Want to get a super food like pumpkin into your family? Put it in cookies! My husband, who doesn’t even like pumpkin, loves these healthy pumpkin cookies. The whole wheat version of the recipe hardly tastes different than the unhealthy pumpkin cookie recipe I started out with, and they remain quite easy to make. It’s one of those recipes that I’ve had saved on my computer since long before I started blogging, because so many people ask for it after I bring the cookies to an event!
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Of course, I was tickled to see that the saved version still had shortening and only one cup of whole wheat flour in it. I’ve tweaked it a lot! Like my healthy pumpkin muffins, I’ll share the old recipe and the healthy upgrades for you.
If you’re a die-hard soaker, I’ll be sure to update this post after I try the cookies with sprouted flour once we’re back to grains this fall. As of yet, I’ve only used unsoaked, unsprouted whole wheat flour.
Original Recipe: Pumpkin Cookies (this is not the healthy one)
With two variations using either raisins or chocolate chips, you can truly make these seasonal pumpkin cookies be a totally different experience. I rarely run into anyone who doesn’t love them. Be sure to keep scrolling down for various degrees of healthy cookies, including a recipe with 100% whole wheat, healthy fats and no refined sugar.
Ingredients
2 cups shortening (But I’d never! No trans fats)
2 c. sugar
16 oz. can pumpkin (~2 cups)*
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
4 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp.nutmeg
½ tsp. allspice
1 tsp. salt
2 c. chocolate chips or raisins
1 c. chopped nuts
*Use half the 29 oz. can and freeze the rest for another batch – it’s only 20 cents more than the 16 oz. You could also put pumpkin in soups, chili, and spaghetti sauce as extra nutrient boosters. Try my Simple Cabbage Soup, healthy pumpkin muffins, or 6 Ways to Use up Leftover Pumpkin if you’re still trying to finish the can!
Method:
Cream shortening and sugar. Add pumpkin, eggs and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour and next 6 dry ingredients. Add to batter; mix well. (If you’re a shortcut person, yes, you can pseudo-mix the dry ingredients on top of the wet, combine, and save a bowl.) Stir in choc chips and nuts.
Drop rounded teaspoonfuls two inches apart on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. The cookies don’t really spread, but generally hold their shape.
Makes about 6-7 dozen pumpkin cookies. (Easy to cut in half!)
Easy Healthy Upgrades to Pumpkin Cookie Recipe
My initial healthy upgrades include some baby steps you may want to take if your family is still pretty used to white flour:
- Substitute ground flax seed (also called flax meal) for some of the fat. Substitute using a 3:1 ratio, meaning you can pull out 1/2 cup of the shortening and add in 1 1/2 cups of flax meal. It sounds like a lot, but it works out and is very tasty. (Be sure to understand how to store flax so you don’t let it go rancid!)
- Sub butter for the shortening. Do this one at the very least! Then throw away your shortening can!
- Reduce the white sugar by up to 1/2 cup.
- Sub in one cup of whole wheat flour for one cup of the white flour.
HealthiER Upgrade Recipe: 100% Whole Wheat Pumpkin Cookies
You have to love a recipe that tastes like a dessert but has so much goodness in it! Yes, there’s a sweetener here, but keep in mind that you’re making 70-80 cookies, so it’s not a huge amount. I have come to prefer the hearty flavor of the whole grain version over the original, especially with flax meal involved.
Ingredients
2 cups butter or coconut oil or palm shortening (see above to use some flax seed, as well)
1 1/2 c. sucanat (unrefined cane sugar)
16 oz. can pumpkin or 2 c. pumpkin puree (squash works, too!)
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
4 c. white whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp.nutmeg
½ tsp. allspice
1 tsp. salt
2 c. chocolate chips or raisins
1 c. chopped nuts
Method
Cream fat and sweetener. Add pumpkin, eggs and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour and next 6 dry ingredients. Add to batter; mix well. Stir in choc chips and nuts.
Drop rounded teaspoonfuls two inches apart on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.
