The Best Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Are you ready to make the best pumpkin chocolate chip cookies? These beauties are soft and packed with the perfect blend of pumpkin spice and rich semi sweet chocolate chips. Although these cookies have the cozy flavors of fall baked into them, they are amazing at any time of the year! They are easy to make and guaranteed to fill your kitchen with the irresistible aroma of autumn. Let’s dive in.

Ingredients

First, gather all your ingredients and weigh them using your kitchen scale. You’ll need oil (I use vegetable or canola), brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pumpkin spice, and pumpkin. Pumpkin spice is a blend of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves. If you don’t have pumpkin spice, you can easily make your own—there’s a recipe for it here. This recipe calls for a 28 oz can of pumpkin, but you can halve the recipe and use a 15 oz can if you prefer.

After weighing the flour, mix the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin spice into the flour. This ensures even distribution, preventing clumps, promoting balanced leavening, and enhancing flavors. Next, get your chocolate chips ready. While you can use regular semi-sweet chips, I prefer mini semi-sweet chips. Their smaller size blends more evenly into the dough, balancing the pumpkin flavor without overpowering it. Plus, they melt faster and create smoother chocolate pockets rather than large chunks.

How to make the best pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

Once everything is weighed and prepped, start by adding the oil to the mixing bowl. I like to do this first to prevent the sugar from sticking to the bottom of the bowl. Next, add both the sugars, and then the pumpkin on top. If the pumpkin doesn’t slide out of the can, use a spatula to scrape out every bit of that pumpkin goodness.

Place the mixing bowl on the mixer and turn it to a low speed. Let it run for 30 seconds to a minute. Starting on low prevents the sugar, pumpkin, and oil from splattering out of the bowl. Higher speeds might cause the dry sugar to fly out or the wet ingredients to splash.

Once the ingredients are safely combined, increase the mixer speed to medium (about 4-5 on a KitchenAid). Let this mix for 5 minutes. This process incorporates air into the batter, allowing the sugar to dissolve and the oil and pumpkin to emulsify properly. This results in a smoother, more consistent dough.

After 5 minutes of mixing, stop the mixer, lower the bowl, and scrape down the sides and bottom. Ingredients can stick to the sides, and scraping ensures they blend fully into the mixture. Once scraped, raise the bowl and mix again for another minute on medium speed.

Next, stop the mixer and add the dry ingredients and chocolate chips to the batter. You may need to remove the bowl from the mixer to add everything in. Use the paddle to push the flour into the wet mixture.

Return the bowl to the mixer and “pulse” the mixture to avoid a flour explosion. To do this, turn the mixer on low, then quickly off, repeating until the ingredients are lightly combined and won’t fly out of the bowl. Once it’s safe, turn the mixer on low to let the ingredients fully incorporate. Allow it to run until a nice batter forms, then increase the speed to medium for 1-2 minutes.

After mixing, stop the mixer and scrape the bowl again—sides and bottom—to make sure nothing is sticking. Mix on medium for another minute.

Once done, remove the bowl from the mixer and scrape the paddle clean. Prepare your pans with parchment paper.

For scooping, I use a 1-1/3 oz scoop, but you can use any size. Just remember that the baking time may vary with different scoop sizes.

Here’s a pro tip: spray the inside of your scoop with non-stick cooking spray before scooping the batter. This prevents the dough from sticking and makes scooping easier. The batter might eventually stick a bit, but this trick helps reduce the mess. If the batter starts sticking too much, clean out the scoop and spray it again.

When you’re nearing the end of the batter, use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl, gathering all the remaining dough.

Once all the cookies are scooped, bake them in a preheated 350°F oven for 14-15 minutes. Keep in mind that all ovens bake differently, so adjust the time depending on the size of your cookies and your oven.

Print