Brown Butter Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies are CHEWY (not cakey) pumpkin spice cookies loaded with tons of caramelized butterscotch flavor and gooey chocolate chips. A fall favorite!
Yield:
25 cookies
Prep Time:15minutes
Cook:15minutes
This recipe is sponsored by Bob’s Red Mill. Thank you for supporting me in working with brands I love to bring you new recipes!
Tessa's Recipe Rundown...
Taste: Pumpkin spice + semisweet chocolate is a combination I love more every time I enjoy it! Texture: These cookies are rich, chewy, and soft – not cakey! Ease: Browning the butter is an extra step, but this recipe is still super simple to make. Pros: Delightfully flavorful fall treat that everyone will love. Cons: Can’t think of a single one! Would I make this again? Again and again and again.
Today’s recipe is one of those recipes that I think will become a staple part of your fall baking repertoire.
It’s simple enough to make often – which is good because once you have a taste you’ll be craving these cookies till Christmas!
Taking the time to brown the butter instead of simply melting it adds a whole new complexity of flavor. It creates this super crave-worthy kind of caramelized nutty quality that really complements the warm spices in this recipe.
This recipe actually doesn’t even require an electric mixer to make! The hardest part is probably waiting for the butter to brown and cool, then waiting for the dough to chill for 30 minutes before baking.
The waiting will be SO worth it once you sink your teeth into a chewy and slightly gooey cookie that tastes like fall heaven.
In general, the colder any cookie dough is when it enters the oven, the thicker your cookies will be.
I’m so thrilled to be teaming up with Bob’s Red Mill to bring you this tasty cookie recipe. Not only does the brand produce high quality flours, grains, and tons of other go-to baking ingredients, but they’re also employee-owned.
I just love working with brand partners that have a strong spirit of generosity and a sense of family woven into the company culture. Learn more about Bob’s Red Mill here.
This recipe makes about 25 cookies, but you could very easily double it to serve a crowd for a holiday gathering or potluck. I can promise you these cookies won’t last long!
Pumpkin Cookie Tips
Browning the Butter
Follow the recipe directions closely for browning the butter. It’s super simple, just be sure not to walk away from it while it’s cooking on the stove. It quickly goes from browned to burnt. For best results, avoid using a nonstick pan.
Egg Yolk
Egg yolks have protein and fat which adds a bit of chewiness and richness to any cookie, cake, or brownie. On the other hand, egg whites tend to create a lighter airier and more cakey texture. Since this cookie recipe has pumpkin puree, we’re already adding a significant amount of moisture. In fact, pumpkin puree can sometimes be used as an egg replacer in baking. Because of that, I only added 1 egg yolk in this recipe with no whole eggs. Too much moisture would make these cakey, and I wanted the texture to be chewy.
Sugar
I decided to use mostly granulated sugar in these Brown Butter Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies with just a touch of light brown sugar for that butterscotch flavor. The granulated sugar promotes spread and gives the cookies a slightly crisp edge. Again, this was done to prevent these cookies from becoming too cakey in texture.
Flour
For this recipe I love to use Bob’s Red Mill Organic Unbleached White All Purpose Flour, which is a premium baking flour freshly milled from certified organic, hard red wheat. Whenever baking relatively simple recipes (like cookies) it’s really important to me to use high quality ingredients so the flavor is as amazing as possible. These little details add up to make the difference between good cookies and GREAT cookies!
Storage
These pumpkin cookies keep for quite a while in an airtight container at room temperature – up to 5 days. You’ll notice that the pumpkin spice flavor actually intensifies over time! You can also “marinate” the cookie dough by storing it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days. This will also intensify the pumpkin spice flavor and make the cookies thicker and chewier. Give it a try!
Using a stainless steel spring-loaded cookie scoop when portioning out cookie dough is one of the KEYS to beautiful, uniform, evenly-shaped and evenly-baked cookies. My cookie scoop is one of my most frequently used kitchen gadgets. A spring-loaded scoop saves you *so much time* in forming the balls of dough. When using a scoop, you ensure each ball is evenly sized so the cookies bake evenly, meaning you don’t have any small overbaked cookies or large underbaked cookies. Learn more about Cookie Scoops and how to use them here!
Brown Butter Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies are CHEWY (not cakey) pumpkin spice cookies loaded with tons of caramelized butterscotch flavor and gooey chocolate chips. A fall favorite!
