Craving a really good chewy pumpkin cookie? These cookies are super soft and chewy, with a good buttery, pumpkin spice flavor and laced with bits of peanut butter cups. Because chocolate, peanut butter and pumpkin were meant for each other, don’t you think?

Last weekend I was up at my mom and dad’s house for our annual pumpkin-picking festival. I woke up in the morning craving a good cookie, so to stick with the theme of the weekend, I googled pumpkin cookies and all I saw in the pages and pages of results were cakey pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting. Don’t get me wrong … cakey pumpkin cookies are all well and good, but THAT’S not at all what I was seeking. I wanted something way more chocolate chip cookie-like, but with a pumpkin twist. I adapted my search and stumbled upon a recipe from Butternut Baking for Chewy Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter & Maple. That sounded more like what I was searching for, but they definitely needed chocolate. And I had just the thing …

I showed my niece the picture and said “wanna bake some cookies?” and her eyes lit up and she said “YES”. So we got to work. She did most of the stirring and such while I pulled together all the ingredients.

Browned butter, softened butter or melted butter?

I know some people ooh and ah over browned butter, but we skipped the brown butter thing. Frankly, browned butter tastes good, but it’s an extra step and it’s easy to mess up, and frankly, not something I’ve ever really appreciated for all the care and effort that it takes. Perhaps I’ve been doing it wrong, but I really didn’t want to mess with browning the butter. If you’re into browned butter, then go for it.

But for us, instead we softened the butter in the microwave and ended up with butter that was partially melted, which was quite perfect. I was going for softened butter, but my niece says she always just melts the butter. We ended up with a happy medium.

It turns out that melting the butter actually makes the cookies chewier, according to the Kitchn, which is kinda really what we were after, so no wonder our cookies turned out perfectly chewy and wonderful!

Our path to chewy, chocolatey pumpkin cookies

We had to add a bit of flour because our first batch of cookies were way too flat. Yes, they were chewy, but they didn’t have the right rise and beautiful shape to them that we wanted. After adding just a bit more flour, we decided they were perfect.

We also used all whole wheat flour in our cookies. Whole wheat flour is just really good in cookies … it gives them more substance, a great texture, good flavor and besides all that, it’s better for you! I’m not going to claim that these cookies are super healthy because no, they are not, but they are an excellent autumn treat that helps satisfy those cravings for pumpkin and chocolate. If you can limit yourself to just one, you’ll be good.

If you scoop your cookie batter up with a regular size spoon, you’ll get about 36 in a batch, and each cookie is just 120 calories.

One thing I didn’t mention or include in the recipe was that after two cookie batches, we decided to cut up some truffles we had and stuck a couple truffle chunks on each cookie. They melted all over the tops and looked a little messy, but they did add good chocolate flavor that my niece really loved.

We found a box to package them up so she could take most of the cookies home, leaving about half dozen in the cookie jar for grampa to eat and a few for me to take home. We ate several before they even got boxed up, so I think we may have had even more than 36 … honestly, I didn’t count.

Chewy Peanut Butter Cup Pumpkin Cookies

Author: Ann
Prep Time: 15 min
Cook Time: 30 – 45 min
Total Time: 1 hour
Yield: 24 – 36 cookies 1x
Category: Cookie
Method: Baked
Cuisine: American
Diet: Vegetarian

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Ingredients

Scale

1 cup butter, preferably grass-fed, partially melted
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
1 egg
2 Tablespoons honey or maple syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
2 1/2 cups whole wheat (or white whole wheat) flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
Mix-ins: About 15 – 17 mini peanut butter cups, unwrapped and chopped

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray 1 or 2 cookie sheets with cooking spray.
In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar until no butter “smears” remain, then stir in the egg, honey or maple syrup, vanilla and pumpkin until fully mixed.
Sprinkle the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice over top, then stir to mix. The dough should be nice and thick, not too sticky. If it seems too soft, add a bit more flour. Stir in the chopped chocolate peanut butter cups.
Use a spoon or small/medium cookie scoop to scoop up cookie-size portions. Set on the prepared baking sheets at least 2 inches apart (to allow for spreading) and gently add a couple chunks of chopped chocolate (or better yet, chopped chocolate truffles!) into the top of each cookie.
Bake at 350 F. for 18 – 25 minutes or until the cookies are nicely browned on the edges, but still puffy on the inside. Let the cookies sit on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then use a spatula to move them to a cooling rack. Repeat until all the cookie dough is exhausted … or once you’ve got enough cookies for now, put the dough into a covered container in the fridge and bake as desired.

Notes

Baking time will vary depending on your oven and size of the cookies.

Dough will keep 2 – 4 weeks in the fridge, but will puff up best if baked within 2 weeks. If it’s going to be longer, put the dough in the freezer.

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