How to Make Soft Pumpkin Cookies With Cream Cheese Frosting

Raw pumpkin purée is up to 90% water, according to King Arthur Baking, and that moisture is a big part of why pumpkin cookies bake up soft and cake-like instead of dense and chewy. King Arthur's bakers even compare the texture to a muffin top rather than a traditional cookie. That's not a sign anything went wrong in the kitchen; it's simply what happens unless a recipe accounts for that water content before the dough comes together.

This guide walks through making soft pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting using Sally's Baking Addiction's recipe, which blots some of that moisture out of the purée before mixing, then finishes the cookies with a maple cream cheese frosting. There's no dough chilling step. The dough goes from bowl to oven in minutes, according to Sally McKenney, which makes this an easy soft pumpkin cookies recipe for baking with kids or anyone who doesn't feel like waiting around. Expect about 45 minutes start to finish for 32 cookies, and don't plan on much beyond an electric mixer, a cookie scoop, and a couple of baking sheets.

Decide before mixing whether the cookies need to travel. The maple cream cheese frosting never fully sets once it's spread, per Sally's Baking Addiction, so a stack of frosted cookies in a bag or a car seat is asking for smeared icing. If the batch is heading anywhere, plan to frost it after it arrives instead.

What you'll need

Ingredients for the cookies:

• About 1½ cups 100% pure pumpkin purée, measured before blotting. Skip pumpkin pie filling, which comes pre-sweetened and pre-spiced and throws off both flavor and texture, according to Eat Healthy 365
• Butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar, creamed together (exact weights are on Sally's Baking Addiction's recipe card)
• 1 egg
• Flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt
• Pumpkin pie spice, plus about 2 teaspoons combined extra cinnamon and ground ginger for stronger spice flavor, per Sally's Baking Addiction

Ingredients for the frosting:

• 3 ounces (85g) full-fat cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons (28g) butter, softened
• ¾ cup (90g) confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons (30ml) maple syrup
• A pinch of ground cinnamon, about ⅛ teaspoon

Tools:

• Hand or stand mixer; Sally's Baking Addiction notes an electric mixer is needed to cream the butter and sugars
• Medium cookie scoop, about 1.5 tablespoons
• Parchment-lined baking sheets
• Wire cooling rack
• A plate and paper towels for blotting the purée

Time and yield: 20 minutes prep, 15 minutes bake, about 45 minutes total, 32 cookies, per Sally's Baking Addiction.

Before you start

Measure the pumpkin first, then handle the oven and pans while it rests. There's no need to preheat before the purée has had its full resting time.

Sally's Baking Addiction calls for blotting the purée to remove excess liquid but doesn't spell out an exact technique for doing it. The paper-towel method below comes from Eat Healthy 365, which tested it on ⅔ cup of purée for a different, chewier cookie. Applying that same blotting method to Sally's larger 1½-cup quantity is a reasonable adaptation, not a claim that Eat Healthy 365 tested it at that volume. Treat the timing below as a starting point and judge by how the purée looks rather than the clock alone.

Decide now whether the cookies are staying home or traveling, since the frosting step later depends on that answer.

How to make soft pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting

1. Measure about 1½ cups pumpkin purée (before blotting) and set it aside in a bowl.

2. Blot the purée. Spread it in a thin, even layer over a plate lined with two layers of paper towels and let it rest about 5 minutes, until it looks visibly thicker and drier than it did straight from the can, per Eat Healthy 365. Don't chase an exact number afterward. Sally's Baking Addiction notes the purée usually settles around 1⅓ cups once blotted, and anywhere from 1.33 to 1.5 cups works fine for this dough.

3. Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C) while the purée rests, and line two baking sheets with parchment.

4. Cream the butter and sugars, then beat in the egg. The mixture may look a little curdled at this point. Sally's Baking Addiction notes that's normal, and it smooths out once the dry ingredients and pumpkin are folded in.

