Chewy Brown Butter Pumpkin Cookies
These Chewy Brown Butter Pumpkin Cookies have the perfect combination of flavors. The pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice make this a fall favorite that will have you coming back for more.
Ingredients
Cookie dough
- 1 cup unsalted butter, browned and cooled
- 1 cup light or dark brown sugar, packed
- 1 large egg yolk
- 3 tbsp pure maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup pure pumpkin puree, (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Coating
- 2 tbsp light or dark brown sugar, packed
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- flaky sea salt to sprinkle on top of the cookies, optional
Instructions
Brown the butter
- In a medium skillet, melt your butter over medium heat. The butter will begin to foam, but that's normal. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon for 5-7 minutes until golden brown. The solids from the butter should be lightly golden brown and it should have a nutty aroma.
- Remove the skillet from the heat and pour the brown butter into a glass or ceramic bowl to cool slightly. You don't want your butter to be hot but you also don't want it to be solid.
Assemble the cookie dough
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, pumpkin pie spice, and cinnamon.
- In a large bowl, using a rubber spatula, mix the brown sugar and cooled brown butter. It's ok if they are not completely mixed together.
- Mix in the egg yolk, maple syrup, vanilla, and pumpkin until incorporated. Again, it's ok if it's not completely mixed together. The dough will come together.
- Add the dry ingredients and fold into the batter until completed incorporated, making sure to not over mix the dough. The dough will be soft, but it will firm up a little as you make the coating.
- In a small bowl, mix the brown sugar, granulated sugar, and cinnamon for the coating.
- Using a cookie scoop or tablespoon, scoop out the dough and roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture. (See notes.)
- Place the cookie dough balls onto the prepared baking sheet, making sure to space them about an inch apart so they have room to spread.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are cooked but the middle looks like it's slightly under done. You don't want to over bake the cookies, otherwise they may not be chewy. (See notes.)
- Sprinkle with flaky sea salt if using and allow the cookies to rest on the baking sheet for a couple minutes. Then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Repeat until you have used all of your cookie dough.
Notes
- I highly recommend using a cookie scoop when making cookies. This ensures your cookies are uniform in size and will bake evenly.
- There's this trend of pan banging cookies that I wanted to try, so I make one recipe using this technique and one not. I didn't notice a huge difference taste wise, but it was fun to do. If you would like to try this as well this is what I did. At 6 minutes, I lift up the tray 3-4 inches from the oven rack and drop the pan of cookies. I did this about 3 times and then rotated the tray and then repeated. Cooked for the remaining time and that's it!
- These baked cookies freeze really well. All you need to do is make sure the cookies are cooled completely and then place into a plastic freezer bag. They have a great texture if you eat them frozen, or you can allow them to thaw and enjoy.
Recipe adapted from Butternut Bakery Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!