Healthy & Chewy Oatmeal Pumpkin Cookies
These Oatmeal Pumpkin Cookies are the perfect dessert to make for fall! Made from white whole wheat flour, oats, and lower in added sugar than most cookie recipes, these healthy cookies are chewy, full of pumpkin and warm fall flavors.
Healthy oatmeal pumpkin cookies
Fall is basically here . I mean, it’s September, after all — except it doesn’t really feel like it in San Diego. It is hot, hot, hot and will be for a while yet. That is just kinda how we do fall in Southern Cali. I suppose it is the trade off for not having to shovel our cars out of snowbanks in mid-January.
But the Maine girl in me waits for fall and pumpkin season on bated breath every year. And even though it doesn’t feel like autumn where I am yet, I am determined to make it taste and smell like fall in my house.
I’ve been waiting all year to make these pumpkin cookies. And even though it means I have to turn my oven on in my already-hot kitchen, these oatmeal pumpkin cookies totally make the sweat worth it!
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What is “pumpkin pie spice?”
This oatmeal pumpkin cookie recipe (along with many other pumpkin recipes) calls for pumpkin pie spice.
Pumpkin pie spice is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a blend of spices that are commonly used together to give pumpkin pie that warm fall flavor that many of us have come to love.
You can usually find pumpkin pie spice with all the more commonly used spices at your local grocer. But, if you can’t find it or simply don’t want to run out the the store, you can easily make your own using the following:
- 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Just combine in a jar with a lid. Secure the lid on top, shake to mix everything up and enjoy in this recipe. Plus, you will have leftovers to enjoy in your next pumpkin creation!
Where to find pumpkin puree
Chances are, if you have ever made a pumpkin pie or pumpkin anything…you likely know a place to get some pumpkin puree. However, if you are a newbie at cooking with pumpkin, head to your nearest store and grab a can of pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling!) to make whipping up these cookies that much easier!
You can find pureed pumpkin (and sweet potatoes and butternut squash) in most grocery stores (here in the US, at least) where they keep canned veggies or beans.
Look for purees that are JUST the pumpkin and without any added sweetener or spice.
Suggested Adaptations
- Use raisins instead of chocolate chips.
- Replace the the pumpkin puree with butternut squash puree or sweet potato puree.
- Make them gluten free by subbing the whole wheat flour in this oatmeal pumpkin cookies with a cup-for-cup gluten free flour blend and using certified gluten free rolled oats.
- Make them egg-free by replacing the egg with 1 flax egg.
Other pumpkin recipes that are going to knock your socks off!
- Healthy Carrot Pumpkin Muffins
- Breakfast Pumpkin Soufflé
- Peanut Butter Pumpkin Bread
- Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies (with pumpkin)
- Pumpkin Chia Seed Pudding
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Healthy & Chewy Oatmeal Pumpkin Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup quick-cooking “instant” oats, see notes below for how to make your own
- 1 cup white whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup cane sugar, or coconut sugar
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ cup pumpkin puree
- ¼ cup melted coconut oil or butter
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup chocolate chips, or to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉ and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, combine flour, oats, salt, baking powder, sugar, pumpkin pie spice and nutmeg. Whisk together and set aside.
- In another bowl, combine pumpkin puree, egg, melted butter or oil, and vanilla. Whisk together.
- Pour wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix until everything is combined and dough has an even consistency.
- Fold in chocolate chips. Chill dough in fridge for 30 minutes.
- Using a heaping tablespoon or small cookie scoop, portion the dough out onto the prepared cookie sheet, leaving room in between each cookie. Gently press down with your hand to flatten each cookie a bit.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Enjoy or cool complete before storing in an air tight container for 4 days or in freezer for months.
Notes
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/2 cup applesauce
- 3 Tablespoons oil
- 1/3 cup maple syrup or honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
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Preheat oven to 350℉ and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
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In a medium bowl, combine flour, oats, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice. Whisk together and set aside.
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In another bowl, combine pumpkin puree, egg, oil, applesauce, vanilla, and syrup. Whisk together.
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Pour wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix until everything is combined and dough has an even consistency.
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Fold in chocolate chips.
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Using a heaping tablespoon or small cookie scoop, portion the dough out onto the prepared cookie sheet, leaving room in between each cookie. Gently press down with your hand to flatten each cookie a bit.
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Bake for 15 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Enjoy or cool complete before storing in an air tight container for 4 days or in freezer for months.
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Really good! Family loved them!
I am looking forward to making these, and I am guessing there is one egg from the directions but I believe it may be missing from your ingredient list. Or am I missing it? That could be entirely possible…
You were right! The plugin I use for making my recipe cards likes to sometimes delete eggs out of recipes. Just eggs for some reason 🤪! Thanks for catching that and letting me know! All fixed
Love the taste and texture. Only thing different I did was raisins over chocolate cause I LOVE raisins. Added to the list of other recipes from here I will make
I am so glad you enjoyed them! And I love the sub of raisins!
