The Best Pumpkin Sugar Cookies with Ginger Maple Glaze
This is The Best Pumpkin Sugar Cookies recipe there is. Seriously. They're crispy on the outside and chewy inside, just the way a sugar cookie should be. After they're baked, they're coated in an easy to make ginger maple glaze that will rock your world. Plus, they're egg-free so super easy to make vegan. I know you will LOVE them!
Have you ever dreamed of having the best pumpkin sugar cookies? You know, the ones that are crispy around the edges and soft and chewy inside? I know I have. What I always get instead is a disappointing cakey cookie that crushes my pumpkin sugar cookie dreams. It's sad.
Today I have some super exciting news … I have (finally!) created a recipe for the best pumpkin sugar cookies that is EXACTLY what a cookie should be. The edges are crispy – truly crispy – and the inside is as soft and chewy as a cookie should be. NO cakiness at all. Zip. Zero.
I wish I could say I created this recipe all on my own, but that wouldn't be true. Without the book, The Ultimate Cookie Handbook by Tessa Arias of Handle the Heat, these pumpkin sugar cookies would not exist.
I bought the book a few weeks ago for my handsome man; his sweet tooth makes him the chief cookie baker around here. He's always asking me questions about baking. Things like, “What can I use instead of this?”, “Can I add extra butter?”, “What will happen if I don't follow the recipe instructions?”, “Can I turn up the heat in the oven so we can eat cookies sooner?” and “Why did the cookies turn out like …?”
Sometimes I can answer his questions, but most times I'm at a loss, too. I cook, not bake. Cooking is creative, like art, and there are really no right or wrong ways of doing things, just in different ways. Baking is a whole different animal. It's a science, and one small change can throw off the whole recipe.
Tessa's done all the hard work of documenting how each change will affect the outcome of your cookies. I used her book to figure out how to turn my usual cakey pumpkin sugar cookies into crispy pumpkin sugar cookies.
And it worked! These cookies are amazing.
See all that glaze on top of the cookies? Oh man, that's good stuff. It has a slight gingery kick from real ginger juice. Yep, ginger juice. It sounds fancy pants, but it's just the juice squeezed from some grated ginger. The taste is so much fresher and real tasting than if you used powdered ginger.
I've made enough in this recipe to lightly cover all 15 cookies. If your sweet tooth is kicking into high gear, you could always make extra and do a double coat. Remember that thick layer of glaze over the Lemon Lime Loaf I made back in the spring? Trust me, no one was complaining about the extra glaze.
If you decide to get all glaze crazy make sure you let the first coat dry, so it doesn't run off the sides of your cookies when you add the second coat. Or third. How glaze crazy are you going to get?
Also, try these gluten-free pumpkin cookies!
More Delicious Cookie Recipes:
- Chocolate Almond Thumbprint Cookies
- Flourless Chickpea Peanut Butter Cookies
- Holiday Spiced Almond Shortbread Cookies
- Sea Salt and Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Melt in Your Mouth Shortbread Cookies
Best Pumpkin Sugar Cookies with Ginger Maple Glaze
If you love this recipe as much as we do, let us know with a 5-star rating!
Ingredients
- Ā½ cup butter, melted (for plant-based diets, use vegan butter)
- Ā½ cup coconut oil, melted
- Ā½ cup canned pumpkin
- 1 Ā¼ cups white sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- Ā½ teaspoon allspice
- Ā½ teaspoon nutmeg
The Glaze
- 2 inch piece of ginger
- 1 Ā¼ cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Add the butter, coconut oil, pumpkin, sugar, and vanilla to a large bowl and beat with electricĀ beaters. Add the flour, baking soda, sea salt, cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg and beat until a crumbly batter forms.Ā½ cup butter, Ā½ cup coconut oil, Ā½ cup canned pumpkin, 1 Ā¼ cups white sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 3 cups all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons baking soda, 1 teaspoon sea salt, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, Ā½ teaspoon allspice, Ā½ teaspoon nutmeg
- Divide the batter into 15 balls, pressing each down to Ā¼ inch thick cookies, and place them onto baking sheets. Bake for 12-15 minutes per batch, or until the cookie bottoms start to brown. Remove the cookies from the oven and wait until they are completely cool before you frost them.
