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Welcome in autumn with a batch of these soft, cakey pumpkin cookies! They’re a true indulgence, with notes of actual pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, and maple syrup, not to mention the sweet maple glaze that elevates them to a whole ‘nother level. Plus, they’re gluten free, dairy free, and refined sugar free, and they’re even easy to make without eggs if needed.
Before You Get Started
- Make sure you pick up a can of pumpkin purée, NOT pumpkin pie filling! Pumpkin pie filling is intended to go right into a pie shell, so it already has spices and sweetener added. Pumpkin purée, or “100% Pure Pumpkin”, is exactly that – nothing but pumpkin.
- Have your baking powder and baking soda been sitting in the back of your pantry for a while? If so, toss them and get new ones. Over time, they lose their potency and become less effective. Using old baking powder and old baking soda can keep your cookies from rising, making them flat and dense instead of light and fluffy.
How to Make This Recipe
See recipe card below for full list of measurements, ingredients, and instructions.
Make the Cookie Dough.
Add all of your ingredients to a bowl and mix them until they’re fully combined into a smooth dough. You can use a hand mixer, a stand mixer, or a tried-and-true bowl and spatula. Personally, I don’t bother dragging out my stand mixer for this recipe. It’s not a particularly dense mixture so a silicone spatula works well for me.
Form the Individual Cookies.
A spoon will work just fine, but I highly recommend using a cookie scoop if you have one. The release handle just makes portioning out the cookie dough so much faster and easier!
Note: The number of cookies you get out of one batch depends on the size of your scoops! Smaller scoops = more cookies, larger scoops = fewer cookies.
Bake the Cookies.
These pumpkin cookies are intended to be soft and sort of cake-like, not thin or crisp or crunchy. Don’t overbake them! Watch for the edges to become firm and dry. That’s your sign to take them out of the oven. For me, that only took 14 minutes or so, but your oven may need more or less time.
Glaze the Cookies.
The maple glaze puts the cookies over the top, but it comes with a warning. Don’t glaze the cookies too early! The already-soft cookies will get soggy if they sit for a while with the glaze on top. To avoid that, glaze them right before you serve them.
What I Love About This Recipe
- The texture! These pumpkin cookies are decadently soft and fluffy, sort of like pumpkin muffies from Panera. In fact, a light dusting of powdered sugar on top of the baked cookies would make them even more like muffies, and would look lovely, too!
- This is a super easy recipe, even if you’re not really much of a baker. No tricky steps, no complicated process. Just mix, scoop, and bake.
- It might be a little cliché to say this, but… they really do taste like autumn. Real pumpkin purée. The perfect amount of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice. Notes of vanilla and maple. Everything balanced and nothing overpowering. One bite and you can practically feel the “basic” entering your soul.
Recipe Variations
- Try Different Flours: Different gluten-free flours behave differently, so don’t be afraid to test different brands, types, and blends to find your perfect cookie flour. For these cookies, I ended up using a blend of ½ cup almond meal + ¼ cup ground oats + ¼ cup brown rice flour + ¼ cup chickpea flour.
- Make it Egg Free: Combine 1 ½ tablespoons chia seeds with 1 tablespoon warm water, then set them aside for 5 minutes or so, until the mixture gels. Add the chia seed mixture to the other ingredients in place of the egg and mix until incorporated.
- Add Some Mix-Ins: Dark and milk chocolate chips are GREAT in pumpkin recipes, and these cookies are no exception. Chopped pecans or walnuts would also be delicious. Whatever you decide to mix-in, just make sure it’s all mixed well so you get a little bit of everything in each individual cookie!
Making changes to a recipe can result in recipe failure. Any substitutions or variations listed are simple changes that I believe will work in this recipe, but results are not guaranteed.
Healthier Pumpkin Cookies with a Maple Glaze
Equipment
- Oven
- Cooking spray
- large baking sheet
- large mixing bowl
- Large wooden spoon or silicone spatula, stand mixer, or hand mixer
- Cookie scoop with release handle
- Spatula
- wire cooling rack
- Small saucepan
- whisk
Ingredients
For the Pumpkin Cookies
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 1 ½ cups gluten-free flour see Notes
- ½ teaspoon fresh baking powder
- ½ teaspoon fresh baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons pumpkin spice homemade or make your own
- ¼ teaspoon salt more or less to taste
- ½ cup pumpkin purée not pumpkin pie filling
- 1 medium banana ripe, mashed
- ⅓ cup pure maple syrup
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
For the Maple Glaze
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch or 2 teaspoons tapioca starch or arrowroot powder
- 4 teaspoons warm water
- ⅓ cup pure maple syrup
Instructions
For the Pumpkin Cookies
- Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit. Lightly grease baking sheet with neutral cooking spray and set aside.
