Our melt-in-your-mouth pumpkin cookies are soft, pillowy, and piled with delicious frosting. Add a sprinkle of cinnamon and you truly have the best soft pumpkin cookies recipe ever!
Soft Pumpkin Cookies
I love pumpkin treats during the fall season, and you can’t beat these easy pumpkin spice cookies.
These cookies bake up with a cake-like texture.
They have just the right amount of pumpkin flavor, and honestly, it’s difficult to keep these amazing soft pumpkin cookies on hand after I’ve made a batch.
My dad really loves soft pumpkin cookies and he usually makes oodles of them from store-bought mixes, so when I saw this recipe for pumpkin cookies in an old holiday issue of Better Homes and Gardens, I knew I wanted to give it a whirl.
These cookies really lived up to their name!
The pumpkin flavor in these cookies is sweet and delicious, and yes, these pumpkin cookies are so soft that they really do sort of melt in your mouth.
One really just isn’t enough!
What could be better than a yummy pumpkin cookie, you ask? Well, a yummy FROSTED pumpkin cookie, of course!
How to Make Pumpkin Cookies
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl beat the 2 cups of butter with an electric mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds.
Add granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, the 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and the nutmeg.
Beat until combined. Then, beat in the eggs and 2 teaspoons of vanilla until combined. After that, beat in pumpkin. Finally, beat in as much of the four as you can with the mixer. Stir in remaining flour with a wooden spoon.
Drop dough by heaping teaspoons 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until tops are set. Transfer to wire racks to cool.
For frosting, in a small saucepan heat the 1/2 cup butter and brown sugar until melted and smooth. Transfer to a medium bowl.
Stir in milk and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Beat in powdered sugar until smooth. Spread frosting on cookies. Sprinkle with additional cinnamon if desired.
Don’t forget, we publish the full recipe with specific directions in the recipe card below!
Our Tips
- This recipe makes a LOT of cookies. About 60! It’s great for the holidays when you’re expecting friends and family.
- You really don’t have to use the frosting because the cookies are great on their own, but, who skips frosting?
- I will say that the recipe for the frosting in the magazine did not end up matching the photos featured in the article. I think the recipe was probably printed wrong because I ended up having to add MUCH more powdered sugar to the frosting to produce a more firm, spreadable icing.
If you’re like me, your family will eat most of these pumpkin cookies in a couple days and you can share any excess with your friends or co-workers.
Sprinkle the tops of these luscious melt-in-your-mouth pumpkin cookies and you have a really beautiful holiday cookie that everyone in your family will absolutely adore.
If you’re a pumpkin fiend like me, you’ll also definitely want to check out my pumpkin donuts and pumpkin crunch cake recipes! They are also huge hits with my family!
- Pumpkin Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Pumpkin Cupcakes
- Pumpkin Sheet Cake
- Fantasy Fudge
- Maple Walnut Fudge
Melt-In-Your-Mouth Pumpkin Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
Cookies
- 2 cups butter softened
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 15- ounce can pumpkin
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
Frosting
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 to 4 cups powdered sugar add until desired consistency/firmness
- ground cinnamon sprinkled on top optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl beat the 2 cups of butter with an electric mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, the 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and the nutmeg. Beat until combined. Beat in the eggs and 2 teaspoons of vanilla until combined. Beat in pumpkin. Beat in as much of the four as you can with the mixer. Stir in remaining flour with a wooden spoon.
- Drop dough by heaping teaspoons 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until tops are set. Transfer to wire racks to cool.
- For frosting, in a small saucepan heat the 1/2 cup butter and brown sugar until melted and smooth. Transfer to a medium bowl. Stir in milk and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Beat in powdered sugar until smooth. Spread frosting on cookies. Sprinkle with additional cinnamon if desired.
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Did you use salted or unsalted butter? Thanks!
I made these cookies last year and LOVED them! I’m in a bit of a time crunch this weekend and was wondering if this recipe would turn out ok if I made the dough the night before and baked them the next day?
yes it does, i’ve done that before and it still tastes great!!
These are INCREDIBLY delicious! I’m super picky about pumpkin recipes but, this one is like heaven in your mouth! Yum!
These are absolutely amazing. They’re like mini muffin tops with frosting. I used 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice and a quarter teaspoon of Chinese five spice instead of only the nutmeg and cinnamon.
Maybe next time I’ll add mini chocolate chips, make them larger, and omit the frosting for some regular-sized muffin tops.
Very good and really soft. Turned out like picture
I made the frosting part of this recipe and it came out really good. Not overly sweet, and it was what my pumpkin cookies were missing and desperately needed <3
Are you using pumpkin puree or pumpkin pie filling
I only made the frosting from this recipe, I used another recipe for the actual cookies! Sorry for the confusion.
Love love this recipe! I’ve made it several times and they are always gone in a flash! I am wondering though, if these cookies can be frozen? I would like to make them ahead of time before a gathering and it would be a life saver to freeze them! If anyone else has froze them please let me know! Thanks
We freeze them!! Frosted and all. They aren’t quite as good as fresh, of course, but they are still darn tasty and disappeared at the party we took them to. I think the best method is to make them ahead of time and refrigerate the dough, then bake at the last minute. But if you can’t do that, freezing them really did work out just fine!
I’ve made this recipe several times now and it always gets SO many compliments – so I figured it was time to leave you a comment to let you know! Even people who “don’t care for pumpkin” end up loving these. I’d make them more, but icing 80 cookies takes up a big chunk of time. I *might* see what happens if I spread the dough in a pan and make a cookie bar type of situation so I can ice them easier.
Bre, I’m so glad that you love the cookies and thank you so much for leaving a comment! :)
I made my frosting more like an icing. I added a little bit more milk to it and then that way I could take like a measuring cup scoop up Some and then I just drizzled over the top of the cookies
I don’t like frosting on pumpkin cookies so I added 2 cups of chocolate chips and a package of cinnamon chips. They were delicious.
Made my first batch today. They turned out fabulous. So far everyone that has tried them loves them. Will definitely make again for the teachers at school. Thank you for sharing.