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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I made these cookies for a fund raiser my women’s group was having. They are very good but i feel they definitely need the frosting. And they do make a lot of cookies, i ended up with about 5 dozen cookies.
Light and airy cookies! love this recipe! I used parchment paper, although it wasn’t required. The icing is divine as well. :)
Does this recipe seriously use 5 sticks of butter? Yikes!
4 sticks is 2 cups
I have a quick question, what type of butter should be used for this recipe? Salted or unsalted? Don’t want to use the wrong kind with how many cookies come out of this recipe. Thanks!
Absolutely wonderful!!!!! Everyone who ate a cookie couldn’t stop eating them and kept saying how delicious they were!!!!!
Truly melt in your mouth !! I am always a little leary of pumpkin in recipes beyond a pumpkin pie recipe because pumpkin can be dense. These cookies are fabulous! So light and soft and absolutely delicious….this recipe is a keeper, thank you for sharing.
The only pumpkin cookie recipe you’ll ever need. Incredibly soft & all around delicious!
Fantastic recipe! Cookies came out wonderful and my family LOVED them!
Excellent! I got approx 8 and a 1/2 dozen cookies, made as directed. I meant to swap out applesauce for 1/2 of the butter, and then forgot…I think :)
After tasting these awesome lil gems, I did change up the frosting a bit: melted 1 stick butter with 1/2 cup brown sugar till dissolved. Cooled a bit, then in medium mixing bowl with hand mixer, poured over 8-oz pk room-temp cream cheese and 1/4 cup real maple syrup (not fake flavored corn syrup) instead of milk. Blend well on low, add 1 tsp vanilla, whip on high just till well mixed and starting to lighten, about 30 secs. No powdered sugar. Sprinkled with ground pecans.
They did take a good 24 hrs to dry–which I was afraid might dry out the cookies, but didn’t at all. I had put them on cookie sheets after frosting tho, not back on racks.
So I think next time (and there will be a next time!) I’ll try dissolving 1 Tbsp cornstarch with the syrup and vanilla first to see if that may shorten drying time.
Thank you for these Crissy!
Hi Robin, thank you so much for your thoughtful comment and all of your tips. Comments like this really help our readers! Glad you loved them!! :)
Instead of 2 eggs could I substitute them,with applesauce? If so how much applesauce?