I Baked 6 Famous Pumpkin Cookie Recipes and Found the Clear Winner I’ll Be Making All Fall (“They’re That Good!”)

When summer’s heat starts to soften into the milder days of fall, many of us do a quick about-face from the watermelon and tomatoes that might technically still be in season to the cozy autumnal delights of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and pumpkin. That’s right — it’s pumpkin spice season. While you can get your fix with a warm beverage (we’ve got the perfect pumpkin spice latte recipe), perhaps an even tastier way to enjoy these flavors is in a pumpkin cookie. 

Recipes for pumpkin cookies tend to fall into one of two camps: cakey or chewy. For this recipe showdown, I tested six popular recipes, which included three cakey recipes and three chewy ones. They all offered something sweet for any pumpkin-lover, but one recipe set it itself apart as the champion. Read on to find out the recipe that took top honors.

We searched the internet to uncover some of the most loved and highly rated pumpkin cookie recipes. The recipes all have a few common features: They all include canned pumpkin (in varying amounts) and either pumpkin pie spice or some of the individual spices that make up that blend (such as cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger). Four of the recipes use a combination of brown and granulated sugar, but one uses granulated only and two use brown sugar exclusively. And the six recipes are split evenly between two styles: cakey and chewy. 

• Sally’s Baking Recipes: This recipe falls squarely in the cakey cookie camp. It uses the largest amount of canned pumpkin (almost a full can!), and includes dark brown sugar, granulated sugar, a hint of maple syrup, and an optional cream cheese icing (which I made).
• Pioneer Woman: Also on team cakey cookie, this recipe skips brown sugar and relies on granulated only. It, too, includes icing — a mixture of powdered sugar, pumpkin purée, pumpkin pie spice, and water.
• Samantha Seneviratne: Described as “portable cakes,” these soft cookies are loaded with spices, sweetened with brown sugar exclusively, and sprinkled with coarse sanding sugar before baking.
• Butternut Bakery: These chewy cookies start with a good amount of browned butter and are sweetened with dark brown sugar and maple syrup (there’s no granulated sugar). The dough is portioned and tossed in cinnamon sugar before baking (à la classic snickerdoodles).
• Grandbaby Cakes: These chewy cookies use a combination of granulated and brown sugars in a 1:3 ratio and add in lots of chocolate and butterscotch chips before baking. 
• Justine Snacks: This recipe incorporates cornstarch, a quarter-cup of pumpkin (the least of any of the recipes), a combo of brown and granulated sugars, and chocolate chips with the promise of delivering a crisp outside and chewy inside.

• I baked all the recipes on the same day. It took roughly half the day and made for a fun afternoon.
• I used the same brand of common ingredients. These included Libby’s canned pumpkin, Land O’Lakes Butter, King Arthur unbleached all-purpose flour, Vital Farms eggs, and McCormick pumpkin pie spice. 
• I baked on heavy, light-colored aluminum half sheet pans. I lined them with parchment paper for each batch.
• I weighed most of the dry ingredients. For more precision, I consulted our weights chart to measure flour, brown sugar, powdered sugar, and granulated sugar by weight instead of by volume.
• I tasted each cookie twice. Once shortly after the cookies had cooled and again the next day.

I have spent the last 25 years in food media — 20 as a magazine editor, five as a freelance recipe developer and food writer. Over the course of my career, I have written, tested, and developed literally thousands of recipes. I know how to evaluate a recipe for flavor, texture, and clarity and success (or failure) of the process.

Overall rating: 6/10

Get the recipe: Samantha Seneviratne’s Pumpkin Cookies 

This recipe calls for a combination of ground ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg instead of store-bought pumpkin pie spice — and a good amount, at four teaspoons total (the most of any recipe). To prepare the dough, you cream softened butter with dark brown sugar, then beat in egg, pumpkin purée, and vanilla before adding the dry ingredients. You scoop the dough by two tablespoonfuls onto a baking sheet and have the option of sprinkling with coarse sanding sugar (which I did) before baking. 

The recipe headnote likens these cookies to “portable cakes,” and that description is 100% spot-on. These were by far the cakiest cookies of the bunch; they actually ate like you punched out little rounds from a sheet cake. The coarse sugar on top offered a welcome textural contrast to the soft, squishy cookies. I did find the spices to be overpowering; they gave the cookies a musty aftertaste. I don’t typically choose cakey cookies over chewy ones, but if cakey is your jam, these cookies will definitely satisfy (just go a little easier on the spice).

Overall rating: 6.5/10

Get the recipe: Pioneer Woman’s Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

This recipe (on the Pioneer Woman website, but attributed to Sloane Layton) is another cakey option, but is finished with a pumpkin icing. The recipe calls for creaming softened butter with granulated sugar only (no brown sugar), then working in pumpkin purée, egg, and vanilla before adding the dry ingredients, which include pumpkin pie spice blend. You chill the dough for a couple of hours, then bake the cookies in two-tablespoon-sized scoops. Once the cookies cool, you spread on an icing made by whisking together powdered sugar, pumpkin purée, pumpkin pie spice, and water. 

