft and chewy texture while adding more pumpkin flavor. Interestingly, it helps transform the original recipe into a vegan one.
Pumpkin Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 2 cups quick oats
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- ½ cup peanut butter
- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1 oz dark chocolate or white chocolate optional
Follow Healthy Kitchen 101 on Pinterest
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Combine quick oats and pumpkin puree in a large bowl.
- Pour in peanut butter and syrup. If you like, you can add a little kosher sea salt to balance the sweetness.
- Mix all the ingredients together to form a thick batter. Because there is no egg in this recipe, the mixture will be sticky like free-form cookies.
- Line a rimmed baking sheet with a silicone mat, parchment paper or spray it with cooking spray.
- Scoop out a tablespoon of cookie mix, then, using your hands, form it into a cookie shape. Place on the baking sheet. Repeat until you have 18 lovely cookies.
- If the stickiness of the batter bugs you, pop the mixture in the fridge for 10 minutes before shaping the cookies. This helps your cookies firmer.
- Put them into the preheated oven and bake for 12 minutes until slightly brown.
- Optional: You can use melted dark chocolate, drizzle over to decorate your cookies.
Notes
You can grind quick oats because they absorb the liquid and soften quicker. It means these pumpkin cookies can be cooked faster, have softer oats and have a nicer shape.
From my own baking experience, the baking time is crucial. Over-baked cookies will lose their moist texture, so in this case, you should test 1-2 cookies to find the perfect timing for you. I suggest underbaking a bit to keep the pumpkin cookies soft and able to melt in your mouth.
Let cookies cool completely before transferring into an airtight container. They can be stored in the fridge up to a week.
Nutrition Info
Rosie
September 9, 2019 at 2:52 amAmazing