- Add 1 large egg, 1 ½ cups gluten-free flour, ½ teaspoon fresh baking powder, ½ teaspoon fresh baking soda, 1 ½ teaspoons pumpkin spice, ¼ teaspoon salt, ½ cup pumpkin purée, 1 medium banana, ⅓ cup pure maple syrup, and ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract to large mixing bowl. Stir all ingredients together until fully incorporated into smooth cookie dough.
- Use cookie scoop with release handle to portion prepared cookie dough out of mixing bowl and place scoops of dough onto prepared baking sheet. Repeat until all cookie dough has been portioned into individual scoops, leaving space between each scoop on baking sheet to allow for spreading.
- Place filled baking sheet in preheated oven. Bake cookies 13 minutes. After 13 minutes, check doneness. Continue baking cookies 2 to 3 minutes or as needed until edges are just dry and firm.
- Once cookies are fully baked, carefully remove baking sheet from oven. Transfer cookies from baking sheet to wire cooling rack and let cookies cool completely.
For the Maple Glaze
- Immediately before serving cookies, add 2 teaspoons cornstarch and 4 teaspoons warm water to small saucepan. Whisk ingredients together until fully combined into slurry.
- Add ⅓ cup pure maple syrup to saucepan and whisk to incorporate. Place saucepan on stovetop over high heat.
- Bring mixture to boil, then immediately reduce heat to low. Simmer mixture, stirring as needed, until thickened.
- Spoon glaze over tops of pumpkin cookies as desired. Serve immediately.
- Gluten-Free Flour: Different flours will behave differently, so I recommend trying this recipe with different flours and flour blends to find your favorite. I used a blend of ½ cup almond meal + ¼ cup ground oats + ¼ cup brown rice flour + ¼ cup chickpea flour.
- Pumpkin Purée: Make sure you’re not using pumpkin pie filling in this recipe. Pie filling is typically sweetened with spices added, which will throw off the flavor of the cookies.
- Glaze: Only glaze the cookies right before you serve them. Glazing them in advance will make them soggy.
- Leftovers: Store leftover cookies (unglazed) in an airtight container. Cookies will keep up to 1 week at room temperature.
Approximate Information for One Serving
Nutrition Disclaimers
Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.
Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.
To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.
Did You Make This Recipe?
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Frequently Asked Questions
I was able to get 18 cookies out of the recipe as-written, but it all depends on the size of your cookie scoop! Larger scoops mean more dough per cookie, leaving you with fewer individual cookies. Smaller scoops mean smaller cookies, but you get more individual cookies out of a batch.
Nope! These cookies are intended to be cakey, so soft and spongey is exactly what you should expect. If you’re looking for pumpkin cookies with a texture like crunchy chocolate chip cookies, this probably isn’t the recipe for you.
Whether or not these are “healthy” depends on your definition, but personally, I consider these to be a healthiER alternative to most store-bought cookies because they’re gluten free, dairy free, and refined sugar free. With this recipe, a single glazed cookie (out of a batch of 18 cookies) has less than 100 calories and only 7 grams of sugar! Of course, what’s “healthy” to one person might not be “healthy” to another, so this recipe may or may not work for your needs.
No, you really need pumpkin purée (a.k.a. “100% pure pumpkin”). Pumpkin pie filling is already spiced and sweetened, which will throw off the other ingredients in this recipe.
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Do you think this glaze could work for cinnamon rolls? I’m trying to adapt my recipe to make without refined sugar. Thanks! 🙂
It could definitely work! And this frosting would be great for cinnamon rolls, too:
https://40aprons.com/paleo-pumpkin-chocolate-chip-muffins/
I love glaze. I love cookies. Gonna love the crap out of these. EXCELLENT. 🙂
Right?! Everything good, and totally guilt free, which means.. you can eat 9 at a time. Just saying!
I would love to just bathe in that glaze! 🙂
I’ll take a dip right along with you!
How perfect! These cookies like like a great way to satisfy a sweet craving!
Thanks Annie! I can attest to that, for sure 🙂
yep, sign me up for these!! and they’re healthy??! so perfect.
You’re officially signed up for these! 😀
Ahhh I love healthy desserts! I mean I love the bad ones too, but healthy ones can be eaten in bulk…. Which is definitely not something I ever do… ever…sorta.
Never sorta ever, sometimes but not frequently, but kind of a lot.
Or… is that just.. me? I know I am canceling out all of the good by eating like entire trays of vegan GF peanut butter chocolate bars but… it’s all natural ingredients so…
The logic. It’s circular. Slash.. not there at all
Your recipes always make me drool at my desk, Cheryl. It’s very unattractive. Unlike these cookies, which are effing gorgeous, and look absolutely delicious. If you ever publish a cookbook, I will be the first to buy it!
Um, that’s all the incentive I need to write one!! 😀 My mom will be like, OMG WHO IS THIS OTHER PERSON WHO BOUGHT HER COOKBOOK. Hah!! Thank you always for your kind words Meredith! I think you need to update here soon… ahem…. I need some Unexpectedly Magnificent in my inbox!