Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

Published October 5, 2017. Updated October 17, 2023

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Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting will give you just one more reason to love fall! They are perfectly soft and moist and covered with that sweet, rich cream cheese frosting we all crave. It’s a cookie that everyone will love!

Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

Homemade Pumpkin Cookies are the Best!

With these cookies, you get that unique pumpkin flavor with all those fall spices, and then when it’s paired with that luxurious cream cheese flavor… magic happens. There are so many good pumpkin chocolate chip cookies out there, but the addition of cream cheese frosting makes these just a little more elegant.

This pumpkin cookie recipe should be your go-to for every type of fall gathering—Halloween parties, football Sundays, Thanksgiving, class holiday events, and even just lazy fall weekends. They’re fast and easy for a weeknight, but impressive enough to replace even PIE. I mean it!

Just be sure to bring along a bunch because they’ll go quickly. How could they not? They’re pumpkin cookies!

pumpkin cookie dough mounds on baking sheet before baking.

Ingredients You’ll Need for These Cookies

  • All-purpose flour
  • Baking soda and baking powder
  • Salt
  • Spices including cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves
  • Unsalted butter
  • Granulated sugar, brown sugar and powdered sugar
  • Egg
  • Vanilla extract
  • Canned pumpkin
  • Cream cheese

Scroll below for full printable recipe.

Cream cheese frosting for pumpkin cookies

How to Make Pumpkin Cookies

  • Preheat oven, line baking sheets.
  • Whisk together dry ingredients.
  • In a stand mixer cream butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar
  • Mix in egg then pumpkin and vanilla.
  • Mix in flour mixture.
  • Scoop dough out 1 1/2 Tbsp at a time and drop onto prepared baking sheets.
  • Bake until set. Cool completely then frost.
  • For the frosting mix butter and cream cheese until fluffy, then blend in powdered sugar and vanilla.

Creamy Mexican Corn Chowder

A Holiday Worthy Recipe

I love these too because they are a great after-dinner weekday treat, but they’re also good enough that you’d love to serve them to company on the weekend as well.

This classic cake-like pumpkin cookie is filled with autumn spices that we all look forward to this time of year.

Pumpkin cookies on baking sheet

Pumpkin Cookie Tips

  • Use 2 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice in place of the spices here if that’s what you have on hand.
  • Don’t use canned “pumpkin pie mix.” It has added sweeteners and spices and wouldn’t work here.
  • Use parchment paper or baking mats, don’t butter baking sheets. Cookies spread more that way.
  • Keep finished cookies cold so the frosting doesn’t soften or melt at a warm room temperature. Let rest briefly at room temperature before serving.
  • Store in a single layer so they don’t stick (like my stack here did :). I like to store in a cookie sheet with a lid.
  • These would also make a great pumpkin chocolate chip cookie if you just swap out that frosting for chocolate chips in the batter instead.
  • Make these even more fun for kids by letting them add their own festive sprinkles or add food coloring to your frosting!

Stack of pumpkin cookies

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Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
4.96 from 22 votes

Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

A classic autumn-spice filled pumpkin cookie with a soft cake-like texture and a perfectly moist crumb. Crowned with a sweet and rich cream cheese frosting and sure to leave you craving more!
Servings: 30
Prep30 minutes
Cook30 minutes
Ready in: 1 hour

Ingredients

Cream Cheese Frosting

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 18 by 13-inch baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper. 
  • In a medium mixing bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves for 20 seconds. Set aside.
  • In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream together butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until well combined.
  • Mix in egg, then blend in pumpkin and vanilla. Add in flour mixture and mix just until combined.
  • Scoop dough out using a 1 1/2 Tbsp cookie scoop (filling it just slightly heaping). Drop onto prepared baking sheet spacing cookies 2-inches apart. 
  • Bake one sheet at a time until cookies are set, about 13 - 15 minutes. Cool on baking sheet several minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 
  • Once cool frost cookies with cream cheese frosting. Store in an airtight container in a single layer in refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before serving.

For the cream cheese frosting:

  • In a mixing bowl using an electric hand mixer whip butter and cream cheese until smooth and fluffy. 
  • Mix in powdered sugar and vanilla and mix until well combined. 
Nutrition Facts
Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
Amount Per Serving
Calories 175 Calories from Fat 63
% Daily Value*
Fat 7g11%
Saturated Fat 4g25%
Cholesterol 25mg8%
Sodium 117mg5%
Potassium 47mg1%
Carbohydrates 26g9%
Sugar 18g20%
Protein 1g2%
Vitamin A 1450IU29%
Vitamin C 0.3mg0%
Calcium 18mg2%
Iron 0.6mg3%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Nutrition values are estimates only. See full disclaimer here.
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