- Prepare the glaze just before you frost the cookies. Peel then grate the ginger using a microplane or the small holes on your grater. Squeeze the juice from the grated ginger into a small bowl and discard the pulp. You want to have a Ā½ teaspoon of ginger juice.2 inch piece of ginger
- Combine the ginger juice with the powdered sugar and maple syrup in a small bowl. Add one tablespoon of water and mix the glaze. If the glaze is too thick, you can add a small amount of water, Ā½ teaspoon at a time, until it is thin enough to spoon over the cookies.1 Ā¼ cups powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- Pour the glaze over the cooled cookies and use a spoon to spread it around. Let the glaze harden for a few minutes then store the cookies in a sealed container … or dig in and eat them right away! Note: for an extra treat, double the icing. Wait for the first layer to harden before adding the second coat.
Hi, Can you suggest a way to make these delish looking cookies with less sugar in the batter?? Ā Thank you!
We haven’t tried reducing the sugar, but using a sugar alternative (like erythritol) should work.
Once these cookies are cooled with glaze on them can you stack them one on top of the other without messing up the glaze? Cannot wait to make these and the gluten free version too!
Once the glaze hardens you can stack them!
D-Lish!!! Turned out perfectly! Thank you! My whole family loved them…….my husband, a little too much. Even the picky 5 year old liked them. Definitely making again.
I had really high hopes for this cookie recipe, because I love maple and love ginger and love pumpkin and thought what could be better? I tried to make these three times, each time was a failure. My cookies would not look at all like your photographs. They were cake-y and had none of the side crackles or crisp outside and chewy center.
The first time I made a batch and followed your recipe perfectly. I even watched your video twice. However, when I mixed the flour in it did not look like the stiff pale batter that you had. It was dark, soft and greasy. The first pan of cookies came out flat and cake-y dry. So I threw the other two pans in the freezer for 10 minutes to try to save them. They cooked a little better, not so dry. But still cake-y. I believe part of this is because you said the butter needs to be melted (and it looked thoroughly melted in the video). So then I made another batch but using soft butter that was just barely melted. They came out a little better. So then I made another batch with more pumpkin (about 1/2 cup more) and cooked them 2 minutes less. They came out a little better. But still, these cookies disappoint. They are cake-y and fluffy, not at all like you describe. I think you are achieving what you are by using cold butter and coconut oil, and your recipe is flawed. Unfortunately. I am out of ingredients and I’ll never get to experience them as I hoped.
I’m sorry to hear the recipe didn’t turn out for you. I’ve made this many times exactly as the recipe is written and have always had them turn out perfectly.
And you’re right, I do use a mix of butter and coconut oil … just as the recipe calls for. š
Just made these and youāre right that they are the best. Will be making these again for sure.
I’m so happy you think so, too! I absolutely adore them!
Can you use pumpkin puree instead of pumpkin pie mix?
Absolutely you can! I would recommend tasting the batter before you bake the cookies as you might need to add a bit more cinnamon. š
Would this recipe still come out crispy on the outside chewy on inside if mashed banana was used instead of pumpkin, as i been trying to find a non- cakey banana spice cookie recipe with the texture your describing, but I haven’t found one yet?
Hey, Monica! I can’t say for sure without trying it, but I think it could work. There’s only one way to know for sure! If you try it, I’d love to hear how it turns out. š
Hi! I know I’m a year late here, but I was wondering if I could sub brown sugar for white? Or maybe just cut back on the white and add a little brown? Any thoughts?
Thank you
Hey Ari! You could sub brown sugar, but you’ll end up with cookies that have a cakey texture. Because of the molasses added to brown sugar (which is what gives it the brown color) it has a lot more moisture than white sugar. The white sugar is what makes the cookies crispy. š
These sound RIDICULOUSLY tasty!
Oh they are! š
No eggs in this recipe. Is this right?
That’s right! Egg in this recipe would have made the cookies have a cakey texture. It does feel strange to make cookies without eggs, doesn’t it?!
This cookies look absolutely delicious and just like what I would love to munch on right now!
Your photography is so stunning too, I just can’t stop pinning š
Thank you so much, Evi! I always feel the same when I’m on your site. š
Wow! These cookies look super YUM! And that ginger maple glaze sound incredible! š
Thanks, Anu!
Sooo Iām catching up on my blog reading and these truly are a thing of magic. THEY LOOK SO GOOD, Kristen! Iām all for a crispy cookie, especially when theyāre glazed. The ginger and maple flavoring probably make these cookies taste like fall. Ahhh <3
Thank you so much, Christine! They really were delicious!!
Those do look like the perfect cookies. I especially like the ginger addition.
Thank you so much!
I think we should plan a cookie swap š Deal?
Oh hell ya we should!!
I can’t say I’ve dreamed about pumpkin sugar cookies, but now that I’ve seen them I might! They look SO good!
Thanks, Nicole! They really were good!
Yum!! I love that you added ginger to the glaze. Spicy/sweet combos are my favorite.
They’re mine too! Sweet and spicy is the best!