Vegan Pumpkin Spice Cookies – Soft & Thick

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These vegan pumpkin spice cookies are honestly one of the best cookies ever! They are super soft to the bite, thick, and wonderfully cakey with a cosy flavour of pumpkin spice in every bite you take. It’s not only delicious but easy to make too!

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Did someone say they had enough pumpkin recipes already? Not until you try these vegan pumpkin spice cookies! They are honestly so, so delicious. It’s like Starbucks’ vegan pumpkin spice cookies but a whole lot better. These are soft, thick, cakey, pumpkiny deliciousness full of lovely autumn flavour that makes you fall in love with them with the first bite. I’m sure because it made me fall in love straight away.

These cookies are not only delicious, but it’s so easy to make too. There’s no need for creaming butter as this recipe uses melted one, and the rest is pretty much just mixing. How lovely! I love easy recipes I can make for festive events like Halloween and Thanksgiving. I bet you do too, don’t you? Well, you have come to the right place!

I actually wasn’t going for this texture when I was developing this recipe.. It was pretty late at night but I needed to test some cookie recipes for Halloween. I usually write down ingredients in my recipe development book first, then start making whatever I’m making, and then make a little twist along the way. 

This day though, because I was quite tired and sleepy while I was making the cookie dough, I thought I measured the flour wrong so I added a bit more flour. Then I thought hmmm, it feels too thick. So I added a bit of plant milk and wiggled a bit here and there and so on. Finally, I was satisfied with the cookie dough texture so I started baking. But the cookies! They were not flattening in the oven! I thought why?? Then I realised I added a lot more flour than I initially intended.

But! This incident actually turned out to be one of the biggest incidents ever. And it was a good one, the cookies turned out amazing! I’m a chewy cookie girl by default if you know me, but these pumpkin spice cookies… They are thick and soft, wonderfully cakey, not my usual type but yet, absolutely delicious. Fortunately, I wrote down every modification I made in my recipe book so why not share them with the world? I feel as though it’s my no1 mission this autumn. It’s that good!

Main ingredients and substitutions

Plain flour: The base of this recipe is plain flour. I haven’t tried making this recipe with other flour like rice flour, but I think you can use 1:1 gluten-free flour instead of plain flour if you want to make this recipe gluten-free.

Brown sugar: A must-have ingredient, brown sugar. Brown sugar is perfect when you want to make chewy cookies!

Granulated sugar: I used part regular granulated sugar in this recipe along with brown sugar.

Pumpkin puree: This recipe is not complete without some good pumpkin puree. I used my homemade pumpkin puree but you can use a canned one too, it should work just fine. If you are making it at home, you can make it by roasting cut-up pumpkins until soft, peeling the skin, and then processing them in a food processor with a dash of filtered water until very smooth and pureed.

Vegan butter: I love using vegan butter in my cookies to give them a nice buttery flavour. I highly recommend using vegan butter for the flavour it gives to these cookies but if you want to make them healthier you can also use melted coconut oil too, it should work just fine.

Pumpkin spice: This recipe also can’t be completed without a good pinch of pumpkin spice. I find that 1 tsp is enough to give the cookies a nice cosy flavour but you can adjust the amount to your liking. Up to 1 &1/2 tsp works just fine!

Other ingredients: soy milk(substitute for other plant milk if you want), vegan chocolate chips(optional), baking powder, vanilla extract, and salt.

*I use bone char-free sugars for all of my recipes. I cover the topic in my article Vegan Baking 101. Go to the “Is sugar vegan?” section to learn more!

Recommended equipment for this recipe

Ice cream scoop: Ice cream scoop comes in handy when making individual cookies and making them even. I use a regular ice cream scoop I got from a kitchen shop.

Parchment paper: It’s a good idea to bake cookies on a sheet of parchment paper rather than directly on the baking tray. Cookies tend to stick to the bottom so do use parchment paper or reusable silicone baking sheets to prevent cookies from sticking.

Wooden spoon: I like using large wooden spoons to mix almost everything in general but they are very good for mixing cookie dough too. It has a firm grip so it’s suitable to mix firm doughs like cookie dough. 

*The ingredient list and measurement for this recipe can be found in the recipe card at the bottom.

How to make these homemade pumpkin spice cookies

Step 1. Mixing dry ingredients

In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugars, pumpkin spice, salt, and baking powder together with a whisk until well combined. Mix very thoroughly at this stage so that the pumpkin spice is spread out evenly in the dry mixture!

