VEGAN GLUTEN-FREE PUMPKIN SPICE COOKIES
These vegan and gluten-free pumpkin spice cookies are soft and chewy with a smooth kick of warming spices. They strike a lovely harmony of sweet and spiced, being neither too much of one or the other. Like molasses cookies, they have an almost bendable texture yet are also incredibly soft, tender, and even a bit puffy, too.
Servings: 14 to 16 cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup coconut sugar
- ⅓ cup unsweetened pumpkin purée, at room temperature
- ¼ cup virgin coconut oil
- 2 tablespoons brown rice syrup
- 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cups oat flour*
- ¾ teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¾ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together the coconut sugar, pumpkin purée, coconut oil, brown rice syrup, and vanilla extract for 1 minute using a hand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or stand mixer fitted with the beater attachments.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the oat flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, cloves, and sea salt. Place within reach of the mixer.
- With the mixer off, add the dry ingredients. Turn the mixer on low and slowly increase speed to medium and beat for 15 seconds or until the flour mixture is just incorporated, stopping to scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl with a spatula if necessary. The mixture will resemble a loosely set cookie dough. Chill the dough in the freezer for 20 to 30 minutes, or until just firm enough to scoop.
- Use a cookie scoop or 2-tablespoon measuring spoon to scoop out about 2 tablespoons of dough. Then, release the dough onto one of the lined pans (or hold the measuring spoon over the pan and use a spoon to scoop the dough out, allowing it to drop on the pan). Repeat with all remaining cookie dough.You should have 14 to 16 cookies.
- Bake for 12 to 16 minutes, or until the cookies are puffy with crinkled tops and the edges are golden brown. If your oven is prone to uneven baking, rotate the pans at the 6-minute mark to ensure both trays bake evenly.
- Cool for 10 minutes on the pans before using a spatula to transfer the cookies to a cooling rack. Cool completely.
Notes
*Please, please, please do not substitute the oat flour with coconut flour. I only mention this specific swap because it's a common mistake to make (my hand is raised) and will DRASTICALLY alter the result, yielding dry, crumbly cookies instead of soft, chewy cookies. Coconut flour is highly absorbent (like a sponge) and cannot be used as a 1-to-1 substitute for other flours.