Our Gluten Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies are perfect for fall weekends, after school snacks, or school parties. They are top 8 allergen free and easy to make!
Now that fall is here, we’re in the thick of pumpkin recipe season, brace yourself! Just kidding (sort of). I’ll be posting pumpkin spice recipes to celebrate the change of seasons, but won’t go overboard.
We celebrated the start of fall by heading to a pumpkin patch in a nearby town last weekend, got to see some cool white turkeys, and baked some pumpkin treats, like these Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Our Gluten Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies are based on my older recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chunk cookies, but this recipe is made with completely different ingredients. If you want a recipe that doesn’t use a gluten free flour blend, check out that recipe (it uses brown rice flour).
Why we love these soft pumpkin cookies
These cookies are nice and cakey inside, so if you are a fan of a thicker and cakier cookie, these are for you!
They are slightly less sweet than our other pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and I think they have an even better taste and texture the following day.
How to make gluten free thick and soft pumpkin chocolate chip cookies
These cookies are incredibly easy to make since I used a gluten free all-purpose flour blend instead of my normal sorghum or brown rice flour with flaxseed combo. These cookies are nearly foolproof – unless you burn them or change the ingredients, they won’t fail!
Here are the steps for making these cookies. This is just an overview, the full recipe card is at the end of the post!
- Preheat the oven to 350° F and line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
- In a medium sized bowl, use a hand mixer to cream together the dairy free butter, brown sugar, pumpkin puree, and vanilla.
- Mix in the gluten free all purpose baking mix, the sorghum flour, cinnamon, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and salt until mixed well. The cookie dough will be thick, but will be sticky and won’t be rollable.
- Mix in the chocolate chips.
- Drop the dough by spoonfuls onto the parchment pans about 2 inches apart. The cookie dough can be about 1-2 inches across in size.
- Use your hands or a spoon to gently shape the cookie dough into round-ish shapes, gently pressing down any pointy spots where the dough sticks out. But don’t flatten the dough too much.
- Bake for 13 minutes.
- Allow to cool on the pan for 5 to 10 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 4 days or freeze for later.
Recipe notes
Most gluten free all-purpose baking blends should probably work in this recipe fine, but I used the King Arthur Flour gluten free baking mix in this recipe.
Using either gluten free all-purpose flour or regular all-purpose flour, there is no need for eggs in this recipe since the gluten free AP flour has xanthan gum and tapioca starch as binders, and regular AP flour has gluten as a binder. No need for eggs (similar to my sugar cookie recipe)!
We used regular allergy friendly chocolate chips in this recipe, but you can have some fun with this and use mini chocolate chips or dairy free white chocolate chips. Whichever you prefer! If you can have nuts, throw in some chopped pecans for a little extra crunch and flavor.
We recently updated this post with new photos, updated text, and a few small changes in the recipe to make them even better. Here are a couple of our older photos:
Check out our other pumpkin recipes:
- Gluten Free Instant Pot Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal
- Gluten Free Dairy Free Pumpkin Spice Pancakes
- No Bake Pumpkin Pie
- Easy Crustless Pumpkin Pie
- Sugar Free Pumpkin Spice Creamer
- Vegan and Gluten Free Pumpkin Cheesecake
- Pumpkin Spice Rice Crispy Treats
- Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
- Pumpkin Spice Donuts with Cinnamon Glaze
Gluten Free Thick and Soft Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (Vegan)
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup dairy free butter (I used Country Crock Homestyle butter sticks)
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ⅓ cup canned pumpkin puree
- 1 cup King Arthur gluten free all-purpose baking mix
- ¼ cup Authentic Foods superfine sorghum flour
- ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup allergy friendly chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
- In a medium-sized bowl, use a hand mixer to cream together the dairy free butter, brown sugar, and vanilla. The dairy free butter doesn't have to be softened, you can soften it with the hand mixer with the brown sugar.
- Add the pumpkin puree and mix again.
- Mix in the gluten free baking mix, sorghum flour, cinnamon, pie spice, baking powder, and salt. Mix until everything is blended well. You should have cookie dough that is thick, but not rollable.
- Mix in the chocolate chips.
- Scoop onto the prepared sheet pan by rounded spoonfuls. Use your fingers to lightly shape the dough into rounds (not flattening the tops too much), smoothing out any pointy bits of dough.
- Bake for 13 minutes. Cool on the pan for about 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 4 days, or freeze for later.
Notes
Nutrition
Pin for later!
Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie which she founded in 2011. Sarah is based in Wyoming and has been managing food allergies for herself and her 2 children for over 20 years. Sarah was also a certified personal trainer for 12 years, as well as a group fitness instructor, health coach, running coach, and fitness nutrition specialist.
I never comment on recipes. I also have never made an actually good vegan cookie. This recipe has changed all of that. It’s amazing. I replaced the palm oil shortening with vegan butter, and hand blended rather than using the hand mixer (it was a little tedious, but worth the results). These cookies are so good, will definitely be making again! Thank you!
Thank you Sarah! That’s a great idea to use dairy free butter, I’ll have to try that in my next batch 🙂
I made these with 1 Cup of pumpkin instead of 1/3 a cup, and added 1 egg and they turned out awesome.
Great to hear Sonya, thank you for sharing your modifications!
Great Treat! I made my own brown sugar using Classic granulated monk fruit and 1 tsp of molasses to reduce refined sugar content. It was hard for me to tell if they had browned enough so I think I over baked by a couple of minutes, lesson learned, but I really enjoy the savory flavor of the pumpkin and spices with the sweetness of the chocolate chips. I used Enjoy Life dairy free. Will be making these again. Thank you for the recipe
Thank you Lori! So glad you loved these cookies 🙂