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These soft-batch style, grain-free pumpkin cookies are delicious to enjoy any season of the year. Making them in the Fall with homemade purée from locally sourced pumpkins is highly recommended for the best flavor.
I love to make this particular pumpkin cookies recipe not only because it is grain-free (to mix things up), but also because it includes a vegetable as the primary ingredient.
Since the nourishing minerals in vegetables are not well absorbed without healthy fat, this recipe includes plenty of grass-fed butter and coconut oil.
The flavor of these cookies really pops if you skip the canned purée and make it fresh! I demonstrate the simple process in video format here: how to make pumpkin purée.
Gorgeous pumpkins are everywhere in the Fall. Take advantage of the local bounty and make a batch of delicious pumpkin cookies for your family that will both nourish and delight their taste buds!
If you enjoy these pumpkin spice cookies, try this recipe for pumpkin bread too. If you would like to use pumpkin purée in a savory dish, this traditional pumpkin soup is amazing.
Hint: Try making pumpkin spice breakfast oatmeal with some of that purée too!
Preparation Tips
Sweet potato may be substituted for pumpkin as desired.
Make sure the baked pumpkin purée you use is moist yet firm. If it is very runny, the dough will be too wet.
If you are avoiding starch, substitute finely ground nut flour of choice. Homemade almond flour is ready in a jiffy using a coffee grinder.
Do not use honey for this recipe. Baking with honey is not a recommended traditional cooking practice.
Substitute potato, tapioca or cassava starch for the arrowroot (or a blend) if you prefer. Using potato starch adds the nutritional benefits of resistant starch to the cookies once they’ve fully cooled.
Pumpkin Spice Cookies (grain-free)
These soft-batch style, grain-free pumpkin cookies are delicious to enjoy any season of the year. Making them in the Fall with homemade purée is highly recommended for the best flavor.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups pumpkin purée
- 1 1/2 cups arrowroot powder
- 1/4 cup grassfed butter
- 1/4 cup expeller pressed coconut oil
- 1 egg preferably pastured or free range
- 3/4 cup sucanat or coconut sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ceylon cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground allspice
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350 °F/177 °C
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Process all ingredients together in a food processor until smooth.
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Form ping pong sized balls from the dough on greased and lightly floured cookie sheets (expeller pressed coconut oil and arrowroot flour recommended).
Alternatively, make one giant cookie and shape the batter with a knife into a pumpkin with a stem. This saves time and works well if you prefer a cookie cake.
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Bake cookies for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and press down each pumpkin cookie with a fork. Skip this step if you made a cookie cake with the batter.
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Return cookies to the oven and bake for an additional 20 minutes.
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Remove cookies from the oven, cool and serve.
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Store cookies in airtight containers in the refrigerator for up to a week.
mmmmmm totally makes these tonight. Thx.
temp? do I have to stab it so it doesn’t explode? 🙂
Thank you, it looks great. Any ideas for an egg substitute? (My body doesn’t tolerate them.)
see above
Looks wonderful; thank you. I’m wondering, since I can’t do eggs, whether there is anything that could substitute for the egg.
Good egg replacer in baking: Simmer 1/4 cup flax seeds in 3/4 cup water for 5-7 mins, till thick. Strain the seeds out in a cheesecloth lined strainer –you’ll need to squeeze it. Use 4 tablespoons for 1 egg. For extra lightness, whip the “gel” and fold through at the end of mixing.
from http://www.westonaprice.org/Going-Gluten-Free.html
I use 1 tablespoon of chia seeds to 3 tablespoons of water. Let it sit for 10 minutes until it gels. Also, I have used a ripe banana instead of an egg.
My daughter is allergic to eggs and I’ve always substituted 1/4c apple sauce for 1 egg in recipes. Makes the most moist and delicious cake!
These sound great. Do you think I could make them with butternut squash and no baking soda for the gaps diet? Deb
Baking soda is allowed on GAPS last time I checked .. not on SCD though.
The arrowroot flour is starch though and not permitted on GAPS. I haven’t tried these using just almond or pecan flour so not sure how that would turn out.
I don’t think maple syrup is not allowed on GAPS. Does honey work okay?
You are correct – maple syrup is not allowed. Honey will work fine as a sub.
Hi Sarah,
I was so excited to try these cookies this morning for our daughter on GAPS to take to our church Fall Festival tonight! They are delicious and she is excited. Thanks!
For GAPS, I substituted 1 c. almond meal + 1/2 coconut flour for the arrowroot and honey for the maple syrup. The batter was really wet–I think it would have worked OK for drop cookies, but my girl really wanted to use cookie cutters. So, with the processor running I added another 1/2 c. almond meal and probably about 1/2 c. coconut flour (I just added it by the tablespoon). This gave a stiff enough dough to roll into balls, but not roll out/cut into shapes.
Do you have any suggestions for making a stiff enough dough to roll out? I thought about adding the butter and all other ingredients and holding the coconut oil until the end and adding it as needed. I also wondered if the fact I used home made almond meal was a factor. Any thoughts?
Thank you so much for the work you put into educating others!
Amber
I made them also and it was more of a batter rather than something to be formed??? Any suggestions would be very appreciated!
Thank you
Were your almonds blanched? That makes a difference.
what is the easiest way to cook a pumpkin??
I cut the pumpkin in half, discard the seeds and place it open-side-down on a cookie sheet.
Bake it at 325 F for about an hour, then scoop out the meat. You can compost the skin 🙂
YUM! Thanks for the recipe! 🙂
I can’t tell you how excited I am to make these cookies! I love pumpkin…nothing says fall like pumpkin flavors and scents!
Pumpkin Cookies (Grain Free) – The Healthy Home Economist http://t.co/7qCrfVx4
Mmmm… I love pumpkins! Best part of fall!
Thanks for the recipe! I think I’ll see if I can make these for break fast sometime this week.