The Best Fluffy Pancakes recipe you will fall in love with. Full of tips and tricks to help you make the best pancakes.
They’re soft, a little cakey, loaded with chocolate chips, and they don’t need a stand mixer or a chill time. Bowl, spoon, sheet pan, done.
If you’ve made pumpkin bread before, the batter here will feel familiar. It’s wetter than a normal cookie dough — that’s the pumpkin talking — and that’s exactly why these bake up soft instead of crisp.
Why This Works
Canned pumpkin puree is mostly water. That water has to go somewhere, and in this recipe it goes into softness instead of spread — these cookies puff up and stay tall rather than flattening into thin discs the way a butter-heavy cookie would.
The baking soda dissolved in milk (instead of just whisked into the dry mix) reacts a beat faster and more evenly, which helps these rise properly instead of spreading thin under all that moisture. Skip that step and stir the soda straight into the flour, and you’ll get patchier rise — some cookies puffed, some flatter, no real consistency tray to tray.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (245 g) canned pumpkin puree — don’t use the whole can
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup vegetable oil (avocado oil works too)
- 1 large egg
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon milk
- 2 cups (270 g) all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (add an extra teaspoon if you like it spicier)
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, more if you’re not counting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat.
- In a large bowl, stir together the pumpkin puree, sugar, oil, vanilla, and egg until smooth.
- In a small bowl, dissolve the baking soda in the milk — it’ll fizz a little, that’s normal. Stir it into the wet ingredients.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir just until a few flour streaks remain. Overmixing here is how you end up with tough, dense cookies instead of soft ones.
- Fold in the chocolate chips. Stop as soon as they’re distributed — don’t keep stirring.
- Scoop the dough about 2 inches apart onto the prepared sheet. A medium cookie scoop keeps them even, but a spoon works fine too.
- Press a few extra chips on top if you want them to look bakery-style.
- Bake 10–13 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean and the bottoms are lightly browned. [PLACEHOLDER: In my oven, 11 minutes is the sweet spot — your mileage may vary depending on how hot your oven actually runs versus what the dial says.]
- If the centers still look underdone, give them another 1–2 minutes and check again.
- Let the cookies sit on the pan for 5 minutes — they’re fragile straight out of the oven — then move them to a rack to cool the rest of the way.
- Store in a covered container once fully cool.
Prep time: 15 minutes Cook time: 10 minutes Cool time: 40 minutes Total time: 1 hour 5 minutes Servings: 24 cookies
Tips
- Spoon and level your flour instead of scooping straight from the bag. Scooping packs in extra flour and dries these out — they go from soft to cakey-dry fast.
- Measure the pumpkin puree instead of using the whole can. A standard can is closer to 1¾–2 cups, and dumping it all in throws off the whole ratio.
- Don’t skip the 5-minute rest on the pan. Pull them too early and they’ll fall apart when you try to move them — the structure needs a minute to set.
Variations
Swap half the chocolate chips for chopped pecans if you want some crunch against the soft crumb — that one’s worth doing. Skip white chocolate chips, though; they turn cloying against the pumpkin spice instead of balancing it. A cream cheese glaze drizzled on top also works if you want to push these closer to pumpkin bread territory, but honestly, plain is the better cookie.
Make-Ahead
The raw dough doesn’t hold up well in the fridge overnight — it gets denser and the cookies bake up tighter and less soft the next day. If you want to prep ahead, scoop the dough onto a sheet pan and freeze the balls solid, then transfer to a bag. Bake straight from frozen, adding 1–2 extra minutes.
FAQ
Can I use fresh pumpkin instead of canned?
Yes, but drain it well first — fresh puree holds a lot more water than canned, and skipping that step will leave you with cookies that spread thin instead of staying soft and puffed.
Why are my cookies flat?
Usually it’s oven temperature (check it’s actually at 350°F and not running cool) or old baking soda that’s lost its lift. Melted-instead-of-cold butter isn’t the culprit here since this recipe uses oil, so temperature and leavening are the first two things to check.
Do these taste like pumpkin pie?
Not really — they taste more like a soft spice cookie with chocolate chips. The pumpkin’s job here is texture more than flavor; the cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice are doing the flavor work.
Can I freeze the baked cookies?
Yes. They freeze well for about 3 months in an airtight container — thaw at room temperature for about 20 minutes before eating.
Closing Thoughts
Pair them with a mug of something warm and spiced, or crumble one over vanilla ice cream if you’ve got extras that are starting to go a little stale.
Soft Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
These soft Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies are made with real pumpkin puree, warm pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and plenty of semi-sweet chocolate chips. They have a tender, cake-like texture and make an easy fall dessert for parties, holidays, or everyday baking.
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
Prepare the Oven and Baking Sheet
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
Mix the Wet Ingredients
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together the pumpkin puree, granulated sugar, vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla extract until smooth and evenly combined.
- In a small bowl, stir the baking soda into the milk until dissolved.
- Add the baking soda mixture to the pumpkin mixture and stir until combined.
Combine the Dry Ingredients
- In a separate large bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking powder, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and fine sea salt.
Finish the Cookie Dough
- Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture.
- Stir gently just until only a few flour streaks remain. Do not overmix.
- Fold in the semi-sweet chocolate chips until evenly distributed and no dry flour remains.
Scoop and Bake
- Using a medium cookie scoop or spoon, drop portions of dough onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing them approximately 2 inches apart.
- Press a few additional chocolate chips into the tops of the cookies, if desired.
- Bake for 10–13 minutes, or until the bottoms are lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cookie comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
- Check one cookie for doneness. If the center still appears wet, bake the batch for an additional 1–2 minutes.
Cool the Cookies
- Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes.
- Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and let them cool completely before storing.
Notes
- Pumpkin: Measure exactly 1 cup of plain pumpkin puree. Do not use the entire can or sweetened pumpkin pie filling.
- Flour: Spoon the flour into the measuring cup and level it with a knife. Scooping directly from the container can add too much flour.
- Oil substitution: Avocado oil may replace the vegetable oil in the same quantity.
- Extra spice: Add another teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice for a stronger fall-spice flavor.
- Chocolate chips: The ingredient list specifies 1 cup. Additional chocolate chips may be folded into the dough or pressed onto the tops, but using more may make the cookies sweeter and more chocolate-heavy.
- Do not overmix: Stir the dough only until the flour is incorporated to keep the cookies soft and tender.
- Cookie texture: These cookies are naturally soft, moist, and cake-like rather than crisp.
- Doneness: The cookies should look set on top, be lightly browned underneath, and have no wet batter in the center.
- Cooling: Let the cookies cool completely before placing them in a covered container.
- Storage: Store cooled cookies in a covered container at room temperature for up to 2 days or refrigerate for up to 5 days.
- Next-day flavor: The pumpkin and spice flavors become more noticeable after the cookies rest overnight.
- Freezing: Freeze completely cooled cookies in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months.