Hello, question if I may? I can not eat wheat flour, can I use almond? Or
Hi Hilary! I haven’t tried it with almond flour and it might work! I find that almond meal has some more natural oils and so the cookies might be a bit softer than the ones pictured here! If you give it a try, please let me know how it goes.
I can start any day quick’n’easy if my cookie jar is full of these delicious cookies. I love how you’ve combined oatmeal and pumpkin – just perfect. 🙂
A classic combo, inded!
Usually I love your recipes but I found this one to be pretty bland except the chocolate chips. It’s also a little too chewy to be a real cookie, in my opinion.
Hi MR. Sorry to hear these were not a success. Did you make any changes? I’m surprised to hear they were bland considering the cinnamon + pumpkin pie spice in it…but we all have different tastes and preferences, so I get not every recipe will be everyone’s thing. Thanks for trying them and I’m glad to hear other recipes of mine have been a success.
Made these cookies using Almond Flour and Dark Chocolate Chips and as you mentioned in a comment above, the cookies are soft however in my opinion still delicious!
I’m so glad you liked them, Valerie!
I really loved these cookies! I thought it was really smart to add the apple sauce to compliment the pumpkin and sweeten the batter naturally. (really liked that there wasn’t any sugar in this recipe!)I personally love a little more kick of spice so I added a 1/4 tsp. of cloves to the batter, and I really liked it. I loved the spongy texture that I always look for in pumpkin cookies! This recipe really rocked!
Awesome …. Mixing my favourites into one and it works perfect.
Thank you this is my new way of cooking pumpkin and oatmeal
I’m so glad you enjoyed these as much as we do! Thank you for taking the time to leave a review!
Can I replace the apple sauce with brown sugar?
The applesauce offers both sweetness and moisture to the cookies, so I’d suggest adding extra pumpkin if you use brown sugar to sweeten it.
Looks good and healthy
Thanks!
I feel terrible reviewing these so low, but don’t waste your time or ingredients. I made these for dessert tonight & they weren’t good at all. I threw them away. Such a bummer. I was really looking forward to baking my first fall treat.
I’m sorry they weren’t what you were hoping, Morgan. Can you share what didn’t work for you? Texture? I know these are cakey vs crisp like many hope for in a cookie (and so hard to achieve with pumpkin cookies). Not sweet enough? I ask for myself (so I know what recipes just aren’t someone’s taste and which ones to revisit for further testing) and readers…since some people truly love these! Thanks
Thank you for asking for feedback! They tasted very bland & not sweet at all. I used maple syrup.
Thanks for getting back to me! Pumpkin baked goods (in my opinion) are kinda tricky to keep lower in sugar since it doesn’t offer much natural sweetness, especially when using maple syrup as the sweetener. Did you omit the chocolate chips (not that they should lean on that to make them good) or make any other changes? I actually played around with the recipe today, thanks to your review. Putting out quality recipes is important to me and I appreciate knowing when a recipe that my family and I might enjoy, simply isn’t working out there “in the wild.”
I didn’t omit any ingredients. Especially chocolate chips lol
Good to know! Thank you
These were sooooo good! All 6 of us- down to the youngest 5 year old- loves these!
I had a lot of pumpkin to use up so I took a chance on these and double the recipe without having ever tried them.
Best decision ever!
They were good!!! This will be our autumn staple cookie! Thank you for sharing and making our whole family happy!!
I am so glad you enjoyed them, Jukie! I love that it was a family-wide hit!
Can i use oat flour instead rolled oat flour?
Sure, that should work
I made the 2nd recipe listed, mainly because it fit with ingredients I already had. I made a few alterations-doubled the salt and pumpkin pie spice and added a few pinches of cloves. I really wanted them to taste pumpkinny, obviously! I was concerned because the batter ended up a bit bitter (probably due to all the extra spices I put in) so as I formed the cookies, my husband pressed 2 raisins into the top of each one to add some extra sweetness.. They turned out SO GOOD! Loaded with pumpkin pie flavor! I will definitely be making them again-thank you!
I’m so glad, Laura! Love the added spices. Cloves really add a fall feel to a baked good.
I just made the original recipe. They are so delicious! Thank you for sharing such a delicious, healthy recipe.
So glad you enjoyed them!
Wondering if I could use Almond flour instead of whole wheat flour for the oatmeal pumpkin chocolate chip cookies? If so what would the measurements and bake time be?
Thanks.
I know many people find success in swapping whole wheat flour with almond in many baking recipes, so that might work! I haven’t tested it with this recipe, but if you give it a go, I’d love to hear how they turn out!
I’ve made these countless times and also modified the recipe to make them cranberry orange flavor. Great cookies by any measure and bonus because they’re healthy!
Love that twist! How do you modify it? I’d love to hear your measurments!
Let’s see. I removed the chocolate chips, cinnamon, pumpkin spice and vanilla extract. I replaced the maple syrup with coconut sugar simply because the water content was going to be way too high with my other additions. I added the zest from two oranges, the juice from one orange and 2 c of chopped raw cranberries. I’ve made these a few times and have added toasted pecans once and pulsed the cranberries a few times rather than halved them. Pulsing was easier and spread them out a bit.