These healthier Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies are one part gooey oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, one part pumpkin pie. Ready in 25 minutes from start to finish!
Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
We are about to enter the season of pumpkin everything. You know why? Because it tastes completely amazing, that’s why! Whether you’re all about the pumpkin spice latte, or just a fan of pumpkin pie over the holidays, the first official day of fall makes me a little pumpkin crazy.
Confession: I’ve even moved my pumpkin pie spice to the front of the spice rack.
However, while I have no problem indulging in a few too many calories over the holidays, I wanted to make these pumpkin oatmeal cookies a bit healthier in light of the days of t-shirt weather we still have left ahead of us this season.
Is it possible to make healthier cookies that still taste indulgent? In the case of these pumpkin oatmeal cookies, yeah!
In my book, the key in making something healthier doesn’t mean wiping everything delicious off the ingredients list. That would be total sad-face indeed.
To me, it just means using less butter than usual – and substituting some of the sugar for maple syrup. It means using some chocolate (but not all the chocolate), and introducing walnuts and pumpkin seeds to the cookies. It’s amazing what happens to the calorie count when you start shaving quantities of ingredients traditionally thought of as bad.
You keep the flavor – and lose some calories in the process.
In this case, playing both sides of the field results in a pumpkin oatmeal cookie that has an indulgent taste, without being a complete gut-bomb. That’s a big win!
Ready for a big dose of pumpkin? I used both pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice in this recipe. The oats, nuts and gooey chocolate all contribute to the crunchy, chewy and creamy textures these pumpkin oatmeal cookies have in spades.
The resulting flavor was one part oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, one part pumpkin pie.
Delish!
Ben liked the cookies best, hot, fresh and gooey out of the oven. I liked them more after they had cooled a bit. They were still chewy, but had formed a bit more of a crunch on the outside.
I packed up some of these outrageous healthier pumpkin oatmeal cookies in tupperware and took them to our neighbors. Needless to say, I was very popular that day!
It’s pretty amazing what the delivery of baked goods can do for your social life!
How about you? What’s your favorite healthier dessert? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
Other simple, delicious healthier dessert recipes:
- No Bake Oatmeal Cookies
- Gluten Free Zucchini Bread
- Healthier Chocolate Espresso Cookies
- Mango Sticky Rice Recipe
- Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies With Raspberry Jam
Did you like this Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies Recipe? Are there changes you made that you would like to share? Share your tips and recommendations in the comments section below!
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Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 12 Cookies 1x
- Category: Desserts
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This healthier Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies Recipe is one part gooey oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, one part pumpkin pie. Ready in 25 minutes from start to finish!
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 cup instant old fashioned oats
- 4 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup or dark molasses
- 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup mix of dark and/or white chocolate chips, walnuts, pecans, pumpkin seeds
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper (or use a silicone baking sheet).
- In a large bowl, add flour, baking soda, cinnamon and oats and toss well. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, add butter, maple syrup, brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice, pumpkin puree and vanilla extract.
- Add to dry ingredients and whisk until smooth.
- Add chocolate chips and nuts and fold into the dough.
- Scoop the cookie dough on the baking sheet (about 2 tablespoons per cookie) and flatten just a bit to help cookies bake evenly. Leave enough space between each cookie to grow and rise.
- Put in the oven and bake for 15-18 minutes, until golden brown around the edges.
Notes
This Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies Recipe is:
Low in cholesterol
Very low in sodium
High in manganese
High in vitamin A
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 208
- Sugar: 16.8 g
- Sodium: 56.3 mg
- Fat: 7.6 g
- Saturated Fat: 3.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 31.9 g
- Fiber: 1.9 g
- Protein: 3 g
- Cholesterol: 10.4 mg
Hi Caroline! I’ve been making your recipes 3-4 meals a week. This cookie is one of them – I love that it’s moist and healthy too.
That’s wonderful Nancy, thank you so much for sharing this! 🙂 ❤️
How many cookies per serving?
Hi Liz, it’s per cookie although this is a rough estimate. I calculated based on the amount of chocolate chips and nuts I used so it can be lower if you use less or the other way around 🙂
Can you please add the amount of baking soda required? Thank you!
Sorry Shannon, I don’t know what happened with the ingredient! I’ve added it, it’s 1/2 teaspoon 🙂
Thanks, Caroline! That’s perfect because it was the exact amount I guessed and put in, and they turned out SO well! I also did half whole wheat flour and did sunflower seeds instead of pumpkin (they’re all I had) along with walnuts and the choco chips. Yum yum.
Thanks so much for the recipe! Happy fall!
Wonderful Shannon! I wanted to try with whole wheat flour so I’m really happy to hear they turned out well. I will try it your way next time!
The second instruction says to mix flour, baking soda… but baking soda isn’t on your ingredient list.
Hi Brenda, sorry for the misprint, it’s been corrected! 1/2 teaspoon is the measurement 🙂