Step 2. Mixing wet ingredients

In a different bowl, mix the melted vegan butter, soy milk, vanilla extract, and pumpkin puree with a whisk until very smooth.

Step 3. Mixing the batter

Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir well with a large wooden spoon until it makes a cookie dough. Add in the chocolate chips then fold gently. Don’t over mix the chocolate chips! You already mixed the dough enough at this stage so you should only fold it gently so as to not develop too much gluten in the dough.

Step 4. Rest

Hard bit. Rest in the fridge for at least 30 mins. There are a few good reasons why resting cookie dough is a good idea. I actually have written my vegan cookie guide(the first time I’m telling you guys!) and there will be all the tips and tricks including resting cookie dough in there! If you want to be the first one to receive the ebook, sign up with The Chestnut Bakery mailing crew and I’ll be sending you the ebook when it’s out! (For free, if I forgot to mention.)

Step 5. Baking

Using an ice cream scoop, scoop the dough and make a little ball. It should make about 16 cookies. Put the cookie balls on a baking tray with parchment paper and lightly press down the top. The cookies won’t spread much so make sure that they are not too tall. Bake for 12-13 mins until the top is golden. Take them out of the oven and transfer them to a cooling rack to let them cool down. Enjoy!

Must read: The Ultimate Guide to Perfect Cookies – A complete guide to baking your perfect vegan cookies with easy and delicious cookie recipes!

Tips and tricks

The sugar ratio advice

I used some chocolate chips in this homemade pumpkin spice recipe but you can omit the chocolate chips too! If you are not using chocolate chips in this recipe, use 1/2 cup (100g) of granulated sugar. If you are using chocolate chips, use only 1/3 cup (65g) of granulated sugar.

Add the chocolate chips at last 

Add your chocolate chips at the very last step of mixing! This is because the cookie dough is slightly warm from the melted vegan butter. If you mix them with the dry ingredients first followed by wet ingredients mixed in after, the chocolate chips can lose their shape and it’s not going to be pretty looking.

Press down the cookies slightly before baking 

The cookie dough for this recipe is quite thick so it won’t flatten in the oven like my other chewy cookie recipes like funfetti cookies. So press the cookies lightly once you place them on the baking tray to flatten a little on top so they will bake nice and evenly!

How to store these vegan pumpkin spice cookies

The cookies store well at room temperature for up to 4-5 days. Keep them in an airtight cookie jar or container and you are good to go! You can also freeze them too. Put them in a freezer-friendly airtight container and store them in the fridge for up to 2-3 months. Microwave or reheat in the oven until they are soft again and serve.

Q and A

Why are my cookies dry/bready?

If your cookies came out too dry, chances are you added more flour than you need to use in this recipe. Ingredients ratio is crucial in baking, it’s one of the factors that determine the texture of your baked goods! To avoid this issue, although I have cup measurements as well in the recipe card, make sure to weigh your ingredients rather than measuring with cups, especially for dry ingredients.

When you are measuring with your measuring cup, it is so, so easy to put the wrong amount of ingredients because each measuring cup is manufactured differently and we all put ingredients in it in our own way. You can easily add too much flour in a cup thinking it’s the right amount!

But with weighing with a scale, the amount is always accurate(unless your scale is broken so make sure it’s not!). If you don’t have a digital scale, I highly recommend you invest in one. It’s super cheap!

My cookies spread too much! What should I do?

If your cookies have spread too much and they are too thin, the opposite of what we just discussed happened. It might have been either you added too little flour or too much liquid. To fix this problem, add more flour to your batter as well as weigh your ingredients with a digital scale.

Can this recipe be gluten-free?

I have not tried making this recipe gluten-free, but I imagine you can use 1:1 gluten-free flour with no problem. The texture of the final product may change slightly, a little denser than the original one.

Want to master the basics of vegan baking?
Check out Vegan Baking 101 – the beginner’s guide to vegan baking for you to become an excellent vegan baker and familiar with the basics of vegan baking, ingredients, and techniques with useful tips!

You will LOVE these pumpkin spice cookies because they are:

• full of autumn flavour
• delicious
• easy to make
• soft
• vegan
• perfect Halloween and Thanksgiving snack

Want more recipes like this?

Try my other delicious cake recipes you might enjoy!

• Pumpkin pancakes
• Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Pumpkin banana muffins
• Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

Visit the cookies page and recipe page for more delicious recipes!

Please leave a comment and rate this recipe in the comment section below if you like this recipe! Let me know and tag me @thechestnutbakery on Instagram too. Thank you for making my recipe, friends!

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