These pumpkin peanut butter cookies are made with creamy peanut butter, warm spices, and pumpkin puree. They’re soft, chewy, peanut buttery and irresistibly delicious!
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Peanut butter pumpkin cookies are a delicious twist on a classic favorite! These cookies combine the creamy, nutty taste of peanut butter with the warm, comforting flavors of pumpkin and fall spices.
If you’re looking for more pumpkin recipes, try my pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin bread with cream cheese frosting, or pumpkin olive oil cake.
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Why You Will Love This Recipe
- These peanut butter and pumpkin cookies are flavored with warm fall spices. Peanut butter and cinnamon are also so yummy together in my edible peanut butter cookie dough!
- Pumpkin adds a fun spin on peanut butter cookies. Another fun twist on peanut butter cookies, try my peanut butter cookies with Nutella and peanut butter cookies with marshmallows.
- They are soft and chewy.
- You don’t need any fancy equipment or ingredients to make these pumpkin spice peanut butter cookies!
Ingredients
Here are useful notes on some of the ingredients for this peanut butter pumpkin cookie recipe.
- Unsalted Butter: Use room temperature unsalted butter.
- Spices: Cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice add warm flavor to the cookies just like in my pumpkin spice biscotti!
- Peanut Butter: I recommend creamy peanut such as Jif or Skippy. I don’t recommend natural peanut butter for this recipe. For more delicious peanut butter treats, try my peanut butter chocolate pie and peanut butter doughnuts.
- Pumpkin puree- Use canned pure pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling). Squeeze or blot excess moisture out of the pumpkin puree with paper towels for more chewy cookies. If you have extra pumpkin puree, try my spiced pumpkin whoopie pies and pumpkin spice scones.
- Brown Sugar: Use light or dark brown sugar. Brown sugar helps make the cookies chewy and adds a warm molasses flavor.
- An egg: Use 1 large room temperature egg.
Please see recipe card below for full list of ingredients and their measurements.
Substitutions & Variations
- Pumpkin puree can’t be substituted with pumpkin pie filling. Pumpkin pie filling includes spices and sweeteners. Pumpkin puree is purely pumpkin with nothing else added.
- I recommend using store bought pumpkin puree. I haven’t made these using homemade pumpkin puree.
- If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice, you can make your own. Live Well Bake Often has a Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice Recipe you could make! You could substitute the pumpkin pie spice for nutmeg or for more cinnamon.
- Add mini or regular chocolate chips or even chopped chocolate to the cookie dough.
Instructions
Step 1: (Photo 1 above) Place the pumpkin puree on a few thick paper towels. Wrap the paper towels up around the pumpkin puree. Squeeze out all the excess moisture.
Step 2: (Photo 2 above) Beat the butter on high speed til creamy. Mix in the sugars followed by the peanut butter, pumpkin and vanilla.
Step 5: (Photo 5 above) With the mixer on low, mix in the dry ingredients and mix until combined.
Step 6: (Photo 6 above) Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour. While dough chills, stir together sugar and pumpkin pie spice in a shallow bowl.
Step 5: (Photo 5 above) Form balls of 1 rounded tablespoon. Roll each cookie dough ball in pumpkin spice sugar. Place balls on baking sheet 2 inches apart. Push down on the tops of the cookies with a fork to create a criss-cross pattern.
Step 6: (Photo 6 above) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 9-11 minutes.
Expert Tips
Tip #1- Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula. This helps to incorporate all ingredients into the dough.
Tip #2: Dry the pumpkin puree with paper towels for more dense, chewy cookies. This step is optional. If you choose not to dry the pumpkin, the cookies will be more cakey.
Tip #3- Don’t overbake cookies. It can be hard to tell when peanut butter cookies are finished baking because of the color of the dough. Take cookies out of the oven when the edges are very light brown.
Recipe FAQs
Peanut butter cookies are often pressed with a fork in a criss-cross pattern before baking. Peanut butter cookie dough is heavy. Pressing it down before baking helps it spread evenly.
No. This is a no chill cookie recipe. You can refrigerate the dough for up to 1 day if you need to.
Store these cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. Freeze the baked cookies for up to 30 days in an airtight container. Thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature.
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Pumpkin Peanut Butter Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
Pumpkin Peanut Butter Cookies
- ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature
- ⅔ cup peanut butter such as Skippy
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ⅔ cup brown sugar light or dark, packed
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree measure before squeezing out excess moisture, see instructions
- 1⅓ cups all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1¼ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- ¾ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
Pumpkin spice coating
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
Instructions
Pumpkin Peanut Butter Cookies
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium sized bowl, whisk to combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and salt.
- Place the pumpkin puree on a few thick paper towels. Wrap the paper towels up around the pumpkin puree. Squeeze out all the excess moisture. Do this one more time with a few extra paper towels, if needed until you remove most or all of the moisture.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer on medium high speed until smooth and creamy. Add the brown sugar and 1/4 cup of granulated sugar and beat on medium speed for 1-2 minutes, until creamed and combined.
- Use a spatula to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the egg and mix til completely incorporated. Mix in the vanilla, peanut butter and pumpkin puree.
- With the mixer on low, mix in the dry ingredients and mix until combined.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
- While the cookie dough chills, stir together the 1/4 cup sugar and 1 1/2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice in a shallow bowl or rimmed plate. Set aside. Before the cookie dough finishes chilling, preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit.
- Scoop out 1 rounded tablespoon of cookie dough. Roll dough into a ball then roll it in pumpkin spice sugar to coat. Place balls on the baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Lightly push down on the tops of the cookies with a fork to create a criss cross pattern. Dip the fork in the pumpkin spice sugar to prevent sticking.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes, until edges are very light brown. Let cool on the baking sheet for about five minutes then transfer cookies to a rack to cool completely.
Notes
Nutrition
Please note that nutritional values are created by an online calculator and should only be used as an estimate.
Lianne
Amazing recipe! Cookies turned out delicious … Made them a couple of days ago, they disappeared within a couple of hours 🙂
Natalie
Hehe Love to hear they disappeared, Lianne! Thank you so much for making these cookies! Have a great weekend 🙂
Natalie
Hi Victoria, Thanks so much for your helpful feedback. I appreciate those notes and will be sure to update the post. I’m so glad these cookies reminded you of a story about your fiance’s childhood and hope that you both enjoyed the cookies if you tried them out! Have a great week 🙂
Natalie
Thanks for trying this recipe, Jessica. I appreciate your feedback. The pumpkin should be measured before getting rid of some of the moisture and I just updated the recipe card to make sure that’s more clear.