No one will guess these delicious pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are vegan! Thick, chewy, and made with real pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice, they’re one of the best pumpkin cookie recipes ever! Make sure to cool the cookies completely, which take them from soft cakey to nice and chewy!!!

Pumpkin Chocolate Cookies, Please!
The main problem with most pumpkin cookie recipes? They come out soft and cakey, instead of chewy and crunchy. The second problem with most pumpkin cookie recipes? Little to no pumpkin flavor.
This is because a lot of pumpkin cookie recipes rely solely on pumpkin pie spice to flavor their cookie dough. As a professional baker, I understand the why behind this. Adding pumpkin pie spice to the dry ingredients will have little to no impact on the texture. Whereas adding pumpkin puree will completely change the texture of the pumpkin cookie recipe.
My solution to this pumpkin cookie recipe conundrum? Eliminate eggs, add pumpkin, and add molasses to further increase the pumpkin flavor. The result? A chewy cookie that actually has pumpkin flavor!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies: Ingredients
- Coconut Oil: Instead of butter, we use flavorsome coconut oil. If you’re not vegan and would like to use butter, feel free to use 1 cup of room temperature butter instead. If you’re using coconut oil, make sure it’s not liquid. And don’t sub vegetable oil, canola oil, or olive oil.
- Sugar: A combination of granulated sugar and brown sugar sweeten the cookies, and given them structure.
- Vanilla Extract: Vanilla adds its signature rich flavor while enhancing the other flavors in this pumpkin cookie recipe,.
- Molasses: I think molasses enhance the pumpkin flavor. But feel free to omit this ingredient or sub with maple syrup.
- Coconut Milk: (almond or soy milk will also work)
- Pumpkin Puree: I don’t suggest subbing pumpkin pie mix for the pumpkin puree.
- All-Purpose Flour: For best results, weigh your all purpose flour with a digital kitchen scale.
- Baking Soda: Make sure your baking soda is fresh and don’t sub with baking powder.
- Salt: A pinch of salt balances sweetness and enhances the flavors in the cookie dough.
- Pumpkin Pie Spice: Feel free to add an extra teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice for even more delicious pumpkin pie spice flavor!
- Chocolate Chips: I love these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies exploding with chocolate chips! But my husband argues the chocolate can blanket the pumpkin flavor. So you might want to reduce the chocolate chips if a pumpkin forward cookie is your main objective.
- Flaky Sea Salt: This is an. optional ingredient, but we love sprinkling the cookies with sea salt once they’ve come out of the oven.

Let’s Bake Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Unlike many recipes that call for your oven to 350, this recipe asks you preheat your oven to 375.
- Make the cookie dough then drop the dough in large mounds onto the lined baking sheets.
- Bake for about 10 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for at least 30 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
- Eat and enjoy these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies FAQ
- First of all, let’s talk about texture! These cookies are crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. They are NOT cakey pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. But they do come out of the oven VERY soft. So it’s crucial to cool the cookies on the baking sheet for at least 30 minutes before serving. But if you can, I suggest letting them cool a full hour! The longer they sit, the firmer and chewier and they get. The silver lining is that these cookies taste even better with time!
- So now that we’ve covered texture, let’s move onto flavor. Because these vegan pumpkin chocolate chip cookies have a lot of it! In addition to real pumpkin puree (be sure not to grab pumpkin pie mix by accident!), these cookies are flavored with brown sugar, vanilla, molasses, and pumpkin spice. Yum ♥

- These pumpkin choc chip cookies don’t spread out too much while they bake, so be sure to scoop the dough into mounds, then lightly press down the top of the mound before baking.
- I make VERY large cookies with this recipe, and usually get about 1 dozen. However you can make smaller cookies, just be sure to decrease the bake time a minute or two.
- For extra pretty – and extra chocolatey – cookies, press a few chocolate chips on top of them right when they come out of the oven. You can also add a sprinkle of flaky sea salt!
- If you don’t like coconut flavor, you should use refined coconut oil, which does not have a coconut taste or scent. If you don’t have coconut milk, almond milk or soy milk will work fine!
- Finally, be sure not to over bake your cookies! As I mentioned earlier, they will be very soft when you remove them from the oven, but they firm up a lot while they cool.


