Brown Butter Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (Soft + Chewy)
With brown butter, pools of semisweet chocolate, and a hint of pumpkin pie spice, these soft and gooey pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are the perfect fall bake!
A whiff of fall is in the air, which means it’s time for all things pumpkin. I don’t know about you, but I’m kicking off fall baking season with these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies! They’ve got the perfect amount of chewiness, fall spice, and melty chocolate and are a go-to bake for a reason.
Tips and Tricks for Chewy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
The main challenge in pumpkin cookies is making one that’s not cakey. Since pumpkin purée is 90% water, it adds extra moisture to the dough that interferes with gluten development—combined with the right amount of eggs and flour, this leads to a softer, cake-like crumb instead of that perfect chewy texture.
For this recipe, there are a few extra steps to ensure that we have perfectly chewy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies every time. Here are my top tips:
- Brown the butter. Aside from removing excess water content, browning the butter imparts a complex, nutty flavor that pairs perfectly with the pumpkin and fall spices.
- Roast the pumpkin. To prevent cakey cookies, most recipes call for you to blot excess moisture from the pumpkin purée with paper towels. However, this step is not only tedious, but it doesn’t produce as complex of a flavor as roasting the pumpkin. To make this step super easy, we’re going to cook the purée in the same pan as the browned butter until most of the water is removed.
- Use only egg yolks. Since most of the water content in this the recipe comes from pumpkin, we won’t need the extra moisture in egg whites.
- Chill the dough. When you chill cookie dough, you’re giving the flour a chance to fully hydrate and develop. The longer you chill the cookie dough, the more flavor it will have—while I like to refrigerate it at least overnight, you could even leave it for as long as 5 days.
- Don’t overbake! The cookies should be golden brown on the edges but underdone when you remove them from the oven—they’ll continue to cook on the baking sheet as they cool.
Ingredients You’ll Need
Most ingredients for these cookies are pantry staples, so you probably already have everything on hand! Here’s what you’ll need:
- Unsalted butter. Go for good-quality—since we’re browning the butter, you can taste the difference!
- Pumpkin pie spice. For that perfect fall flavor, we’ll bloom the pumpkin pie spice in the browned butter.
- Pure pumpkin purée. Make sure it’s pumpkin purée and not pumpkin pie filling—my favorite brand to use is Libby’s.
- Light brown sugar. Compared to regular sugar, brown sugar increases the chewiness of your cookies and gives them a richer flavor due to the molasses content.
- Egg yolk. Compared to the whites, egg yolks have a higher fat content that will both emulsify the batter and add chewiness.
- Vanilla extract. Don’t be stingy with the vanilla—it’s an amazing flavor enhancer that takes your cookies to the next level. If you want to make your own vanilla extract, check out my blog post here.
- All-purpose flour. Be sure to properly measure your flour with a spoon and measuring cup—or even better—a digital scale!
- Baking soda. Baking soda provides the perfect amount of spread and browning in these cookies.
- Kosher salt. To balance and enhance the sweetness.
- Semisweet or dark chocolate chips. If you want beautiful pools of chocolate throughout your cookies, use a chopped chocolate bar.
How to Brown Butter
In a nutshell, brown butter is just butter that’s been toasted—when you cook butter past its melting point, the water evaporates and allows the milk solids to toast (these are the dark brown spots you see when it’s done cooking), which gives it that distinct nutty aroma and flavor.
Here are a few of my top tips when it comes to browning butter:
- Have an extra bowl on hand. Once the butter is done, you should immediately pour it into a bowl. If you leave it in the pan, it will continue to cook and burn from the residual heat!
- Use a light-colored pan. Butter can easily go from browned to burned—by using a light-colored pan, you can easily tell when it’s done cooking.
- Cook on medium-low heat. A steady and low heat helps your butter cook evenly and prevents it from burning.
Storage + Freezing Instructions
Since I bake cookies so often, it’s rare that I want to cook off a full batch. So whenever I have leftover cookie dough, I store it in the freezer and bake as needed! Here’s how to do it:
- Scoop the dough as normal. Once the dough is made, use a cookie scoop to portion it onto a sheet pan (no need to space the cookies apart—you won’t be baking them).
- Freeze for one hour. To help the dough set, place the baking sheet into the freezer for at least one hour.
- Store in plastic bags. Place the cookie dough balls in an airtight Ziploc bag and store them in the freezer for up to 6 months.
- Bake as needed. When ready to bake, preheat your oven, take out as many cookies as you want, and bake from frozen per recipe instructions. You might need a minute or two of extra cook time if the cookies don’t look done, but be careful not to overbake!
still hungry? Check out my other fall recipes!
Leave any questions you have in the comments—happy baking!
Brown Butter Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
With brown butter, pools of semisweet chocolate, and a hint of pumpkin pie spice, these soft and gooey pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are the perfect fall bake!
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Servings: 15 cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, cubed
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- ⅓ cup pure pumpkin purée (such as Libby's)
- ¾ cup light brown sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup semisweet or dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Add the pumpkin spice to a large heat-safe mixing bowl and set aside.
- Place the cubed butter into a large saucepan and set it over medium heat, stirring until melted.
- When the butter begins to sputter, stir every ten seconds or so until it bubbles and begins to foam. Once you see brown bits floating in the butter and a nutty aroma is released, immediately remove the pan from the heat.
- To stop the cooking process, pour the butter into the mixing bowl with the pumpkin pie spice, making sure to get all the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Stir the butter and spices together until well incorporated, then set aside to cool to room temperature.
- Add the pumpkin to the same pan from before, then set it over medium-high heat. Using a rubber spatula, stir the purée constantly until it thickens and reduces to ¼ cup, around 3 minutes. Scrape the pan-roasted pumpkin into a bowl and set aside to cool (you can also place the bowl in the fridge to speed up this process).
- Once the brown butter has cooled to room temperature, add in the light brown sugar and whisk for 1-2 minutes until well combined. Beat in the eggs, vanilla extract, and cooled pumpkin.
- Once the mixture is smooth, fold in the flour, baking soda, and salt. Just before the flour is fully combined, add in the chopped chocolate and mix until no more streaks of flour remain. Do not overmix.
- Scoop the dough onto a baking sheet lined with wax or parchment paper (no need to space them apart). Cover the tray with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes but up to 4-5 days. At this point, the cookie dough can be frozen.1
- Preheat the oven to 375℉ and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- When ready to bake, evenly space the cookie dough balls onto the baking sheet with a 2'' gap between each cookie. If desired, press the top of the dough with more chopped chocolate pieces.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, rotating the tray halfway through. Remove the cookies from the oven once the edges are golden brown and set, but do not overbake. The inside of the cookies should still be gooey, as they will continue to cook as they cool. Once out of the oven, sprinkle the cookies with flaky salt and allow to cool before serving.
Notes
- To freeze, portion the cookie dough onto a baking sheet and place it in the freezer for 1 hour. Once firm, store the dough balls in a plastic bag in the freezer for 3-6 months. To cook, follow the baking instructions as written (no need to thaw the dough), though the cookies may need a couple of more minutes in the oven.
