Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cookies are so light and fluffy … they practically melt in your mouth! So easy to make using gluten-free flour, sugar and spice and of course canned pumpkin! These delicious little mounds of heaven are topped with a simple cream cheese frosting that everyone will love!
Whether you bake gluten-free due to allergies or preference … you’ll love these delicious pumpkin cookies!
So soft and pillowy … they are the perfect gluten-free dessert for fall!
How to make Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cookies:
Step 1. Mix wet ingredients: In a large mixing bowl, beat sugars, oil, pumpkin, eggs and vanilla until well combined.
Step 2. Mix dry ingredients: In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice.
Step 3. Combine the wet and dry ingredients: Mix the wet and dry ingredients together until it forms the cookie dough. The batter will be very thick.
Step 4. Bake the cookies: Use a cookie scoop to create 1 tablespoon sized dough balls. Place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Wet your fingers lightly with water and smooth the tops to create a disk shape. (optional) Bake at 350 degrees for 11-13 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool before frosting.
Step 5. Make the frosting: Beat the cream cheese, Greek yogurt and powdered sugar until smooth and creamy.
Step 6. Frost the cookies: Use a spatula or butter knife to spread frosting onto each cookie. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon if desired.
Tips for making Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cookies:
- Use a pre-made all-purpose gluten-free flour blend. Brands that I’ve tried and love are: Pillsbury, Bob’s Red Mill and Krusteaz. If you bake often, save money by making your own blend with this recipe All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour Blend.
- Use canned pumpkin puree, NOT pumpkin pie filling. Pumpkin pie filling has spices and sugar already added to it and will make these cookies super sweet!
- The batter will not spread or puff when baking. If presentation matters and you’d like the cookies to be smooth on top, use the back of a spoon or fingers that have been dipped in a little water to shape them. The water will help keep the spoon or your fingers from sticking to the batter!
- Sprinkle a little sanding sugar or white sugar on top with a pinch of cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice to make them look even more yummy!
- One of my readers, Melissa, doesn’t like yogurt flavored frosting so she shared this combination of ingredients to make a frosting without yogurt: 8 oz cream cheese (softened), 6 TBSP butter (softened) 1-2 tsp vanilla, and 2.5 -3 cups powdered sugar. Thanks Melissa!
Make sure to try out these amazing gluten-free recipes!
- Gluten-Free Chocolate Pancakes
- Birds Nest Cookies
- Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Low Fat Peanut Butter Chocolate Balls
- Gluten-Free Waffles
More Pumpkin Recipes you might like to try!
- Pumpkin Pie
- Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirl Muffins
- No-Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake
- Pumpkin Cream Cheese Monkey Bread
- Pumpkin Pie Spice
Did you make this Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cookies recipe? Let me know how it turned out by ★★★★★ RATING this recipe and leave a comment below!!
Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cookies
Ingredients
PUMPKIN COOKIES
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup canola oil
- 1 15 oz. can pumpkin
- 2 eggs lightly beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3 1/2 cups gluten free all purpose flour blend
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 T pumpkin pie spice
FROSTING
- 4 oz cream cheese room temperature
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup Greek yogurt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl combine brown sugar, sugar, canola oil, pumpkin, eggs and vanilla until fully incorporated.
- In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice.
- Combine wet and dry ingredients and stir to fully incorporate.
- Use a small cookie scoop to place mounds of the dough onto the parchment paper.
- Flatten out the mounds by smoothing the top with the back of a spoon or your fingers that have been dipped in water to keep from sticking. (The shape they are going into the oven is pretty much the shape they will be when they are done!)
- Bake for 11-13 minutes, transfer cookies to a cooling rack and let cool before frosting.
- To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese, powdered sugar and yogurt until smooth. (I like to make my frosting thicker so I use less yogurt) If the frosting is too then, add more powdered sugar.
- Frost each cookie and enjoy!
Notes
- Add 2 cups of chocolate chips for Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies.
Hi Amy. For some reason the list of ingredients is not showing for the gluten free pumpkin cookies. Could you please send it to me. Thank you so much!
Hi Alison, you should see it now!
Where is the recipe? All that is here are the instructions
Hi Janna, you should see it now. Had a little technical difficulty!
Oh my gosh, this recipe is amazing! I love how soft these cookies are. Thank you so much for sharing. We will definitely be making these again 🙂
Hi Katherine! I am so glad you loved the cookies :). My family really enjoys them too!
One of the first gf recipes I’ve tried.
Gave me hope that not all gf baked goods are bad lol
Hi Karen,
So glad you enjoyed them! 🙂 They are one of my favorites in the fall!
These cookies are amazing! The are so soft and light. The flavor is just delicious. This recipe is a keeper for our family.
Hi Kerri! I’m so glad you and your family enjoyed these!
I just used your new recipe for GF Pumpkin Cookies. I had to cut it in half, as there’s only one of me. They came out terrific. I’m going to try freezing half. I used whipped cream cheese, a mistake–doesn’t get hard. Thank you for this recipe.
