These vegan pumpkin cookies are delightfully soft and fluffy, packed with pumpkin spice flavor, and covered in a sweet vanilla glaze. They're absolutely delicious and perfect for celebrating fall!
It's that time of year! Pumpkin dessert season is here, and I am ready for it.
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But sometimes it's not ready for me. I mean, I don't always have plans for fancier pumpkin desserts like vegan pumpkin cake, vegan pumpkin pie, or vegan pumpkin cheesecake. I love making those treats when we have company coming over, but sometimes I don't want to wait around for special dates to enjoy some spicy pumpkin goodness.
That's where these cookies come into the picture. They're really easy, not too fancy, and totally appropriate for just keeping around for enjoying with coffee. I like to bake up a big batch, keep some for my husband and I to enjoy, and either freeze the rest or send them to work with him.
These cookies are so nice and give me all the cozy fall vibes I crave this time of year!
Ingredients You'll Need
- Flour. You'll need all-purpose wheat flour for this recipe. I haven't tried any alternatives, so I can't say for sure if they'll work.
- Baking powder.
- Baking soda.
- Spices. You'll need pumpkin pie spice, also known as simply pumpkin spice, as well as some ground cinnamon.
- Salt.
- Vegan butter. Most grocery stores sell vegan butter in the refrigerated section, right near the regular butter.
- Brown sugar. We're using organic brown sugar for this recipe, as conventional brown sugar is often processed using animal bone char, so it's not considered vegan.
- Sugar. This also needs to be organic.
- Molasses. Use basic unsulfured molasses. As much as I love blackstrap molasses, it can mess with the flavor and texture of baked goods, so I don't recommend using it for this recipe.
- Vanilla extract.
- Pumpkin puree. We're using basic canned pumpkin puree, and not pumpkin pie filling, which is actually pumpkin puree plus a bunch of extra stuff.
- Powdered sugar. Here's yet another type of sugar that needs to be organic.
- Non-dairy milk. You can use almond milk, soy milk, cashew milk, oat milk, or just about any other unflavored and unsweetened variety of non-dairy milk that's good for drinking. Need help choosing one? Read my guide to dairy-free milk for some help.
How They're Made
Below is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you'd like to skip right to the recipe!
Start by whisking your dry ingredients together: flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt.
Now combine the wet ingredients. Start by creaming the butter, brown sugar, sugar, molasses, and vanilla together with an electric mixer.
Beat the pumpkin puree and non-dairy milk into the wet ingredient mixture.
Start beating the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, adding a bit at a time and using the mixer at low speed. You'll end up with a fluffy cookie dough.
Drop dough balls on a parchment paper-lined baking sheets, and bake the cookies until they're puffy. Place them on a cooling rack to cool when they're done.
Once the cookies are cool you can make the icing by stirring powdered sugar, non-dairy milk, and vanilla extract together. Dip the cookies in the icing.
Once the icing sets your vegan pumpkin cookies are ready to enjoy! You can garnish them with a sprinkle of cinnamon if you'd like.
Variations
- Chocolate chip pumpkin cookies! Stir in a cup to a cup in a half of vegan chocolate chips. I recommend using mini chips if they're available.
- Add nuts. Add a cup of finely chopped walnuts or pecans to the dough.
- Cream cheese frosted pumpkin cookies. Top your vegan pumpkin cookies with my vegan cream cheese frosting instead of the icing. Keep in mind that the frosting will go on much thicker than the icing!
- Skip the icing. Instead, simply dust your cookies with powdered sugar just before serving.
Shelf-Life & Storage
These cookies should be stored in an airtight container, and I recommend layering them with parchment paper. They're very soft, and will have a tendency to stick together if you don't!
They'll keep at room temperature for about five days, in the fridge for about a week, or in the freezer for about three months.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can, but the pumpkin will need to be cooked and pureed first. You can do that using this pumpkin puree recipe.
I think the recipe would work with an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend, but I haven't tested it. Please leave a comment letting me know how it turns out if you give it a try!
Pumpkin puree is just that: cooked pureed pumpkin. Pumpkin pie filling, on the other hand, includes pumpkin puree, along with sugar and spices. In this recipe we want full control over the flavor, so we're using pumpkin puree.
More Fall Cookies
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📖 Recipe
Vegan Pumpkin Cookies (Soft & Fluffy!)
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup vegan butter, room temperature
- ¾ cup organic brown sugar
- ½ cup organic granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons unsulfured molasses (not blackstrap molasses)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 2 tablespoons unflavored and unsweetened non-dairy milk
For the Icing
- 3 cup organic powdered sugar
- 3 ½ tablespoons unflavored and unsweetened non-dairy milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Set this aside.
- Place the vegan butter, brown sugar, sugar, molasses, and vanilla into another large mixing bowl. Use an electric mixer to cream the ingredients together until fully blended.
- Beat the pumpkin puree and milk into the butter mixture.
- Using the mixer at low speed, begin beating the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture, adding about a third at a time and beating each addition in until fully incorporated before adding more.
- Drop the dough by rounded heaping tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving at least an inch between cookies.
- Bake the cookies for about 12 minutes, or until they're puffed up quite a bit and spread out slightly.
- Place the baking sheets on cooling racks. Let the cookies cool for a few minutes, until they feel fully set, then remove them from the baking sheets and place them directly on the cooling racks to finish cooling.
- Once the cookies are cool, stir the icing ingredients together in a medium bowl. You can add more milk if the mixture seems too thick, or more powdered sugar if it seems too thin.
- Dip the tops of the cookies in the icing to coat them, then place the cookies back in the racks until the icing has set. If you'd like, you can top each cookie with a sprinkle of cinnamon as well.
- Serve.
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Love that the cookie is soft and cakey. Delicious flavor
LOVE the soft pumpkin cookies. I sent a batch to my pumpkin loving, great nephews in college and one said "that is the best cookie of all time to me". So it looks like we will be baking a batch when they come home for the holidays.