The texture of the cookies was quite cakey and soft, yet with a little bit of pleasant crisping on the bottom. The frosting sets nicely, so the cookies are stackable for storage. It did taste very sweet (a pinch of salt could have brought the flavors into balance), as did the cookies themselves. Overall, I missed the richness that some brown sugar would have added, as these cookies seemed one-note sweet and lacked the depth that the other recipes had.

Overall rating: 7/10

Get the recipe: Grandbaby Cakes’ Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe yields chewy rather than cakey cookies. Like the other recipes, it has you creaming together butter and sugar (brown and granulated) with pumpkin purée, then adding eggs and vanilla. The dry ingredients, which use a custom blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger, then go into the dough. Finally, a cup of chocolate chips and a cup of butterscotch chips are added before the dough is chilled for an hour or two (I went with two hours). You’ll shape the dough into tablespoon-sized balls and bake until just done. 

The cookies flattened a bit in the oven (in a good way) and ended up with crispy edges and alluringly chewy centers. The butterscotch and chocolate chips seemed to overwhelm the spices, especially the butterscotch flavor, so that the cookies were on the verge of cloying. If I were to make these again, I’d either decrease the butterscotch chips or omit them altogether.

Overall rating: 8/10

Get the recipe: Justine Snacks’ The Best Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

As with the other recipes, this one starts by creaming together butter and sugar (a mix of granulated and brown), then beating in pumpkin. Interestingly, the recipe does not use any egg, and it calls for the smallest amount of pumpkin purée (just one-quarter cup). You then add the dry ingredients, which include three tablespoons of cornstarch and store-bought pumpkin pie spice, and fold in a cup of chocolate chips. Chill the dough for a half hour before dividing it into eight portions and shaping those into balls for baking. They bake at a high temperature, 400°F, resulting in a crispy exterior and nice browning. 

These cookies are large, hefty, and more dense than the other cookies, but the cornstarch keeps them tender at the same time. They present like a bakery-style chocolate chip cookie and taste mostly like one on the front end, but you get lovely spice notes on the finish of each bite.

Overall rating: 9/10

Get the recipe: Sally’s Baking Recipes’ Super Soft Pumpkin Cookies

As noted above, this recipe uses the largest amount of pumpkin purée by far — a whopping 1 1/2 cups! You drain it to remove some of its moisture, placing it into a paper towel-lined bowl while you start the cookie dough. Cream softened butter with brown and granulated sugar, then beat in egg, maple syrup, vanilla, and the drained pumpkin. The dry ingredients are then incorporated, including pumpkin pie spice. There’s no chilling of this dough; it’s scooped directly onto the pan by 1 1/2 tablespoonfuls. There’s an optional cream cheese icing, which I made and which I strongly recommend. It’s made by beating together softened cream cheese and butter, powdered sugar, maple syrup, and a pinch of cinnamon.

With a cream cheese frosting and a well-balanced amount of warm spices, these delicious cookies give off the best carrot cake vibes (in a good way). The frosting has a bit of tang from the cream cheese, which is a lovely pairing with the earthy-spiced cookies (it does not set up firmly, so the cookies are not stackable for storage). The cookies are cakey in texture, but draining the pumpkin gives them the slightest amount of chew that, in my opinion, is positively dreamy. 

Overall rating: 10/10

Get the recipe: Butternut Bakery’s Brown Butter and Maple Chewy Pumpkin Cookies

This recipe starts differently than all the others because it browns the butter first, cooking it until amber colored and nutty-fragrant. Chill the browned butter briefly, then whisk it with dark brown sugar (no granulated) before whisking in an egg yolk, maple syrup, vanilla, and pumpkin purée. At that point, the dry ingredients (including pumpkin pie spice blend plus added cinnamon) are stirred in. You read that right — you don’t need a mixer for this recipe! You’ll chill the dough for just 20 minutes, then scoop 1/4 cup portions, roll into balls, and toss in a mixture of white and brown sugar plus cinnamon to coat before baking — similar to the process used in making snickerdoodles. 

The resulting cookies are large, flat, slightly crinkly, and absolutely beautiful. The sugar-spice coating makes them very dark, giving them an appearance similar to molasses spice cookies. And the flavor is superb. It’s all nutty, toffee-caramel richness from the browned butter and a good bit of warm spice (but not too much). The texture is fantastically chewy and moist within, complete with irresistible crispy edges. Admittedly, the pumpkin flavor is faint, but it’s there in the background. My family went nuts for these cookies, and no one backed down from fighting over the last one, which we were forced to split four ways. I will absolutely make these cookies again and plan to include them in my annual Christmas cookie box. Trust me — they’re that good!