Pumpkin Coffee Cake Cookies
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These pumpkin coffee cake cookies are thick, soft, and loaded with buttery, spiced streusel–they are sure to be a new fall favorite! No dough chilling or pastry cutter needed. Recipe includes a how-to video tutorial!
Pumpkin Coffee Cake in Cookie Form
If your favorite part of coffee cake is the streusel, these pumpkin coffee cake cookies are for you. With their cozy spices and soft texture, they’re like a decadent, streusel-laden muffin top or mini coffee cake. They are my new favorite fall cookies (and I’m not even crazy about pumpkin cookies)!
You’ll find all the best parts of pumpkin coffee cake in this recipe; a soft and tender base, crumbly streusel topping, and a simple glaze (though you could always just do a dusting of powdered sugar instead!). Somehow it’s all just so much cuter in cookie form 😉
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Streusel in every bite. Not only are we topping the cookies with a healthy portion, we are also STUFFING them with the stuff! Oh, and did I mention you don’t even need a pastry cutter to make it?!
- Soft, coffee cake-like texture. Usually when making pumpkin desserts (like my pumpkin chocolate chip cookies), I have to factor in that pumpkin is so full of water and can make things a bit too cakey. Instead, I was able to lean into that moisture in this recipe and used it to my advantage; it adds a lovely lightness here.
- No chilling required! You can shape (or, rather, assemble) and bake the cookies immediately after making the dough and streusel, without needing any extra time for the dough to sit in the refrigerator.
Psst…if this recipe strikes your fancy, my original coffee cake cookies probably will too!
Ingredients
I am always careful when choosing ingredients for my recipes, but this is especially true with my gourmet cookies. I’ll explain more below!
- Cake flour. This gives the cookies a finer, softer texture that is most similar to cake (go figure!). I include notes below for substituting all-purpose flour and cornstarch if needed, but I really like the cake flour for the cookies. The flour type is less important for the streusel, and I include notes for using either type in the recipe below as well. Remember, when converting from one flour to the other, the weight amount will be the same, but the volume (cups) will be different because cake flour is finer/lighter.
- Pumpkin puree. Make sure you are using 100% pure pumpkin and not pumpkin pie filling! They are often sold right beside each other but are not the same thing (pie filling includes additives we don’t need here).
- Pumpkin pie spice. This blend of fall spices will largely contribute to the flavor of our cookies. If you don’t have any on hand but you do have other spices, you may be able to make your own homemade pumpkin spice. Add this in when creaming the butter and sugars to really bring out its flavor.
- Egg yolk. We’ll skip the egg white to avoid adding too much water to the dough (a common practice with pumpkin baked goods, like my pumpkin bars). If you don’t want to waste your egg white, put it to good use and make candied pecans, candied walnuts, or candied almonds!
- Milk. This is for our glaze–any kind of milk will work since it’s such a small amount.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
Important Note: Recipe Yield ⚠️
This recipe makes 11 (sometimes 12) LARGE cookies. You can certainly double it if you like, but you will use quite a lot of butter and flour (and everything else!) to do so.
How to Make Pumpkin Coffee Cake Cookies (Step-by-Step)
- Make the dough. Cream the butter, sugars, and pumpkin spice together until smooth and well combined. Add the remaining wet ingredients, then set aside. Whisk together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then gradually stir them into the butter mixture. When you’re finished, you’ll be left with a soft, almost cake batter-like dough.
- Make the streusel. Melt your butter and then set it aside to cool until it is no longer very warm to the touch (otherwise it could make your streusel greasy and not properly crumbly). Whisk together the remaining ingredients, then drizzle the cooled melted butter overtop. Claw everything together gently with a fork until you have a clumpy, evenly moist mixture.
- First layer. Drop 1½ Tablespoon scoops of dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet, spacing at least 2″ apart. Top with a heaping Tablespoon of streusel, pressing it into the dough gently with your hand.
- Second layer. Add another scoop of cookie dough on top of each cookie, then top with another layer of streusel. Gently press down to make sure all the layers stick together; your hands will get a little dirty during this process since the dough is so soft–this is to be expected.
Sam’s Tip
Streusel can be tricky to measure; I use a regular Tablespoon and make a generous scoop (18 grams per scoop if you use a scale). If you’ve added enough, you shouldn’t really have any leftover, at least not more than 1 serving (which I personally consider as my baker’s tax and rightfully snack on 😉).
- Bake. Bake until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn lightly golden, then remove and let cool completely on the baking sheet. They will be super fragile while still warm!
- Glaze. Whisk together the glaze ingredients until you have a smooth glaze that ribbons off your whisk. Drizzle over your cooled cookies and let set before enjoying.
Sam’s Tip
If you try the cookies while the glaze is still wet, they will seem far too sweet! Let the glaze set before you dig in for best results (my cinnamon roll cheesecake also benefits from this patience-testing technique!).