Perfect for a Halloween party, Thanksgiving dinner, or potluck at your kids’ school, healthy pumpkin cookies will be a huge hit! The recipe is so simple, too, that your kids will love helping you out in the kitchen.
Since we’re keeping it simple this week, you might want to double the recipe (possible if you have a Bosch mixer, I understand!) and freeze extra cookies right away. (They freeze excellently!) Paula’s Bread is an October sponsor at Kitchen Stewardship, and we’re very thankful for their support. They not only sell Bosch mixers (Christmas list, anyone? Extra attachments are on sale for fall!), but also Nutrimills ($30 off right now), which are perfect for grinding fresh grain for cookies! Bread baking is Paula’s Bread’s specialty…ah, someday we’ll have bread again at our house! 
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Pleased to enter Food Renegade’s Fight Back Friday and find great Thanksgiving recipes at Life as MOM’s Ultimate Recipe Swap and The Thrifty Mama’s Healthy Holiday Recipes.
These look really good. I think I can handle 1 1/2 C sugar for that many cookies!
Thanks for the recipe. I think I’ll have to make some for our after church snacks this next week!
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Thanks, I love pumpkin recipes! I made your cabbage soup the other day and it turned out great! I’m going to try and make these this weekend.
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Favorite Fall Foods « Simple Organized Living // Oct 15, 2010 at 3:22 pm
[...] Pumpkin Cookies — Kitchen [...]
I think I’ve made the original recipe already, and cut down on the sugar, but now I’m going to try your other great alterations.
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Incredible! I just made some cookies from a very similar recipe this morning! Except I used a buttercup squash, and added dried cranberries instead of the nuts and chips. Both of which were experiments on my part, and they turned out GREAT! The buttercup has such a mild flavor, the spices stand out more. I’m not sure I’ll ever go back to pumpkin!
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Wow! These are so good! I made them gluten free and egg free(used cornstarch instead of the eggs). Thanks for such a great recipe. I wanted to bake today because it is finally somewhat cold here in CA, these were perfect and made the house smell great. So light and fluffy….I think I could eat the whole batch, but I won’t. Thanks again!
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2 cups shortening? That’s as far down as I got!
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Miss Music Reply:
October 15th, 2010 at 10:27 pm
You should have read down farther and looked at the revised, healthy version.
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Lenetta Reply:
October 15th, 2010 at 11:21 pm
I was surprised to see that, too! Good thing you’ve taught us a better way, Katie. :>)
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Katie Reply:
October 17th, 2010 at 11:18 pm
Megan,
Katie
“Miss Music” is right; I never use shortening anymore, but it’s a good example of how to adapt a former favorite recipe for real food. I did make a note by the shortening so people aren’t confused, though, thank you.
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Just blogged about them!
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Katie Reply:
October 17th, 2010 at 11:17 pm
Keilah,
Katie
That is so cool that they so easily adapted to gluten-free pumpkin cookies!
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Have you ever made a half batch? It looks like you could just cut all the ingredients in half but I know that doesn’t always work well. I may try it tomorrow because I don’t know if I need 70 cookies in my house, healthified or not.
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Katie @ Kitchen Stewardship Reply:
October 17th, 2010 at 11:06 pm
Jen,
Katie
Yes, all the time! The recipe card in my box even has those notes for half quantities written in.
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Bet these would be great with freshly baked pumpkin: http://anhourinthekitchen.com/2009/11/about-pumpkins/
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if i chose to use fresh pureed pumpkin, as I have it in the freezer, how could I measure to equal 16 oz canned?
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Katie Reply:
October 17th, 2010 at 11:12 pm
Lura,
Katie
Two cups will be perfect!
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Where do you find white whole wheat flour? My local grocery store doesn’t stock this. The cookies look delicious!
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Katie Reply:
October 17th, 2010 at 11:16 pm
Becky,
Katie
King Arthur flour is the brand I see most often in the store (ours is Meijer in the midwest). You can also order it through a natural foods catalog; Montana something-or-other, Chief maybe, is another chemical-free brand. Good luck!
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These look delicious!