Ingredients
10tablespoons(142 grams) unsalted butter
1 1/2cups(204 grams) Bob’s Red Mill Organic All Purpose White Flour*
1/4teaspoonsalt
1/2teaspoonbaking soda
1teaspoonground cinnamon
1/4teaspoonground ginger
1/4teaspoonnutmeg
1/8teaspooncloves
3/4cup(150 grams) granulated sugar
1/4cup(50 grams) light brown sugar
1egg yolk
1teaspoonvanilla extract
1/3cup(75 grams) pumpkin puree
3/4cup(128 grams) semisweet chocolate chips
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with silicone mats or parchment paper.
Brown the butter:
In a small saucepan set over medium heat, melt the butter. Swirling the pan occasionally, continue to cook the butter. It should become foamy with audible cracking and popping noises.
Once the crackling stops continue to swirl the pan until the butter develops a nutty aroma and brown bits start to form at the bottom. Once the bits are amber in color, about 2 to 3 minutes after the popping stops, remove from heat and pour into a medium mixing bowl. Add the granulated sugar and brown sugar to the hot butter and stir to combine. Let cool.
Make the cookies:
In a small bowl whisk together flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves.
To the butter mixture, add the egg yolk and vanilla, stirring to combine. Stir in pumpkin puree until smooth. Add the flour mixture in 3 batches, mixing well after each addition, until a soft dough forms. Fold in the chocolate chips.
Cover and chill the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes, or until firm enough to scoop. You can also refrigerate the dough for up to 48 hours, which will intensify the flavors. Just allow to sit at room temperature until warm enough to shape if refrigerating for an extended period.
Using a spring-loaded ice cream scoop or a spoon, roll the dough into 1 1/2-tablespoon sized balls and place on the prepared baking sheets. Flatten slightly with the palm of your hand. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until set and edges are lightly browned.
Let cool completely. Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Pumpkin flavor will intensify after a day.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
*If using a different brand of all-purpose flour, such as Gold Medal or King Arthur, use 190 grams.
I share trusted baking recipes your friends will LOVE alongside insights into the science of sweets. I'm a professionally trained chef, cookbook author, and cookie queen. I love to write about all things sweet, carb-y, and homemade. I live in Phoenix, Arizona (hence the blog name!)
About Tessa...
I share trusted baking recipes your friends will LOVE alongside insights into the science of sweets. I'm a professionally trained chef, cookbook author, and cookie queen. I love to write about all things sweet, carb-y, and homemade. I live in Phoenix, Arizona (hence the blog name!)
Well written recipe, easy to follow, results are great! Also I love that the measures for the dry goods is also listed by weight in grams, which is what I used, and the cookies came out perfect.
The flaver is good but they came out so thin. Not at all like the picture or chewy as described. I weighed my ingredients so I’m sure why it came out thin. I was very disappointed. But the browned butter and spices do make good flavor, but otherwise I wouldn’t recommend it.
Hi Britt! So sorry to hear your cookies turned out thin! I wonder if your brown butter was still a bit too warm when it was added to the other ingredients. Even with chilling the dough, too warm of butter to start with can unfortunately affect the outcome of your cookies. How long did you chill your dough for?
Thanks I’ll keep that in mind. I’m not sure how long I let the butter cool, it did have some time. I chilled the dough for about an hour. Thank you for the response, I appreciate the level of detail and care in every recipe on this site!
Wow these are good…unusual b/c of their buttery pumpkin spice flavor & they do have a crunchy shell w/a chewy center. Did not add choc chips b/c I find they overpower the other flavors, but I may try adding some small chunks of bittersweet chocolate next time, these are definitely worth making!
Just baked a batch of these! So delicious and my whole family loved them. Thank you, Tessa, for the amazing recipe, you never disappoint! Definitely making them again!
These cookies were very good and chewy but were spicy with 1 tsp cinnamon in the recipe. Next time I would reduce the cinnamon to 1/2 tsp. I used bread flour instead of AP flour to ensure chewiness and I blotted out some of the water in my pumpkin puree because it had puddles of water in it. This was due to the freezer burn. I had frozen my leftover pumpkin puree.
I made these subbing chocolate chips for white chocolate chips. They were really good; not excessively sweet; texture was nice. I’ve just been asked to bring them to an office party, so I think they went over well. 🙂 Also, I should say I played with the spices a little bit (to taste) and subbed white chocolate, but otherwise I followed the instructions TO THE T and they turned out great.
