Frosted Pumpkin Cookies – NeighborFood

Soft and fluffy Frosted Pumpkin Cookies are filled with warm pumpkin spices and finished with a rich, caramely penuche frosting that melts in your mouth.

These cookies are easy to make, use a full can of pumpkin, and get even better on the second day. Add them to your fall baking must-make list!

If you’re looking for chewy cookies, you’ll want to try these Chewy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Penuche Frosted Pumpkin Cookies

One of my first jobs out of college was at a local bakery, where I spent my days frosting cookies, piping buttercream swirls onto cupcakes, and making some pretty killer Caprese Paninis.

The place always smelled like fresh baked bread and chocolate cake, and on the best days the pepperoni bread flopped and the employees were forced to destroy the evidence by stuffing our faces with its cheesy, spicy goodness. All in all, not a bad gig.

The bakery specialized in elaborate, towering specialty cakes and a variety of cupcakes, pies, cheesecakes, and their famous Morning Glory Muffins, but in my mind, the true star of that bakery was always the Penuche Frosted Pumpkin Cookies.

In case you’re wondering, penuche is just a fancy name for the best brown sugar frosting you’ll ever consume in your life. The texture lies somewhere between an icing and a frosting, and it has a rich caramel and butterscotch flavor that pairs perfectly with warm spices like cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg.

These Frosted Pumpkin Cookies are reminiscent of our Maple Pecan Cookies, but with caramel being the star of the show instead of maple.

My kids can be iffy about new kinds of baked goods, but my youngest loved these so much, he requested them for his birthday! Big, soft, puffy and spiced Frosted Pumpkin Cookies are simply impossible to resist.

Key Ingredients + Substitutions

• Baking staples, including flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
• Pumpkin spices– I use my own blend of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves, but you can feel free to substitute a store bought pumpkin pie spice or use more or less of your favorite spices.
• Butter– These cookies use unsalted butter to make a moist AND super flavorful cookie.
• Sugar- I use a blend of brown sugar and granulated sugar for the best flavor.
• Eggs– I recommend large eggs for baking.
• Pumpkin puree– These cookies use a whole can of pumpkin puree, which I love! The pumpkin is what makes these cookies so unbelievably moist and almost cake-like.
• Vanilla extract– I like to use real and not imitation vanilla, but either will work in this recipe.

How to Make Frosted Pumpkin Cookies

Step 1: Prep. Preheat the oven to 350 and line two baking sheets (these are the best!) with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

Step 2: Whisk dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves.

Step 3: Beat wet ingredients. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars on medium high speed for 4-5 minutes, until lighter in color and fluffy. (It really does take this long to properly cream butter and sugar! We want to incorporate air into the butter to make the cookies as fluffy as can be.). Add the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the pumpkin puree and vanilla. It will look a little like gobbledy goop, but that’s ok!

Step 4: Combine. Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and beat on low speed until well combined, being sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl a few times.

Step 5: Scoop and bake. Scoop 2 Tablespoons of dough (a jumbo sized cookie scoop) onto the prepared baking sheets, about 1 ½ inches apart. Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until the tops spring back when lightly touched.

TIP: Unlike chewy cookies, these soft pumpkin cookies should be fully baked and removed from the oven when the tops are set. To test, lightly press the top of a cookie with your finger. If the dough springs back, it’s done! If your finger leaves an indent, give it another minute or two!

Step 6: Frost the cooled cookies with penuche frosting and serve.

Penuche Frosting Tips

The penuche frosting is made on the stove top with just four simple ingredients: salted butter, brown sugar, milk, and powdered sugar.

• I prefer salted butter for frosting. I can’t explain why, but the flavor of the salt seems to better infuse the frosting when I use salted butter rather than adding table or sea salt. That said, using unsalted butter and adding a pinch of salt at the end is totally fine!
• Sift your powdered sugar for the smoothest results.
• Keep your penuche frosting warm in a double boiler. I nestle the sauce pan I made the frosting in into a larger, shallower pan filled halfway with water. Keep the water at a low simmer, and your penuche will stay nice and soft and spreadable.
• For full step by step photos and tips, be sure to visit my Penuche Frosting recipe.

FAQs

Can I use a different frosting?

Of course! The cream cheese frosting used in our Carrot Sheet Cake or Zucchini Cake would also be wonderful on these.

Can I make smaller pumpkin cookies?

Yes! We use a jumbo cookie scoop for these, but you can use a standard (Tablespoon) sized scoop and get 36 hours out of this recipe.

More Pumpkin Recipes to Try

• Easy Pumpkin Bread– This is usually the first thing I make when the temperatures start to drop! It’s made in a single bowl and is perfectly spiced and super moist.
• Pumpkin Dirt Pudding– A delightfully creepy and fun take on our classic dirt pudding recipe.
• Pumpkin Pinwheels– One of our favorite Thanksgiving desserts made with fluffy pumpkin cake wrapped around a cream cheese filling.
• Pumpkin Crumb Cake– Perfect for breakfast or dessert, this crumb cake is dense and moist, with a brown sugar streusel running through the middle and on top.

For the cookies:

• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ¾ teaspoon ground ginger
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• Pinch ground cloves
• ½ cup butter (softened (1 stick))
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs (room temperature)
• 1 15 oz. can pumpkin purée
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

For the frosting:

• ½ cup salted butter (1 stick)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup hot milk (2% or whole)
• 2 cups powdered sugar (sifted)

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves.

• In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars on medium high speed for 4-5 minutes, until lighter in color and fluffy.

• Add the eggs, beating after each addition, then stir in the pumpkin puree and vanilla extract.

• Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and beat on low speed until well combined, being sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl a few times.

• Use a jumbo cookie scoop (about 2 Tablespoons of dough) to scoop 12 cookies onto each tray, spacing them about 1 ½ inches apart.

• Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until the tops are set. If you pat the top with a finger, it should spring back rather than leave an indent). Allow the cookies to cool a few minutes on the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the frosting:

• While the cookies bake, prepare the frosting. Melt butter in a sauce pot over medium heat.

• Add brown sugar and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Once the mixture reaches a rolling boil, lower the heat to medium low and maintain a gentle boil for 1-2 minutes, whisking constantly, until thickened. Remove from heat, then cool for 15 minutes. At this point, the frosting will look thick and slightly grainy.

• Whisk in the hot milk until smooth. The mixture should turn smooth and glossy.

•  Whisk in the sifted powdered sugar until the mixture is thick and spreadable. Use an offset spatula to spread frosting on the cooled cookies.

• If you don’t have salted butter for the frosting, just add a few pinches of salt at the end.
• If you want to make smaller cookies, use a standard size cookie scoop and subtract 2 minutes from the baking time. This should make about 36 cookies.
• The cookies keep well cooled completely then stored in an airtight container at room temperature. I put parchment paper in between the layers. After 5 days, the frosting will start to get soft and soak into the parchment, so I recommend eating or sharing before then!

Keyword Frosted pumpkin cookies, iced pumpkin cookies, Soft Pumpkin Cookies

Serving: 24g | Calories: 256kcal | Carbohydrates: 45g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 34mg | Sodium: 239mg | Potassium: 52mg | Fiber: 0.4g | Sugar: 34g | Vitamin A: 267IU | Vitamin C: 0.01mg | Calcium: 46mg | Iron: 1mg