I was craving some oatmeal raisin cookies the other day when it hit me that pumpkin would probably taste pretty freaking good in an oatmeal cookie. So, I went to buy the ingredients. Then it hit me that I have some leftover dried cranberries in my pantry, so there was no reason to buy raisins when pumpkin and cranberries are practically made for each other. The end result? Total autumn yumminess.
Adding pumpkin purée to the cookie dough means adding a lot of moisture, so I had to cut back somewhere else. Fruit purées are a pretty common baking substitute for fat, so I just cut back on the butter. I left some in there because, well, this is a cookie after all. These cookies bake up light and fluffy and are nice and sweet. The oats give you something to sink your teeth into and the dried cranberries lend an occasional tart bite. I tend to prefer things a little less sweet, so I may try lowering the sugar in my next batch (because there WILL be a next batch).
I made a small batch because most cookie recipes make around 30/batch and I in no way need 30 cookies laying around. So, this mini cookie batch yields about 15 small-ish cookies.
It’s also important to note that I used only 1/2 cup of pumpkin purée. Pumpkin purée is pure gold, so please don’t toss the rest of the can. You’ll have just over a cup left from a 15 oz. can after using some for this recipe, with which you can make a batch of Baked Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal (it will just have a little less pumpkin, that’s okay), a Pumpkin Smoothie, some Pumpkin Cream Cheese Spread, or just freeze it for later. Puréed squash freezes beautifully.
Oatmeal Pumpkin Cookies
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Oatmeal Pumpkin Cookies
Servings 15 cookiesIngredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour ($0.14)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda ($0.05)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder ($0.05)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.03)
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon ($0.05)
- 2 Tbsp butter (room temperature) ($0.29)
- 1/2 cup pumpkin purée ($0.48)
- 1/3 cup brown sugar ($0.11)
- 1/3 cup white sugar ($0.05)
- 1 large egg ($0.17)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract ($0.28)
- 1 1/2 cup rolled oats ($0.30)
- 1/3 cup dried cranberries ($0.51)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon until very well combined.
- In a large bowl, beat together the butter (room temperature), pumpkin, brown sugar, and white sugar on low speed. Once they’re well combined, add the egg and vanilla and beat until well combined again.
- Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and beat on low speed just until a thick, creamy batter forms. Add the dry oats and dried cranberries and stir them into the batter with a spoon.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spoon the batter onto the baking sheet in 2 Tbsp portions, leaving about 1.5 inches between each cookie. The cookies will not spread much during baking, so gently pat them down into flattened circles.
- Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for 16-18 minutes, or until slightly browned on the surface. Allow the cookies to cool on a wire rack before eating.
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Nutrition
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Step by Step Photos
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon until they are well combined.
In a large bowl, beat together the butter, pumpkin, brown sugar, and white sugar on low speed until they are well combined. Make sure the butter is room temperature or else it won’t blend into the mixture well.
Add the egg and vanilla and beat until well combined again.
Add the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture and beat on low until it forms a thick, creamy batter (see next photo). Try not to over mix here.
See how thick and creamy the batter looks? Stir the dry oats and dried cranberries in with a spoon until everything is evenly incorporated.
Now you have your finished batter.
Spoon the batter onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet in 2 Tbsp clumps. The cookies don’t really spread as they bake, so press them down a bit into flattened discs.
Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for 16-18 minutes or until the edges are just slightly brown. Allow them to cool on a wire rack before devouring.
I’m gonna reduce the sugar in the next batch and they’ll practically be a breakfast cookie… oooh, maybe I can use whole wheat flour, too. Time to experiment some more!
I wanted to show you the soft, fluffy interior, but it’s really hard to hold the camera steady with one hand. :P Total blurs-ville.
I’ve been making these for years and they turn out great every single time. I’ve tried adding raisins, pumpkin seeds, white chocolate and everything just works. Even smaller quick oats stand up to the full baking time as well. Not overly sweet, just a really nice pumpkin flavour.
A hearty cookie, a little on the dry side, but great with a coffee or milk. I subbed chocolate chips for cranberries and they made a satisfying treat/snack. I made them twice so far and they are both adult and toddler approved!
They are a bit bland. I don’t taste the pumpkin. They are more like biscuits than cookies.
