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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Yummy recipe. I love that they are so soft. I didn’t bother with the icing they are great plain.
My dough came out a bit sticky . Where I couldn’t use a scoop cuz it would stick to it . What am I missing
I only wish that you would reply to all the questions. A few people asked salted or unsalted butter.
I used salted butter and they came out great!
All baking recipes call of unsalted butter. You can add salt to the batter to taste. Salted butter is usually too much salt.
I always use salted butter when making cookies. I cut the required amount of salt in half. I’ve been making cookies since 1965.
Absolutely amazing! A batch just came out of the oven. These cookies have incredible flavor and texture. I can’t wait to try one with the frosting, but definitely don’t need it. Thanks for sharing😃
These were incredible! Shared with some neighbors and they all loved them.
Cookies: I ran out of regular sugar, so I subbed with half a cup of brown sugar. I also added ginger, cloves and a few sprinkles of Chinese five spice.
Icing: I subbed 1/2 cup of coconut oil since I ran out of butter and it turned out excellent. The icing was very sweet so I just drizzled it on. The cookies were so delicious, the icing was not even needed!
I made these for my brothers 20th birthday this October, and now my dad is requesting them for his birthday also this month! These cookies are fluffy, moist and literally melt in your mouth. I made my own cream cheese frosting along with them, so unbelievably delicious! I didn’t have nutmeg- I used 1 TBS cinnamon and 1 TBS of pumpkin spice powder, then sprinkled some on top of the frosting too.
I had one question. I really want to try this recipe, but idk how I feel about 60 COOKIES! Lol is there any way I could half this recipe? Will it still taste/have the same texture if I half the ingredients?
Yes, you can always halve cookie recipes. Cakes are harder to trust, but cookies are no problem.
I think you can halve any recipes, as long as you don’t have to go lower than 1 egg, or something else in the recipe that is indivisible. In this case, the recipe calls for 2 eggs, so I divided everything by 2. It still made over 40 cookies for me.
Andrea I halfed the recipe and still made over 3 dozen! I make them a little smaller. Still came out great!
Part of the issue with halving this recipe is what you do with a leftover half a can of pumpkin filling. If you can find smaller than a 15oz can then good on you, but it’s mostly the same amount of work to make 30 and it’s only a bad thing for your diet that there’s 60. If you really struggle with having 60 in the house, as the other reviews say, those you share with will be happy to help find a place for the extras!
The pum pum was yum yum 😋
I just made these and they are delicious!! I love how light and fluffy they are. Thanks for the recipe!
I made the melt-your-mouth-pumpkin cookies and they lived up to the description. They melt in your mouth. They have the texture of loft house cookies. Will definitely make again. They are very easy to make and most of the ingredients one would already have in their pantry.