These gluten-free pumpkin cookies are light, cakey, and full of flavor thanks to the pumpkin spice blend. If you love chocolate, add a handful of chocolate chips to the batter before baking. The recipe calls for butter but works great with a dairy-free substitute.
Other gluten-free pumpkin recipes to try: gluten-free pumpkin muffins and my favorite gluten-free pumpkin bread.
Let’s talk about these pumpkin cookies! They’re a bit of baking magic. The cookies are very soft and cake-like but they hold their shape beautifully as they bake. I like to finish them with a simple powdered sugar glaze. Sometimes I stir a little pumpkin spice into the glaze for an added pop of flavor. Of course, if you prefer your baked goods with less sweetness, skip the glaze.
Other ways to play around with this is to add chocolate chips, dried cranberries (or raisins!) or some chopped nuts. The recipe really welcomes variations. And they’re easy to make, making them perfect for the holiday season.
Ingredients you need to make these cookies.
The nice thing about this recipe is that the ingredients are pretty simple. Gentle reminder: canned pumpkin is available all year long. This means you can make them whenever you want, not just in the fall.
The Cookies
- Canned Pumpkin Puree. Gluten-free pumpkin cookies need pumpkin. The pumpkin flavor comes from a cup of pumpkin puree. Use canned 100% pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling. The filling contains sugar and other ingredients we don’t need.
- Pumpkin Pie Spice. A blend of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice. If you don’t keep this blend in the house, you can replace it with ground cinnamon and ginger.
- Gluten-Free Flour. Look for a blend that contains xanthan or guar gum. It helps the cookies hold their shape during baking. If your blend doesn’t include it, whisk ½ teaspoon xanthan gum into the flour blend before using.
- Baking Powder and Baking Soda. The combination of baking powder and baking soda provides lift and helps the cookies to brown.
- Salt. Use fine (table) salt. It enhances the flavors of the cookies.
- Butter. Use room temperature (softened) butter in this recipe. If you’re dairy-free use a dairy-free butter meant for baking.
- Granulated Sugar. The sweetness comes from granulated sugar and helps the cookies have a cake-like texture.
- Egg. One egg helps hold the batter together and creates a soft cookie.
- Vanilla Extract. A teaspoon of vanilla extract adds flavor along with the pumpkin spice.
The Vanilla Glaze
Both chocolate chips and chopped nuts are lovely additions to these cookies.
- Powdered Sugar. If your powdered sugar is really lumpy, sift it before adding the milk
- Milk. Any milk works.
- Vanilla Extract. Gives the glaze a lovely flavor.
- Pumpkin Spice and Salt. Totally optional. A pinch of each adds a nice flavor.
Variations: Adding Chocolate Chips, Dried Fruit, or Chopped Nuts.
These cookies are great plain and even better with something tasty stirred in.
- Chocolate chips. use up to two cups of chocolate chips or chunks.
- Dried Fruit. Add about a cup of dried cranberries or raisins.
- Nuts. Add up to one cup chopped nuts. For the best flavor, toast them before adding them to the batter.
How to Make Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cookies.
These cookies are pretty easy to make. Think of it like a cross between a cake batter and cookie dough. You’ll need two mixing bowls to mix this dough.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients. Do this in a small bowl. It mixes everything together. This helps the cookies to rise evenly and ensures they’re all spiced nicely.
- Mix the butter and sugar until it’s thick and creamy. Remember to use soft butter. You also want to scrape the bowl once or twice. This prevents the cookies from coming out greasy.
- Add the egg and vanilla. Mix until it looks like frosting. When it does, stop the mixer and add the pumpkin. Blend until it’s nice and smooth. Again, give that bowl a scrape and then mix everything in.
- Stop the mixer. Add the whisked flour mixture. Turn the mixer to low and blend until combined.
- The dough looks like a very thick cake batter. If you’re adding chocolate chips, dried fruit, or nuts, stir them in right at the end.
- Drop the dough onto a parchment-lined baking pan. These don’t spread too much. They puff and spread a little. Give them a little space on the pan. Bake until the edges are set and lightly brown.
- Cool the cookies on a wire rack. When they’re cool, mix together the glaze. All you need to do is mix the ingredients together and drizzle it over the cookies. I usually glaze them on the cooled baking sheet. If you glaze them on the wire rack, it’s a pain to clean.