Are the nutrition facts listed anywhere on this recipe? I really love these cookies but need to know those because I am on Weight Watchers. I would like to continue making them, but not until I know the point value! Lol thanks for the info if you know it or can send it.
We only recently brought on a Registered Dietician to our team. She’s working hard behind the scenes to update the entire recipe database, over 1500+ recipes, with nutritional information. She’s working her way from the newest recipes back and it takes some time to update them all. Stay tuned!
I modified this based on convenience and the dryness reviews. The starred changes affected the texture, the rest was flavor.
I doubled the recipe, * used an entire 15oz can of pumpkin, * nearly halved the sugar (added a tbsp of white sugar and a tbsp of molasses on top of half the sugar called for), and added about a cup of raw almonds, well toasted and chopped. I chopped the cranberries small, too. I also spiced it with the full array of pumpkin spice (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cloves) and added a tsp of spiced rum.
Baked golf ball sized cookies for 14 min. Soft, a bit chewy, sweet but not too sweet, and so good for Sunday breakfast or with coffee/tea! Thank you for the recipe, Beth!
I love this cookie. One of my favorite recipes. Quick question does it freeze well?
Yes it will be great!
Made with quick oats and turned out great! So light and fluffy!
Good to know! Thanks Sierra!
After seeing the reviews, I made my own artistic alterations to the recipe: I used whole wheat flour, added an additional 1/4 cup pumpkin plus 1/2 cup applesauce to lessen the dry factor, used steel cut oats since they were all I had in the house, included 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder + 2/3 cup chocolate chips instead of cranberries because well, #chocolate. Although they required an extra 5 mins of baking, these turned out pretty damn tasty. No ooey gooey, sugar infused chocolate bombs like a normal cookie, but I’ll take it.
I made these into gluten free cookies. I doubled the batch, but only had enough pumpkin for one batch so I added applesauce to make up the difference, added 1/4 tsp of cardamom and ginger and freshly grated nutmeg, I used quick cooking oats, and with half of the brown sugar I used date sugar. Yummy. Perfect recipe to tweak for your needs!!
I love these cookies! They are amazing! I was just wondering how I should be storing them? On the counter in a container or in the fridge?
I would let them cool completely at room temperature, then keep them in an air-tight container in the refrigerator (cooling first makes sure there isn’t any condensation to make the cookies soggy).
LOVED these the way I made them. This recipe was very accommodating to my whims. I changed the recipe as follows… Doubled the recipe, Added some water(about quarter cup) , less oats (maybe half amount called for), subbed a gluten free artisan bread flour I had on hand as the flour, used a whole can of pumpkin, subbed beet sugar for one of the sugars and omitted the other sugar, added hemp seeds, omitted cranberries because we were out of all food fruit, and didn’t quite blend the butter too well in the mix due to doing it with a fork and halfway room temp butter. Best cookies I’ve made in a long time. Everyone loved them even the kids and picky dad.
Loved these! I was kind of expecting from some reviews that they would turn out dry, so I decreased my oven temp to 325 and baked them ~14 min. I used coconut oil instead of butter (don’t do dairy), a little bit more than called for. I didn’t include any dried fruit or add-ins. They came out really soft, moist, and tasty! :)
My husband and I did not like these cookies. Could not even taste pumpkin and they were not sweet at all. They were dry and tasted very blah. I would not recommend this recipe.
Okay, so I didn’t see the other comments, and as everyone said – my initial result was super, super dry.
Fortunately, I made a dummy batch of these the night before, and after Googling, I made some changes that turned out really well! (Note that, IMO, they improved overnight and would have kind of worked as breakfast cookie as was… though still, very dry.)
I made a few changes and the result was really, really good: most importantly at least for my oven, I turned it down to 325 and cooked the cookies for only ~12 minutes; I also added chocolate chips since they were melty and also chocolate; and I added a bit more (~20%) butter and sugar after seeing that similar recipes used twice as much as this one. So, less healthy, but much more party-friendly, and you could definitely go halfway.
Good but not great. The first batch was too dry for my taste so I underbaked subsequent batches and they retained some moisture. Don’t get me wrong…they have a nice flavor and they will eventually disappear with my afternoon coffee. They are just not a cookie I would give away or serve to guests. Also, some cookies taste better the second day and these mat fall into that category.