Made with toasty brown butter, hearty oats, and plenty of pumpkin spice, these pumpkin oatmeal cookies are a must-try fall recipe. No mixer required! Recipe includes a how-to video!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Flavor: With notes of pumpkin, cozy fall spices, brown sugar and warm vanilla accompanied by heavy undertones of toasty brown butter, these pumpkin oatmeal cookies are a gourmet combo of classic oatmeal cookies and pumpkin pie.
- Texture: The oats create the perfect level of heartiness without being overwhelming. These are soft and chewy cookies, but they aren’t cakey, thanks to lots of effort and thought in the preparation.
- Technique: No mixer or refrigeration required, just a little patience for the brown butter to cool! We also blot the pumpkin before we add it to the dough; this is a critical step when making most of my pumpkin cookies.
- Appearance: Pretty pumpkin color contrasting a drizzle of brown sugar glaze (similar to the one used in my brown sugar cinnamon pop tart cookies!). They are so perfect for fall!
It’s officially cookie baking season! If you’ve enjoyed my other warm and cozy fall cookie favorites like pumpkin snickerdoodles and apple pie cookies, I think you’re going to love these pumpkin oatmeal cookies!
Recipe Development
Pumpkin contains a LOT of water, so when developing this recipe (just like when developing my sourdough chocolate chip cookies) I needed to be careful to minimize the liquid elsewhere in order to avoid creating a cakey cookie texture.
To do this we:
- Blot the excess moisture from the pumpkin puree using a paper towel (I also use this trick when making my pumpkin cheesecake cookies)
- Brown the butter (which cooks out the water and, as a bonus, browns/caramelizes the milk solids in the butter, giving an AMAZING flavor)
- Omit the egg whites, which also contain a lot of water.
Ingredients
While it may look like we are using a lot of ingredients, most are are pantry staples. Here’s what you need!
- Pumpkin puree. Make sure you are using 100% pure pumpkin and not pumpkin pie filling, which contains other ingredients. As I mentioned above, you will need to blot your pumpkin before you add it to the cookie dough. I talk about this more below and demonstrate it in my video.
- Oats. I recommend old-fashioned oats for best results. They have a hearty texture without drying out the cookies.
- Egg yolks. If you read my intro, you already know that we’ll be using just the yolks in today’s recipe. If you don’t want to throw away your egg whites, save them for coconut macaroons or a double batch of candied pecans!
- Pumpkin spice. For that seasonal flavor! If you don’t keep this on hand, you can always whip up a quick batch of my homemade pumpkin spice.
- Corn syrup. Technically you could skip this, but I really recommend adding it. It makes our glaze nice and shiny and helps it set up with a firm texture.
SAM’S TIP: It’s important that your eggs are at room temperature so they easily incorporate into the dough. If you forget to set yours out ahead of time, I have a trick to quickly bring eggs to room temperature.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
- Brown the butter: cook the butter over medium heat, stirring frequently, until it turns brown and smells toasty. Pour into a heat-proof bowl and set aside to cool completely.
- Blot the pumpkin with paper towels until you’ve removed most of the excess moisture. The pumpkin will start to stick to the paper towels when you’re done.
- Add the remaining wet ingredients (sugars, blotted pumpkin, egg yolks, and vanilla) to the cooled butter and stir until combined.
- Whisk the dry ingredients together in separate bowl, then gradually add them to the wet ingredients.
- Fold in the oats until incorporated, then scoop and roll the cookies into 3 tablespoon-sized balls (or 66g, if you are weighing them).
- Bake and let cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Make the glaze: whisk together the sugars, corn syrup, vanilla, and a splash of milk. Once the consistency is smooth and the icing holds its shape (you may need to add a splash more milk), it’s ready.
- Drizzle the glaze over the cookies in a back and forth motion. You could also dip the tops of the cookies in glaze, if you prefer that look!
SAM’S TIP: Don’t add the glaze while the cookies are still warm, or it will melt right off. Have patience and let them cool completely, and you will be rewarded with beautiful results.
Frequently Asked Questions
This can happen if you used whole eggs (instead of just the yolks) or added your sugars to your butter while it was still warm. It can also happen if you don’t know how to measure flour properly or add your cookie dough to warm baking sheets (NEVER do this!).
Instant oats should work fine in this recipe as a 1:1 substitution. The texture just won’t be quite as hearty;
If you like pumpkin, check out the rest of my pumpkin recipes for even more ways to satisfy your sweet tooth 😋
Enjoy!
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Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
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Servings: 17 large cookies
Calories: 320kcal
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Instructions
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Brown the butter: Melt butter in a medium-sized skillet or saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly as the butter sizzles and pops, scraping the bottom of the pan with a spatula to prevent burning, and stir until butter has browned (there will be lots of deep brown specks and the butter will have a toasty, nutty aroma). Immediately remove from heat and pour into a large heat-proof bowl. Allow to cool completely (until no longer warm to the touch) before proceeding.
1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter
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Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
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Blot the pumpkin. Spread pumpkin onto a plate. Wad or fold paper towels and press firmly into the pumpkin to blot it, absorbing water until the pumpkin begins to stick to the paper towels and most of the excess moisture has been absorbed.
⅔ cup (160 g) pumpkin puree
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Make the cookie dough. Once butter has cooled, add sugars, blotted pumpkin, egg yolks, and vanilla extract and stir very well.
1 cup (200 g) brown sugar, ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar, 2 large egg yolks, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
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In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together flour, pumpkin spice, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
2 ⅓ cups (291 g) all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons pumpkin spice, 1 teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon table salt
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Gradually add dry ingredients to wet and stir until completely incorporated.
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Add oats and stir until well distributed through the dough.
2 cups (160 g) old-fashioned oats
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Scoop dough into 3 Tablespoon (66g) sized scoops. If desired, roll cookie dough balls between your palms to form smooth balls, this will yield more uniform cookies. Space cookies at least 2” (5cm) apart on baking sheet.
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Transfer to center rack of 350F (175C) oven and bake for 12 minutes.
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Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5-10 minutes before transferring to cooling rack to cool completely before drizzling with glaze.
Glaze
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Make the glaze. Combine powdered sugar, brown sugar, 1 ½ Tablespoons of milk, corn syrup, and vanilla extract and whisk together until smooth and glaze ribbons smoothly off the whisk, holding its shape for several seconds before dissolving back into the bowl.
1 ¼ cups (160 g) powdered sugar, 1 Tablespoon brown sugar, 1 ½-3 Tablespoons milk, 1 Tablespoon light corn syrup, ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
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Drizzle glaze over cooled cookies and allow glaze to set before serving.
Notes
Storing
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Nutrition
Serving: 1large cookie | Calories: 320kcal | Carbohydrates: 50g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.4g | Cholesterol: 52mg | Sodium: 220mg | Potassium: 101mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 29g | Vitamin A: 1862IU | Vitamin C: 0.5mg | Calcium: 40mg | Iron: 2mg
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
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