5. Whisk the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and ginger) in a separate bowl, then fold them into the butter mixture along with the blotted pumpkin. Mix just until the flour disappears and stop there.

6. Scoop the dough with a medium cookie scoop, spacing mounds about 2 inches apart. Sally's Baking Addiction describes this dough as thick and sticky, which is exactly why a scoop works better here than rolling it by hand.

7. Bake 14 to 15 minutes, until the edges look set, per Sally's Baking Addiction. Trust that edge cue over the clock. Centers may still look a shade underdone at that point, which is normal for a soft, cake-like dough like this one.

8. Cool on the sheet for 5 minutes, then move the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting. Fully cooled means the center feels cool to the touch, not just the edges. Sally McKenney says she personally likes these cookies best on day two, once they've had more time to sit.

Troubleshooting common problems

Dough seems loose or hard to scoop cleanly: the purée likely needed more time on the paper towels. Look for it to appear noticeably thicker and drier before mixing it in, and if it still looks wet, give it a few extra minutes on a fresh set of towels.

Cookies spread thinner than expected: confirm the butter was softened, not melted or overly warm, before creaming. It's also worth checking the oven with a thermometer. A dial can read accurately and still run hotter or cooler than the display shows, and that changes how much a soft dough spreads before it sets.

Centers still look wet or gummy after cooling completely: the batch likely needed more time in the oven. Bake the next tray a minute or two past the point where the edges look set, per Sally's Baking Addiction's doneness cue, rather than pulling every tray at exactly 14 minutes.

Making the cream cheese frosting

Beat the softened cream cheese and butter together until smooth, then blend in the confectioners' sugar, maple syrup, and cinnamon. Frost only cookies that have cooled completely. Both Sally's Baking Addiction and Cheryl's Cooking wait for a full cooldown before icing, which is the cue both recipes use. Spread the frosting in a thin layer out toward the edges rather than mounding it in the center.

This icing never fully sets once it's spread, per Sally's Baking Addiction, so it's a poor fit for stacking or transporting cookies. For transport, leave the cookies unfrosted and frost them after they arrive.

Storing and freezing pumpkin cookies

Cover frosted cookies tightly and they'll keep at room temperature for up to 2 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week, per Sally's Baking Addiction. Unfrosted cookies, covered tightly, hold up at room temperature for up to 1 week.

Both frosted and unfrosted cookies freeze well for up to 3 months, per Sally's Baking Addiction. Thaw them overnight in the refrigerator, then bring them to room temperature before serving. Cheryl's Cooking freezes the cookies unfrosted instead, then adds the icing after thawing.

Make-ahead instructions

The mixed dough can be covered and refrigerated for up to 48 hours, or scooped into balls and frozen for up to 3 months, per Sally's Baking Addiction. Thaw frozen dough balls overnight in the fridge, bring them to room temperature, then bake as directed above.

Variations and swaps

No pumpkin pie spice on hand? Whisk together 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon ginger, ¼ teaspoon ground clove, and ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg, the same blend King Arthur Baking uses in its own pumpkin cookie recipe. Fold in up to 1½ cups of chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, chopped nuts, or dried cranberries after the wet and dry ingredients come together, per Sally's Baking Addiction.

If a chewier cookie is the goal next time, that calls for a different dough rather than a swap in this one. A separate recipe from Eat Healthy 365 gets a chewier bite by using only the egg yolk instead of a whole egg and chilling the dough 20 to 30 minutes before baking. That method hasn't been tested against the dough in this guide, so treat it as its own batch to try another day, not a mid-recipe substitution.

Finishing and serving

A finished batch looks lightly golden at the edges with soft, slightly domed centers, and holds a thin, even layer of frosting without sliding off. If a batch turns out flatter or greasier than expected, check butter temperature and oven accuracy before changing anything else in the recipe.

Let refrigerated frosted cookies warm slightly before serving so the icing loses its chill. Stick with this method for a dependable soft, cake-like cookie, and save the yolk-and-chill variation for a separate experiment on a different day rather than folding it into this batch.