This is a super delicious cookie. I followed the recipe the first time I made them, and they were very flat. The second time around, I added a quarter cup more flour and half teaspoon more baking soda. Much better. 🙂
Tessa, I just love your cookie recipes and these certainly did not disappoint! The brown butter really turns these into something special. Now I’m just wishing I’d made a double batch because 25 is not enough!
Response to Mary and Rebecca: I freeze leftover pumpkin in usable sizes, so I can have recipe size amounts available, and not waste anything. Canadian flour: You could replace some of the flour with cake flour or cornstarch. I would try a maybe 1 or 2 Tablespoons per cup for the first go around and experiment til it seemed right.
I want to try this recipe. Will try reducing the fat, but am aware that the cookie will not be quite the same with less fat.
I am new to baking and I have heard (like you said) the colder the cookie dough the thicker the cookies, and obviously you can freeze dough. But when you store dough in the freezer, do you need to let it thaw a little bit before putting in the oven, or is it okay to put the dough in frozen?
I was so excited to make these! They looked so deliciously thin and chewy. However, mine turned out thick and cakey, which seems to be my eternal curse as a Canadian baker. I know part of the problem was that my dough was too cold, but I’ve had the same difficulty with many other American cookie recipes that don’t call for any chilling of the dough at all.
Could it the difference between American and Canadian all-purpose flour (9-12% protein and 12-15% protein respectively) be the reason for this? If so, should I reduce the amount of flour in the recipe (and if so, by how much)?
Thanks anyway for the very clear instructions on how to brown butter without scorching it — worked like a charm!
Hi, higher protein flour will in fact make your dough tougher, it’s very important not to overmix because the longer you mix the more you work out the gluten in the flour making it more elastic, this is great for bread as you want this gluten network so the yeast can make those nice bubles in the dough but not so good for cookies and cakes. Try looking for cake flour instead of AP, it normally has a lot less protein than AP or bread flour.
How I wish I could get Canadian flour here in Mexico for my sourdough 😛
Do I have to use Bob’s Red Mill Unbleached All Purpose Flour to enter the baking challenge to qualify for the contest or can I use any all purpose flour?
I am allergic to egg yolks so I only use egg whites in recipes but I love chewy cookies. What can I use instead of the egg yolk to make this cookie chewey?
I’m so excited to try these. The response to my post for Sept challenge was amazing. I shared so many rolls with my family and friends and have a 100 year old friend who asked me to make them again for her church group. I wonder if she’ll change her mind to these cookies instead once I make them and share them. hahaha!
And Happy October! I love the way you lay out your recipes…it’s almost like you’re there with me talking about it. Providing the chemistry as the how to get a chewy, crispy, cakey, thick or thick cookie, as well as all the other helpful information, has been wonderful. ( I was one of those kids that asked ‘why’;) )
I so enjoy your recipes and learning more ways without as much trial and error as in the past to get exactly what I meant for it to be! So, again, thank you….and keep handing the heat girlie;)
As a trained chef and cookbook author, I share trusted baking recipes your friends & family will love alongside insights into the science of sweets. I help take the luck out of baking so you *always* have delicious results! Learn more here.
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Well written recipe, easy to follow, results are great! Also I love that the measures for the dry goods is also listed by weight in grams, which is what I used, and the cookies came out perfect.
So happy you enjoyed this recipe, thanks for the comment!
The flaver is good but they came out so thin. Not at all like the picture or chewy as described. I weighed my ingredients so I’m sure why it came out thin. I was very disappointed. But the browned butter and spices do make good flavor, but otherwise I wouldn’t recommend it.
Hi Britt! So sorry to hear your cookies turned out thin! I wonder if your brown butter was still a bit too warm when it was added to the other ingredients. Even with chilling the dough, too warm of butter to start with can unfortunately affect the outcome of your cookies. How long did you chill your dough for?
Thanks I’ll keep that in mind. I’m not sure how long I let the butter cool, it did have some time. I chilled the dough for about an hour. Thank you for the response, I appreciate the level of detail and care in every recipe on this site!
Wow these are good…unusual b/c of their buttery pumpkin spice flavor & they do have a crunchy shell w/a chewy center. Did not add choc chips b/c I find they overpower the other flavors, but I may try adding some small chunks of bittersweet chocolate next time, these are definitely worth making!
So happy you enjoyed this recipe, Kim!
Just baked a batch of these! So delicious and my whole family loved them. Thank you, Tessa, for the amazing recipe, you never disappoint! Definitely making them again!
