Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (Vegan & Gluten Free)

These pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are light, fluffy and brimming with warm pumpkin spice.  The cookies are vegan, gluten free and refined sugar free.  Packed with dark chocolate, oat flour and a whole can of pumpkin they are a favorite snack, treat and even breakfast around our house.

Yep, that’s right, breakfast.  Our oldest daughter, Anna, refuses anything that isn’t sweet for breakfast.  This child is stubborn, and she left for school multiple times without breakfast after refusing everything savory offered to her.  Sending my child to school without breakfast was tied to some very large mom guilt.  So, I went on a mission to create some sweet breakfast options that were also generally healthy.  That is how these pumpkin cookies were born.

How to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

Start by making your flax eggs and set them aside for 10 minutes to thicken.  You’ll need two bowls for this recipe.  In the first bowl whisk all the dry ingredients: oat flour, baking powder, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and salt.  In the second bowl whisk together the pumpkin, syrup, oil or applesauce, and flax eggs once they’ve thickened.

Next, add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir with a spatula until thoroughly combined and no floury bits remain at the bottom of the bowl.

Add the dark chocolate chips and stir again to incorporate the chocolate chips evenly throughout the batter.

This will be a very wet dough.  Once all the ingredients are combined allow the batter to rest for 10  minutes so that the oat flour can absorb some of the moisture.  This will help the cookies hold their shape when they’re scooped onto the tray for baking.

Use a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop (or a good old spoon) and scoop even sized balls of dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake at 350F for 10-12 minutes, or until they spring back when pressed lightly.  These cookies have a cake-like texture and will be the same shape as when you put them in the oven.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Pumpkin Cookies Tips & Tricks

These cookies are made with oat flour.  You can make your own by grinding whole oats in a blender until powdered or buy oat flour already ground.  Making your own oat flour is easy and much less expensive than buying it already ground, but either one will work.

I usually make these with oil to add some fat to my kids’ diets, but substituting applesauce works just as well if you’re avoiding oil.

These cookies are low in sugar, and contain only about a teaspoon of maple syrup per cookie.  The dark chocolate chips give them enough extra sweetness that my kids have never complained. But, if you like things a little sweeter you can add up to 1/4 cup coconut or other granulated sugar without affecting the dough.

I highly recommend using a 1.5-2 tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop the dough.  This will give you evenly portioned cookies and give them a nice rounded dome.  I use this cookie scoop.  If the dough becomes too sticky while scooping the cookies, place the cookie scoop in a glass of water every few cookies.  This will stop the dough from sticking.

These cookies do not spread, so you can place them close together on the cookie sheet.

So, what are you waiting for?  These pumpkin spice packed cookies are waiting for you. Make them.  Eat them.  Enjoy!

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