Description
Rich, chewy pumpkin cookies made with browned butter, pure maple syrup, and warm pumpkin spice. These cookies have the perfect texture – not cakey, but beautifully chewy with deep caramel notes from the browned butter.
Ingredients
Scale
Dry Ingredients:
- 2¼ cups all-purpose flour (270g)
- 2 tsp pumpkin spice blend (or chai spice – my personal favorite!)
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
Wet Ingredients:
- 1 cup European-style unsalted butter, browned (cooled but still liquid)
- 1 cup light brown sugar (200g)
- â…“ cup pure maple syrup
- 1 large egg yolk (no whole eggs – this is key!)
- ½ cup canned pumpkin puree, blotted dry
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp maple extract (optional, but oh-so-worth it!)
For Rolling:
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ tsp pumpkin spice (or chai spice)
Instructions
- Brown the Butter – Melt your butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Keep stirring it around until it starts smelling nutty and you see little brown bits at the bottom. Don’t walk away from it because it goes from perfect to burned really fast – ask me how I know. Let it cool down for about 15 minutes, then just leave it sitting on the counter for an hour.
- Blot the Pumpkin – This is the most boring step but super important. Spread the pumpkin puree on paper towels and press out as much liquid as possible. I go through like 4 paper towels squeezing and pressing. My husband thinks I’m crazy, but it’s the difference between good cookies and great cookies.
- Mix Dry Stuff – Whisk the flour, spices, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl. Nothing exciting here.
- Mix Wet Stuff – In your biggest bowl, stir together the cooled butter, brown sugar, and maple syrup. Then add the egg yolk, your super-dry pumpkin, vanilla, and maple extract if you’re using it. Mix until everything looks combined.
- Put It Together – Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and stir just until you can’t see any dry flour. Don’t overmix it or the cookies will be tough.
- Wait Forever – Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge overnight. I know this is torture, but it’s what makes them chewy. I usually make the dough after dinner and bake them the next morning while drinking my coffee.
- Shape and Bake – Take the dough out 30 minutes before you want to bake so it’s not rock hard. Heat your oven to 350°F. Mix the sugar and spice for rolling. Scoop about 2 tablespoons of dough, roll into balls, and roll them in the sugar mixture.
- Bake Them – 12 to 14 minutes total. At 10 minutes, check them. If they look really puffy, give the pan a gentle tap on the counter to flatten them out, then put them back in for the last few minutes.
- Cool – Let them sit on the pan for about 5 minutes before moving them. They’ll look a little underbaked in the middle, but they’ll finish cooking on the hot pan.
Notes
Buy European butter – it has less water than regular butter, which means better texture
The tap trick – when your cookies look too puffy at 10 minutes, a gentle tap helps them settle into perfect chewy cookies
Room temperature dough – let that chilled dough warm up for 30 minutes or you’ll break your cookie scoop trying to portion it
Cookie scoop investment – I use a medium cookie scoop for perfectly sized cookies every time
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Dessert, Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 185 per cookie
- Sugar: 12g
- Sodium: 85mg
- Fat: 8g
- Saturated Fat: 5g
- Unsaturated Fat: 3g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 28g
- Fiber: 1g
- Protein: 3g
- Cholesterol: 25mg