These Chewy Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookie with Browned Butter Icing are soft, chewy and perfectly spiced! The sweet, slightly nutty frosting pairs beautifully with the pumpkin and milk chocolate cookie.
I have been waiting impatiently, which is the only way I wait by the way, for it to be socially acceptable to begin making pumpkin goodies. I don't know why, but baking with pumpkin makes me giddy. I decided to start my pumpkin season out with a bang. These Chewy Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies are pillowy soft and perfectly moist. They practically melt in your mouth.
And the frosting! Oh, the frosting! Brown butter lends a subtle hint of flavor that sets these cookies apart from any others you'll find out there.
But was that enough for a pumpkin season opener? Oh no. Not at CLF. I added a smattering of milk chocolate chips to half the batter. Not enough to detract from the pumpkin magnificence but just enough to make your eyes pop open and say, "Oh wow that's good!"
I would like to call your attention to those magnificent milk chocolate chips. Perfectly accenting the pumpkin.
These are perfectly seasoned with your traditional spices so that it's bursting with the flavors you're craving and the brown butter frosting keeps them from being mundane. Not that we didn't eat our fair share unfrosted. Because we did.
I made half the batter into plain chewy pumpkin cookies, which I piped into perfect, little circles, and then folded in a handful of chocolate chips to the remaining batter on a whim. They are both fabulous.
Brown Butter Icing adapted from Tracey’s Culinary Adventures
Chewy Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies
Ingredients
For the pumpkin cookies:
- 1 cups unsalted butter (slightly softened)
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup dark brown sugar (packed )
- 1 cup pure (pureed pumpkin)
- 1 egg
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 2 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ teaspoons nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ginger
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup milk chocolate chips
For the Browned Butter Icing
- 2 cups confectioners sugar (sifted)
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons whole milk
- ¾ teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
Make the cookies:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or grease.
- Sift together all the spices, baking soda, baking powder, and flour in a medium bowl.
- Cream butter and both sugars with an electric hand mixer or stand mixer until well blended. Add egg and pumpkin and mix just until combined. You don’t want the butter to over soften.
- Add the dry mixture to the pumpkin mixture and mix until combined. If you would like to add chocolate chips, stir in the desired amount with a spoon. At this point you can either drop the cookies onto the sheet from a spoon or a scoop, or you can pipe them into circles. Perfectionists beware: they will not be pretty and picture perfect unless you pipe them with a round fitting. The taste difference is nonexistent.
- Bake in preheated oven for 10-13 minutes. The piped 1” cookies take about 10 minutes, while the drop cookies take a little longer. The cookies are done when the center springs back from your touch. Not a moment longer! Completely cool on cookie racks prior to icing. [Try to resist eating the majority!]
Make the Frosting:
- Brown your butter: Melt butter over medium-low heat in a small, thick-bottomed pot. Swirl the butter every minute or so to ensure even cooking. WATCH IT LIKE A HAWK. Patience is crucial to browning butter. First the butter will “un-cloud”, then little tiny bubbles will form on the bottom of your pan. These are good things. Keep swirlin’ intermittently. Every so often give the butter a good sniff and see if it smells like melted butter or if it has a nutty aroma. Once you smell that distinctly nutty aroma and your butter is a golden brown, pull it from the stove and pour it over your confectioners sugar. Make sure you get every last bit of it – including the little brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Yummmy.
- Add the remaining ingredients and vigorously beat with a spatula to mix. The consistency should be smooth and creamy. Not runny. If your icing is a touch too thick drizzle a little more milk on at a time. You will probably have to loosen it up halfway through icing.
- Ice those beautiful chewy chocolate chip pumpkin cookies with a small offset spatula and then sprinkle with just a touch of cinnamon for fun.
Notes
I made these cookies last night, rather than just getting on here (and every other food site) and saying something looks good and I would like to try them. They are tasty, but not chewy, rather more cake-like...similar to what I make for pumpkin gobs, and don't hold together well. My family enjoyed the flavor though.
I'm sorry they didn't work for you. I didn't have the same problems as you but I appreciate your feedback.
Wow, these look yummy! I could use one for breakfast right now. 😉
Great pictures too. Love the cute little pumpkins!
Thank you! I can attest to the fact that they are delicious at all times of the day! Including breakfast! lol
Pumpkin cookies are one of my weaknesses and these look wonderful!
Oh these are a must try! Make sure you make the icing too! Soooo amazing!
Oo chewy is my favorite! And I think it is always socially acceptable to bake with pumpkin 🙂 SO so yummy!
People do look at you a leetle funny if you whip up pumpkin bread in July! Which, of course, I know from experience! And chewy is definitely the way to go!
Oh I was just thinking of pumpkin and baking with pumpkin. It is really starting to feel like fall finally (thank God), and I just love fall baking, especially with all those spices that just makes your house smell so good. Brown butter is the best. Makes things taste good! Love the bright orange colors of the pumpkins.
This post is so fall-esque lol. Fall is my fav season. Thank goodness the unbearable heat of summer is over!
lol you are fall obsessed! These are delicious. And the icing is hard not to just eat it straight on your finger!
they look yummy!
Oh that they are!
These look great. I'm going to try them!
There are no words! They were spectacular! Both with and without chocolate chips. Let me know what you think!