Oat Flour Pumpkin Cookies | Bites of Wellness

Oat flour pumpkin cookies are soft, fluffy and incredibly flavorful. These healthy gluten free pumpkin cookies are made without eggs or dairy, making them vegan friendly as well. Soft, pillowy cookie spiced with cozy fall spices (like cinnamon and pumpkin spice) and melty, gooey, chocolate chips.

These healthy pumpkin cookies are ready in about 15 minutes and only need one bowl to mix up.

Why you will love this recipe

• Simple recipe – all you need is one bowl and a spoon to make these pumpkin oat flour cookies. No special equipment needed. This would be a great recipe to bring your kids in the kitchen with you! Great for beginner bakers.
• Easy to find ingredients – you can find everything you need to make the gluten free vegan pumpkin cookies at your local grocery store. If you can’t find oat flour in the baking aisle, you can make it yourself with a high speed blender or food processor!
• Versatile – you can serve these oat flour pumpkin cookies for dessert (sandwich some creamy cashew frosting between two of these cookies for an insane dessert) or serve them along side of coffee or tea in the morning. These healthy pumpkin cookies are sweet enough for dessert but have wholesome ingredients that would go perfectly with your pumpkin spiced latte.

Ingredients

• Pumpkin puree – I usually use canned pumpkin puree (be sure not to get pumpkin pie filling) as it’s easy to have on hand during the fall holidays. Most recipes do not call for an entire can of pumpkin, so if you have leftover canned pumpkin, this is the perfect recipe to use it up!
• Coconut sugar (brown sugar would work too) – coconut sugar sweetens the cookies and gives them a slightly caramel flavor. Coconut sugar is made from coconut palm tree and is considered a natural sweetener. It has more vitamins/minerals than traditional sugar and is slightly lower on the glycemic index than regular sugar.
• Avocado oil – avocado oil is a very neutral oil that will help make sure that these cookies aren’t too cakey and dry. The oil really helps to make the cookies tender and soft but not crumbly or overly dry. You could also use olive oil, melted coconut oil or even melted butter or ghee if you are not dairy free.
• Oat flour – oat flour is made by grinding up oats into a fine powder. You can find it in many grocery stores and online but you can also make it yourself using a high speed blender or food processor.
• Spices: Pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, pinch salt – these cozy fall spices really help to give this that “pumpkin” flavor that is usually associated with pumpkin desserts. Pumpkin pie spice is a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice and cloves and is very cozy.
• Baking powder – baking powder helps the cookies to rise slightly when baking. Be sure you are using fresh baking powder (opened in the last 6 months).
• Chocolate chips – be sure these are dairy free to keep this pumpkin chocolate chips cookies recipe vegan and dairy free friendly. Some of my favorites are Enjoy Life, Pascha and Trader Joe’s dark chocolate chips.

How to make pumpkin oat flour cookies

Top tips

• Use pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling. The pumpkin pie filling has added sugar and spices, so will make the cookies too sweet and overly spiced.
• If you need this recipe to be gluten free, be sure to use certified gluten free oat flour. Oats are naturally gluten free but often get cross-contaminated when processing them, so you want to be sure the oats are certified gluten free if you are sensitive to gluten.
• Allow the cookies to cool before removing them from the baking sheet. These gluten free pumpkin cookies are very fragile right out of the oven. Give them time to cool off before using a spatula to remove them from the baking sheet.
• For easy clean up, I recommend baking the cookies on parchment paper or a silicone liner. This also helps to ensure the cookies don’t stick to the pan.
• Make your own oat flour! You can make your own oat flour by grinding up oats in the high-speed blender or food processor. Be sure to sift the oats to remove large bits to ensure the cookies have a smooth texture.
• Need to reduce the fat? Oat flour can create really dry baked goods, so it’s important that you have enough sugar and oil to help ensure these aren’t dry. If you are worried about the oil, you can reduce it down to 1/4 cup, but I would increase the pumpkin puree from 1/2 cup to 2/3 cup. Also, these cookies will be more cake like and take 2 additional minutes to bake.
• I like to press down the raw cookie dough so the cookies are flat, but if you want a more “muffin top” look to the cookies, do not press them down before baking. They will be pillowy soft cookies that resemble a muffin top.

Other mix-ins

These oat flour pumpkin cookies are so yummy filled with chocolate chips, but you could also add more fun mix-in ingredients to change the flavor and texture. Here are some fun add-ins:

• Chopped nuts: pecans, walnuts, almonds, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds
• Dried fruit: Dried cranberries, raisins, dried cherries, pitted and chopped dates
• White chocolate chips (replace half the chocolate with white chocolate chips or double the chocolate)
• Coconut flakes

Common questions

Can you make oat flour at home?

Yes you can make your own oat flour at home using a high speed blender or food processor.

• Add the oats to the blender or food processor.
• Blend on high 1-2 minutes, pausing every 20-30 seconds as needed to redistribute the oats in the blender.
• Pour oat flour mixture through a fine mesh sieve to catch any big pieces of oatmeal that didn’t get finely ground.
• Use what you need in the recipe, store the rest in a cool, dark place in an airtight container for up to 3 months.

What is the best way to make evenly sized cookies?

Using a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop is the easiest and best way to get evenly sized cookies. This scoop helps you portion out 1 tablespoon worth of batter at a time.

Note that typically the last 1-2 cookies worth of batter in the bowl will have less chocolate chips. I like to sprinkle in 4-6 chocolate chips into this batter before scooping out those last few cookies.

What are the best dairy free chocolate chips?

There are a few different brands of dairy free chocolate chips available now. Enjoy Life Brand and Lily’s Chocolate Chips are available in most grocery stores now. You can also find 72% Dark Chocolate Chips from Trader Joe’s (they are budget friendly too). If you want a really dark chocolate chip, I would recommend Pascha.

What to do with leftover pumpkin puree

Canned pumpkin puree has about 1.5 cups of pumpkin in each can. Many recipes leave you with leftover pumpkin puree. You can store it in the fridge (in a new airtight container) for up to 5 days or freeze it for up to 3 months. I would freeze it in ½ cup portions so it’s easy to defrost for each recipe.

You can also find other recipes that use pumpkin puree so that you won’t waste it. Here are some of my favorite ways to use up pumpkin puree

How to store gluten free pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

Countertop: these oat flour pumpkin cookies can be stored on the counter in an airtight container for 1-2 days.

Fridge: Storing the cookies in the fridge will give them a slightly denser consistency. They can be stored in the fridge for up to 1 week in an airtight container but are best within the first 4 days.

Freezer: Store vegan gluten free pumpkin cookies in the freezer for up to 3 months in a freezer safe bag or container. They will defrost quickly on the counter (or microwave 7-10 seconds) or you can eat them from frozen.

If you love this healthy cookie recipe, you should try

Vegan Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Air Fryer Oatmeal Cookies

Air Fryer Peanut Butter Cookies

Sunbutter Cookies