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Has anyone used honey in this recipe instead of the sugar?
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Katie Reply:
October 19th, 2010 at 4:27 pm
Holly,
I haven’t yet tried honey, sorry! Katie
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Made a half batch this weekend for a family get together (7 people) and they were all gone by the end of the afternoon. I do have to admit while I halved the recipie I still included 1 cup of chocolate chips…actually 1/2 cup chocolate chips and 1/2 cup butterscotch chips. “so addicting” was a comment herd multiple time and my daughter requested I make them again. I used the flax sub. and it turned out great! Now I need to find something to do with the rest of the ground flax
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Hi! Cookies are delicious. However, I’m not sure if they’re a little floury tasting, or if it’s just the pumpkin flavor sabotaging itself as flour? Has anyone else experienced this? My son can’t eat enough of them, so maybe it’s just me!
I’m wondering if I can freeze the dough, and if so, how long will they last in the freezer?
Thanks for the recipe!
Kristin
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Katie Reply:
October 21st, 2010 at 3:11 pm
Kristin,
Katie
You know, I don’t know that I’ve ever frozen the dough because the cookies themselves freeze perfectly, but I would say with 99% certainty that it would freeze great. The cookies are still good even if they’re forgotten for, say 6-12 months!
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Although, I still will refuse to use shortening…I most certainly have to give these a bake very soon. I love cookies with squash…and lucky me…so does my Hubby ;o)
Flavourful wishes,
Claudia
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Thanks, Katie. I think I should’ve just frozen the cookies, rather than the dough — next time!
Thanks for your quick response.
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These cookies were a great balance between healthy tasting and treat filled. I substituted the shortening–splitting the difference between butter and flaxseed meal. You couldnt tell the difference and the cookies turned out super soft and moist. The recipe makes plenty to enjoy now and freeze some for later. That is so helpful when feeding a large family! Thanks for a great recipe!
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So do I understand this right… You would use 1 1/2 cup of fat AND 1 1/2 cup flax meal? Just want to be sure so I don’t mess these up later today. Thanks?
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Carrie Reply:
October 24th, 2010 at 11:57 am
Oops… That was supposed to be “thanks!”
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Katie Reply:
October 25th, 2010 at 12:51 am
Carrie,
Katie
Looks like I wasn’t into my comments in time to help you, but yes, 1 1/2 cups of each. I know it seems like an unbelievable amount of flax meal, but it works!
Hope yours turned out yummy!
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I just made these this week, the healthiest version, and they are very good. I’m sort of considering adding back another 1/4c to 1/2c of sucanat though to make them closer to the level of sweetness I usually expect from a cookie. They are still good with 1.5 C sucanat, but I find that sucanat is already less sweet than refined sugar and I think the whole wheat flour and/or the flax seeds give it that “healthy” taste. although, that being said, my boys love them the way they are and I don’t feel like I’m really compromising anything to let them eat a couple for a snack or as dessert.
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These sound really good and I love how you have provided all the variations – fantastic!
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I made the healthyest version with raisins and they are so good, my kids like them and I have not found too many healthy cookie recipes that they actually like, so THANKS!
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Has anyone done it with sweet potato instead of pumpkin?
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Katie Reply:
June 9th, 2011 at 11:03 pm
KJ, Not yet, but I’ve done practically all my other pumpkin recipes with sweet potato. I feel nearly sure it would be great!
Katie
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Healthy Pumpkin Cookies | A Well Rounded Life // Sep 23, 2011 at 4:16 pm
[...] could find! I burned out on pumpkin. I think I’m ready to try pumpkin again. So Katie over at Kitchen Stewardship had this great recipe. I am going to help my kids make it tonight. My mother used to make [...]
I made 1/2 the recipe and did 1/2 butter and 1/2 coconut oil.
I also used honey instead of sucanat (since I don’t have any) and they are great! (Since it was 1/2 a batch I used 3 oz which is 1/4 cup + 1 TBSP honey instead of 3/4 cup sucanat)
I made your chocolate chip cookies with honey instead of the sugar/brown sugar and they were awesome too! (3/4 cup honey)
Oh, and I just noticed I was supposed to use the white whole wheat…used regular whole wheat and they seem fine..somehow I think the honey makes them extra fluffy! Thanks!