These are hands down the tastiest pumpkin chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever eaten! Not cakey, plenty of pumpkin flavor, and soooooo many chocolate chips… I mean, what’s not to love? The fact that they’re vegan is really just the icing on the cake 😉
If you try this recipe for Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, let me know! Leave a comment below and don’t forget to snap a pic and tag it #bakerbynature on instagram! Seeing your kitchen creations makes my day.
More Vegan Cookie Recipes:
- The Most Wonderful Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever
- Vegan Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chewy Chocolate Fudge Cookies (Vegan)

Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (113g) coconut oil, solid (be sure it’s not melted at all)
- 3/4 cups (159g) dark brown sugar, packed
- 1/2 cup (99g) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 Tablespoons (40ml) unsulphured molasses
- 2 Tablespoons (28ml) unsweetened coconut milk (almond or soy milk will also work)
- 1/3 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix!)
- 2 and 1/4 cups (275g) cups all-purpose flour (be sure not to pack your flour)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 and 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1 and 1/2 cups chocolate chips (use vegan chocolate chips if vegan) divided
- Flaky sea salt optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees (F). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl using a handheld electric mixer, beat the coconut oil, both sugars, and vanilla on medium-speed until smooth; about 2 minutes. Add in the molasses, coconut milk and pumpkin puree and beat on low speed until well combined. Turn mixer off.
- In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice; whisk well to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients into the wet mixture and, with the mixer on low speed, beat until ingredients are combined. The batter will be very thick! Fold in 1 and 1/4 cups of the chocolate chips.
- Scoop three tablespoon sized mounds of dough onto the prepared cookie sheet, leaving a few inches between each cookie. Bake for 9 to 10 minutes, or until the edges are golden and the centers are soft but set. Press remaining chocolate chips on top of warm cookies, and sprinkle with sea salt, if using. Cool cookies on the baking sheet for 30 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.






Delish! If you don’t have coconut oil, I used 1/2 cup of butter…turned out great!
My daughter has severe food allergies so I am constantly attempting vegan recipes for her and these are THE BEST COOKIES I HAVE EVER MADE – vegan or not! Truly perfect, and I’m not even a pumpkin lover! My question is whether or not I can freeze some. I’d love to make another batch with my leftover pumpkin purée and keep a stash in the freezer, if they’ll thaw ok! Thank you so much for this perfect treat!
I’ve been able to freeze the dough and make them later. Sometimes I just eat the frozen dough. The cookies came out fine.
Wow! These look so perfect for the season!
Holy cow! I just finished making these cookies and they turned out so good! I used vegan butter instead of coconut oil, and oat milk instead of the milks that were suggested. I did approximately 1.5 tablespoon sized scoops and baked for seven minutes then let them rest on the pan for three minutes. They turned out perfect.
Every time I make these cookies, I get loads of compliments!! These are showstoppers and everyone should make it once in their life! I don’t actually make them vegan, but man when I say people scarf them up! A wonderful and easy recipe! Make them!!
Amazing cookies – and with all my heart I am so grateful to enjoy something close to my childhood Chocolate Chip Drop archway cookies. As is usually the case for me, I was out of apple sauce, so subbed in more pumpkin and a splash of maple syrup and it all worked out fine! Thanks so much!
Can you use canola oil instead of coconut oil?
I made these with gluten free 1:1 flour, and they came out great. New favorite at our house!
These are delicious! Thanks for sharing the recipe.
I have two questions though:
Mine were a little more cakey than chewy. I ended up using maple syrup since I didn’t have molasses. Could that be the reason for the different texture?
How do I get my cookies to look like yours? Mine were smooth on top.
Best chocolate chip cookie!! I love this. It’s perfect for fall. The texture and flavor is unbeatable.