Frequently Asked Questions
You shouldn’t have much leftover, maybe enough for one more cookie. If you have more than that, you likely didn’t add enough to your cookies. Make sure you are adding enough to each cookie–roughly 3 tablespoons or 18 grams total per cookie.
If your butter was too warm when you added it, it can make your streusel greasy instead of crumbly. Alternatively, if you over-mix your streusel, it will turn into a paste instead of a crumble.
The edges will just be starting to turn a light golden brown, while the tops may still look a bit underdone. This is fine though, as the cookies will finish baking on their hot cookie sheets outside the oven (makes for perfectly soft results!). Don’t remove them from the sheets until they have cooled completely!
Related Recipes
This recipe is a close sister to my blueberry muffin cookies, which are the cover photo of my new baking cookbook!
Enjoy!
Pumpkin Coffee Cake Cookies
Ingredients
Cookie
- ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter, softened
- ½ cup (100 g) light brown sugar, firmly packed
- ⅓ cup (66 g) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- ⅓ cup (82 g) pumpkin puree
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups (226 g) cake flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon table salt
Streusel
- 6 Tablespoons (84 g) unsalted butter
- 1 ⅓ cups (150 g) cake flour, (see note)
- ½ cup (100 g) light brown sugar, firmly packed
- ⅓ cup (66 g) granulated sugar
- ¾ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon table salt
Glaze
- ⅔ cup (86 g) powdered sugar
- 1-2 Tablespoons milk
Instructions
Cookie Dough
- Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to beat together butter, sugars, and pumpkin spice until creamy and well-combined.½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter, ½ cup (100 g) light brown sugar, ⅓ cup (66 g) granulated sugar, 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- Add pumpkin puree, egg yolk, and vanilla and stir until well-combined. The mixture might look piecey/separated, this is fine.⅓ cup (82 g) pumpkin puree, 1 large egg yolk, 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- In a separate, medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.2 cups (226 g) cake flour, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ¼ teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon table salt
- Gradually add the dry mixture into the wet ingredients in several parts, stirring after each addition until all ingredients are thoroughly combined.
- Set aside while you prepare the streusel.
Streusel
- Melt butter in a microwave-safe dish and set aside.6 Tablespoons (84 g) unsalted butter
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, sugars, cinnamon, and salt.1 ⅓ cups (150 g) cake flour, ½ cup (100 g) light brown sugar, ⅓ cup (66 g) granulated sugar, ¾ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon table salt
- Check that the butter is not very warm to the touch, then drizzle butter over mixture and use a fork to toss and claw together until you have a crumbly streusel that clumps together.
Assembly (see streusel note)
- Using a 1 ½-Tablespoon cookie scoop, scoop one level portion of dough onto the prepared baking sheet.
- Portion a generous, heaping Tablespoon of streusel (closer to 1 ½ Tablespoons, though streusel is simply difficult to measure well!) and lightly press onto the top of the cookie dough. Scoop another level 1 ½ Tablespoon sized scoop of dough and drop onto the streusel. Top with another generous portion of streusel (about 1 ½ Tablespoon) and lightly press onto the top of the dough, slightly flattening the cookie to make the streusel stick and all of the layers gently press together.
- Repeat with remaining cookie dough, spacing cookies at least 2” (5cm) apart.
- Bake in the center rack of preheated oven for 11-13 minutes, until the edges of the cookies just begin to turn a light golden brown. Allow cookies to cool completely on baking sheet (they’ll be fragile when warm!) before drizzling with glaze.
Glaze
- Prepare glaze by whisking together powdered sugar and 1 Tablespoon of milk until smooth. If glaze is too thick, add additional milk as needed until the glaze ribbons smoothly off the whisk.⅔ cup (86 g) powdered sugar, 1-2 Tablespoons milk
- Drizzle glaze over cooled cookies and allow glaze to set before enjoying.
Notes
Flour in the cookies
The cookie bases are best with cake flour (gives them a finer, more coffee-cake-esque texture) but if you don’t have it you can substitute 1 ¾ cup (218 g) all-purpose flour plus 1 Tablespoon (10 g) cornstarch.Flour in the streusel
It’s fine to use either cake flour or all-purpose flour for the streusel. For all-purpose flour, you would use 1 cup + 3 Tablespoons (150 g) all-purpose flour.Dividing the streusel
Streusel is difficult to measure by the spoonful because the size of the clumps vary. Aim to divide all of it evenly among the 11 cookies, using about 18 g in the middle and 18 g on top of each cookie. It may seem like you’re using a lot as you’re portioning it, but you want to use all of the streusel, so don’t be afraid to use a lot and if your streusel has very large clumps don’t be afraid to break those up.Storing
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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