You’re welcome 🙂
I substituted 1 cup splenda plus 1/2 cup applesauce for 1 cup of white sugar which made the dough plenty sweet, soft and pillowy, and tasty but you could tell they were gluten free (a little beany- I used Bob’s GF). Then I added 1/2 cup more brown sugar to help with consistency/less beany texture, it much improved texture but then i lost some pumpkin flavor. I was hoping to lower the overall sugar of the recipe but I won’t do that again. I think the original amounts of white and brown sugar are equally needed to let the pumpkin shine through and to make the texture great.
** I did bake a few with various mixins such as coconut, walnuts, craisins and also some with just mini choc chips but i would prefer an oatmeal GF cookie for all of those mixins and leave the pillowy soft pumpkin just plain for future, that’s just my taste. I thought these cookies were much moister and better tasting than any GF pumpkin loaf i have ever made
I have to go dairy free as well as gluten free. So to amp up the glaze I’m going to add some maple flavouring and maybe a sugared pecan as well.
Hi Cherie, that sounds really good! That will go great with the pumpkin flavor 🙂
Hi Amy,
Thank you for such a delicious recipe. These cookies are AMAZING! I fully admit that some did not make it to the frosting step because they are yummy without frosting, too:)
I look forward to sharing these with my family tomorrow at Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving to you!
Thanks Sarah! ?
I made these for Thanksgiving and they are amazing!!! Thank you so much for sharing. I did use butter instead of oil and sour cream instead of the yogurt, only because I didn’t have those ingredients. And they turned out awesome! Should be a hit tomorrow and thanks again. ❤️
Hi Emily! Thanks for sharing ?
Hi! I am making these for Thanksgiving and all I am missing is a GF all purpose flour. I usually bake with coconut flour but figured using that would interfere with the pumpkin flavoring. Do you have a GF all purpose flour that you can recommend? I am crunched for time so don’t really want to make my own blend like your recipe calls for. I have a trader joes and whole foods right near me so any luck with a good all purpose GF flour from either of those places?
Pillsbury and Bobs Red Mill both make a good GF Flour pre made
I was wanting to see if I can make these and not make them gluten free? Because every year we make pies and I’d love to try something different. Now if my aunt was here she would be starting to bake already. And we would have pies cookies and candy made. So please please tell that I can make it gluten free because myself and my kids do all the baking now and that is something different we would love to make. I rate this a five star because we love pumpkin!
Hi Tracey! I think it will be fine with regular flour but I would start with about 2 1/2-3 cups of flour to make sure the batter doesn’t get too dry. You can always add more if you think it’s not dry enough. (The recipe calls for 3 1/2 cups GF flour) Please let me know how they turn out! 🙂
I just made my first batch of these for Thanksgiving tomorrow. They are amazing! I am making more but would like to try adding cranberries. Have you made with either fresh or craisins? What amount did you use? Thank You!
I’ve never used them in this recipe but it sounds delicious. I would use about a cup and then add more if you think it needs it. Let me know how they turn out ?
Is it possible to freeze the cookies after baked? I was thinking I would add chocolate chips and skip the frosting.
You can freeze after baking. Just make sure you store them in an air tight container or wrap them with plastic wrap and then foil.
These look so good. I’m thinking of making for Thanksgiving, but will need to fly with them. Do they need to be refrigerated? Do they crumble easily?
Thank you!
Hi Angela, I would just refrigerate them until you are ready to leave without the frosting. Can you frost them once you are at your destination? They shouldn’t crumble at all! I hope you enjoy 🙂
Since you prefer the original recipe, where can I find it? These sound YUMMY!
Hi Mary, the original recipe is the one that is posted. I removed the revised recipe and kept the original!
I tried this with Pillsbury’s GF flour blend and they were very very good!
What I will add to my experience was mentioned in the recipe, whatever shape you form them on the baking sheet is the shape they will stay. Great experience for a new GF baker!! Thanks ?
Hi Amy! I’m so glad you liked them! 🙂
Do you have any suggestions for a dairy free icing option? We are GFCF.
Hi Michelle, I would try to take some dairy free yogurt and mix with powdered sugar. It will be a little runny but probably tasty!
I’ve made a tasty frosting using earth balance, maple syrup (or you can use powdered sugar), and cinnamon. I just mix to taste so I don’t have ratios. You can whip it to make it fluffier or just spread on cookies.
Canned Coconut fat. You can add some powdered sugar and extracts of your choice, electric mixer till fluffy and use it like icing, the only kicker is that as it warms it melts.
I tried this and completely followed the recipe but it was runny, like a cake consistency.
Hi Jamie, did you bake the batter even though it was runny?
I tried this recipe for the first time tonight. I substituted butter for the canola oil. However, I used Pamela’s baking mix rather than a floor blend. And Pamela’s already has baking soda so I didn’t add any extra. My cookies turned out flat and they fell apart :/
Do you think it was the butter or found I add more baking soda next time? They had really great flavor in spite of them falling apart while eating them.
Hi Hillary, It’s hard to say exactly what caused the problem. I’m sure it was probably due to the baking soda.
You mention cinnamon in the directions, but not ingredient list. How much cinnamon or just the pumpkin spice mix alone? Thanks
Hi Stephanie! I just corrected the recipe. There is no extra cinnamon unless you feel like it! 🙂