These cookies were very good and chewy but were spicy with 1 tsp cinnamon in the recipe. Next time I would reduce the cinnamon to 1/2 tsp. I used bread flour instead of AP flour to ensure chewiness and I blotted out some of the water in my pumpkin puree because it had puddles of water in it. This was due to the freezer burn. I had frozen my leftover pumpkin puree.
I made these subbing chocolate chips for white chocolate chips. They were really good; not excessively sweet; texture was nice. I’ve just been asked to bring them to an office party, so I think they went over well. 🙂 Also, I should say I played with the spices a little bit (to taste) and subbed white chocolate, but otherwise I followed the instructions TO THE T and they turned out great.
This is a super delicious cookie. I followed the recipe the first time I made them, and they were very flat. The second time around, I added a quarter cup more flour and half teaspoon more baking soda. Much better. 🙂
Tessa, I just love your cookie recipes and these certainly did not disappoint! The brown butter really turns these into something special. Now I’m just wishing I’d made a double batch because 25 is not enough!
Oh. My. Gosh. TESSA. These are the best pumpkin chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever had!! Absolutely amazing!!!
Made these tonight! Didnt have any clove so left that out! My roommates loved them and cant wait to hear what my co-workers think tomorrow
Response to Mary and Rebecca: I freeze leftover pumpkin in usable sizes, so I can have recipe size amounts available, and not waste anything. Canadian flour: You could replace some of the flour with cake flour or cornstarch. I would try a maybe 1 or 2 Tablespoons per cup for the first go around and experiment til it seemed right.
I want to try this recipe. Will try reducing the fat, but am aware that the cookie will not be quite the same with less fat.
I am new to baking and I have heard (like you said) the colder the cookie dough the thicker the cookies, and obviously you can freeze dough. But when you store dough in the freezer, do you need to let it thaw a little bit before putting in the oven, or is it okay to put the dough in frozen?
About how long does it take the brown butter mixture to cool?
I made these for a party last weekend and everyone loved them. I will definitely make again!
In the midst of making these! I’m sure they’ll be awesome as the other HTH recipes I’ve tried have been great! Lu..
For the cloves – do you grind whole cloves into a powder or is it sold in powder form?
It’s sold in powder form with the other spices!
I was so excited to make these! They looked so deliciously thin and chewy. However, mine turned out thick and cakey, which seems to be my eternal curse as a Canadian baker. I know part of the problem was that my dough was too cold, but I’ve had the same difficulty with many other American cookie recipes that don’t call for any chilling of the dough at all.
Could it the difference between American and Canadian all-purpose flour (9-12% protein and 12-15% protein respectively) be the reason for this? If so, should I reduce the amount of flour in the recipe (and if so, by how much)?
Thanks anyway for the very clear instructions on how to brown butter without scorching it — worked like a charm!
Hi, higher protein flour will in fact make your dough tougher, it’s very important not to overmix because the longer you mix the more you work out the gluten in the flour making it more elastic, this is great for bread as you want this gluten network so the yeast can make those nice bubles in the dough but not so good for cookies and cakes. Try looking for cake flour instead of AP, it normally has a lot less protein than AP or bread flour.
How I wish I could get Canadian flour here in Mexico for my sourdough 😛
Do I have to use Bob’s Red Mill Unbleached All Purpose Flour to enter the baking challenge to qualify for the contest or can I use any all purpose flour?
I am allergic to egg yolks so I only use egg whites in recipes but I love chewy cookies. What can I use instead of the egg yolk to make this cookie chewey?
Thank you!
Could you provide a companion recipe to use up the rest of the pumpkin purée. Kind of hate to open a can, only use part of it and dump the rest.
I’m so excited to try these. The response to my post for Sept challenge was amazing. I shared so many rolls with my family and friends and have a 100 year old friend who asked me to make them again for her church group. I wonder if she’ll change her mind to these cookies instead once I make them and share them. hahaha!
Hello Tessa,
And Happy October! I love the way you lay out your recipes…it’s almost like you’re there with me talking about it. Providing the chemistry as the how to get a chewy, crispy, cakey, thick or thick cookie, as well as all the other helpful information, has been wonderful. ( I was one of those kids that asked ‘why’;) )
I so enjoy your recipes and learning more ways without as much trial and error as in the past to get exactly what I meant for it to be! So, again, thank you….and keep handing the heat girlie;)
Dee
Hi! Is it the same if I use pumpkin spice? And how much should be used?
Thank you!
Hi
Recipes looks awesome. Would you be able to tell me what cloves are? Thanks in advance.