Got Leftovers? Freeze ‘Em!
The baked cookies freeze really well. I don’t recommend scooping the dough into balls and freezing. That works with gluten-free chocolate chip cookie dough but not so much with this recipe.
- Let the cookies cool completely. Don’t freeze warm cookies.
- Place in a freezer container. If you need to layer the cookies, stack them with a piece of parchment paper between the layers.
- Freeze for up to four months. When you’re ready to enjoy, remove the cookies from the freezer and thaw at room temperature.
Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cookies
Gluten-free pumpkin cookies are light and cakey with a lovely pumpkin flavor. Finish them with a drizzle of vanilla icing.
Ingredients
For the Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cookies
- 2 ½ cups gluten-free all-purpose flour (12 ½ ounces; 370 grams)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons pumpkin spice
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar (8 ¾ ounces; 248 grams)
- ½ cup butter, softened (4 ounces; 113 grams)
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup pumpkin puree (canned pumpkin) (8 ounces; 226 grams)
For the Vanilla Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar (4 ounces; 113 grams)
- 1 ½ tablespoons milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon pumpkin spice, optional, see note 3
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
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Whisk together gluten-free flour, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin spice, and salt in a small bowl. Set the bowl aside.
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Mix together butter and sugar in a large bowl until it's thick and creamy. Stop the mixer and scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl. Mix for an additional 30 seconds.
Add the egg and vanilla. Mix on medium speed until light, about one minute.
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Stop mixer. Add pumpkin puree and mix until creamy. You don't want to see any streaks of pumpkin in the batter.
Add the gluten-free flour mixture and blend on medium-low speed until a thick batter forms. If you're adding chocolate chops, dried fruit, or nuts, add them now. See note 2.
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Drop dough, about a tablespoon each, onto prepared baking sheets.
Bake the cookies until set and golden brown, about 15 minutes.
Allow cookies to cool on the pan for about three minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.
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Once cookies are cool, make the glaze.
Stir together powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla in a small bowl. If the glaze is too thick to drizzle over cookies, add ½ teaspoon additional milk. If the glaze is too thin (runny), add 1 tablespoon additional powdered sugar. Drizzle glaze over cookies. If you're making a spiced glaze, mix the spice into the powdered sugar. See note 3.
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Store cookies in an airtight container for up to four days or place in a freezer container and freeze for up to four months.
Recipe Notes
Note 1: Ingredient Notes and Substitutions.
Gluten-free All-Purpose Flour. This recipe was tested with Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Gluten-Free Baking Flour. Gluten-free flours vary by brand. For best results, use one that contains xanthan gum or whisk in ½ teaspoon to the flour blend. Coconut and almond flours don’t work in this recipe.
Pumpkin Spice. Replace the pumpkin spice blend with 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon and ½ teaspoon of ground ginger. For the best flavor, be sure your spices are fresh.
Salt. I bake with table salt. It dissolves best in batters and gives an even flavor. If using kosher or a flaky salt, increase the salt to 1 teaspoon.
Granulated Sugar. I recommended using granulated (white) sugar in this recipe. Sugar replacements give very different results. If you decide to use one, know that the cookies might not turn out.
Butter. Dairy-free butter can be used in place of unsalted butter.
Egg. This recipe hasn’t been tested with an egg-replacer.
Vanilla extract. If you don’t have vanilla extract, simply omit it from the recipe.
Pumpkin Puree. Use canned pumpkin puree, not canned pumpkin pie filling.
Milk. The glaze calls for a little milk. Replace this with a dairy-free milk or water.
Note 2. How to add chocolate chips, dried fruit or chopped nuts.
You can stir in two cups of chocolate chips or chopped nuts. Or 1 cup of dried fruit, like dried cranberries or raisins.
Note 3. Adding Spice to the Glaze.
About a ½ teaspoon of pumpkin spice adds a nice flavor to the glaze.
SP says
The cookies ended up very soft and tasty. Loved it!
Dori says
They looks delicious!! Can I use an oil instead of the butter? Trying to make a little more healthy.
Elizabeth says
Since oil is 100% fat and butter is about 80% fat, making these with oil will probably cause them to spread more and be a bit greasy. That said, I haven’t tested them with oil. If you do, use a neutral flavored oil or the taste of the oil will compete with the pumpkin spice.
If you want them to be dairy-free, they work great with a dairy-free butter.