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Katie Reply:
October 19th, 2011 at 11:55 pm
Renee,
Katie
Thank you so much for trying this – for some reason I’d been hesitant to try honey in cookies. Great news that it works!
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Hi, I found this recipe while searching for something wholesome to make with fresh pumpkin puree. I made them last night, and while they were very delicious, they were super fragile! You can’t handle them at all without them falling apart. They aren’t dry, just fragile. I’ve never had this problem with other cookies. I didn’t see any other comments about this, and I’m wondering if I did something wrong. I followed the final “healthier” version of the recipe, and the only things I did differently are 1) I halved it, 2) I used 50/50 butter and cocount oil because I didn’t want to use up all my good butter, 3) I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of white whole wheat, 4) I used 75/25 sucanat to honey because I ran out of sucanat, and 5) I didn’t have any allspice, so I left that out. None of those things seem to me like they’d make the cookies so delicate, but I guess I don’t know!
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Katie Reply:
October 22nd, 2011 at 2:21 am
Kristin,
Katie
At first I thought maybe the fresh pumpkin, but I have a friend who only uses her own pumpkin puree, and she loves these cookies. Unless yours had a great deal more (or less?) water content, that shouldn’t be it. The pastry flour, on the other hand, could be the culprit. I’ve not see a lot of cookie recipes that call for pastry flour, mostly only muffins, cakes, pancakes… At least they taste good! If you make them again, I’d use white or red hard whole wheat.
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Kitty Reply:
February 3rd, 2012 at 7:42 pm
I made cookies for my grandkids with a hundred percent whole wheat pastry flour. it worked just fine. the only time I have trouble with fragility in baked goods is when I don’t use eggs. one time in my teens I forgot the eggs in a boxed cake mix.
LOL
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I make a pumpkin cookie very similar to this that’s a bit more frugal. I add yogurt in place of the eggs (allergy) and some of the butter. They turn out just as addicting…and a bit fluffy too. So yummy!
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Katie,
Do your kids tolerate the flax very well? I like to bake with flax for the health benefits but can’t use nearly the amounts recommended as a fat substitute because it gives my kids (6, 4, and 2) the runs. They tell me their tummies don’t hurt; they feel fine, just visiting the potty a lot more. I figure they just can’t handle all that fiber, plus the whole grains. I’ve been making a lot of muffins lately, and for a batch of 24 muffins, about 1/4 cup of flaxmeal is enough.
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Katie Reply:
October 26th, 2011 at 3:17 pm
Sarah,
I would have noticed it in my daughter when she was in diapers, but I didn’t. Hmmm…good question, though
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Wet Oatmeal Kisses » Blog Archive » pumpkin chocolate chip cookies // Nov 5, 2011 at 2:12 pm
[...] up my mom and got some advice. Then I called Kat and got some more advice and then Kat sent me this recipe. I ran to Winco to get mini-chocolate chips, demorara raw sugar, and allspice and then rushed home [...]
Made these today for a housewarming party. They are delicious! I used half coconut oil, half butter and home-sprouted flour. I didn’t add any add-ins, but I did use twice as much spice as called for and I dusted the tops with more spice. They came out soft, fluffy, chewy, perfect
Thanks!
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I was on http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/mary-and-martha-moments/ and clicked on a link titled “Do Bloggers share to much?/Do we all?”
and ended up here. could you give me a link to that particular article.
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Katie Reply:
February 18th, 2012 at 3:13 pm
Kitty,
Whoops! thanks for letting me know of the mistake – here’s the article:
http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2010/10/20/mary-martha-moment-do-bloggers-share-too-much-do-we-all/
Alsok, pardon my delay on the reply – I got behind on comments while finishing up my second edition snacks ebook…
Katie
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Kitty Reply:
February 18th, 2012 at 6:31 pm
thx for the help, I appreciate it.
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