These Almond Flour Pumpkin Cookies are soft and moist in the middle with a lightly crispy sweet cinnamon sugar coat. You will love that these healthy pumpkin cookies are also gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, and grain-free.
Fall is around the corner, and if you are after a healthy gluten-free pumpkin cookie recipe that bursts with pumpkin pie spices flavors, these melt-in-your-mouth almond pumpkin cookies are for you.
I love making quick and easy cookies, like my Banana Bread Cookies, 2-Ingredient Almond Flour Banana Cookies, or Coconut Banana Cookies. My quick and easy recipes are all easy and healthy, they are my favorite snacks.
Almond flour is the best to create soft, moist cookies that are also high in healthy fats and proteins.
Ingredients and Substitutions
All you need to bake a batch of these almond flour pumpkin cookies are a few wholesome ingredients:
- Pumpkin Puree – I like to use canned pumpkin puree. It’s a pure pumpkin puree made with a blend of pumpkins and 100% organic. There’s no added oil or sugar in canned pumpkin puree. Don’t use canned pumpkin pie filling! You can, of course use my homemade pumpkin puree recipe if preferred.
- Almond Flour – I recommend ultra-fine almond flour with a light golden white color. Almond meal also works but has a coarser texture and darker color, changing the cookies’ texture. Often, almond meal add a gritty texture to cookies. With almond flour, you can also make my Almond Flour Chocolate Chips Cookies.
- Melted Coconut Oil, light olive oil, or avocado oil.
- Coconut Sugar or brown sugar, both work fine.
- Vanilla Extract for added taste.
- Pumpkin Pie Spice – to boost the pumpkin flavor. You can make your own by combining cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves.
- Vanilla Extract – Use a natural extract for best flavors.
Variations
If you want to add a little kick to these gluten-free pumpkin cookies, try the option below.
- Stir in 1/3 cup of dark chocolate chips in the batter.
- Serve with a drizzle of my vegan royal icing.
Allergy Swaps
Below are some options to make these cookies if you have some food allergies.
- Nut-Free – You can replace the almond flour with the same amount of sesame flour or sunflower seed flour.
- Low-Carb – Almond flour is a low-carb flour. To cut down the carbs, swap the sugar for a sugar-free granulated sweetener like brown erythritol monk fruit blend. Swap maple syrup for sugar-free monk fruit syrup.
How To Make Almond Flour Pumpkin Cookies
It’s very easy to make almond flour pumpkin cookies. Actually, it’s the easiest pumpkin cookie ever since you don’t need any chilling in the fridge, and the order you mix ingredients together doesn’t matter much.
- Stir Dry Ingredients – First, in a large mixing bowl, add all the dry ingredients: almond flour, coconut sugar, and spices. Whisk all ingredients together until evenly combined (photo 1).
- Add wet ingredients – Next, add melted coconut oil, pumpkin puree, and vanilla extract (photo 2).
- Make The Batter Consistent – Using a silicone spatula or wooden spoon, stir the ingredients until they form a moist consistent pumpkin cookie batter (photo 3).
- Form Balls – Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Lightly oil the paper with cooking oil spray (photo 4).
Then, use cookie dough to scoop out one tablespoon of batter and roll it between your hands into a small bowl.
Baking The Cookies
- Roll In Cinnamon Sugar – Next, in a small mixing bowl, prepare the cinnamon sugar. Stir sugar and cinnamon (photo 5). Set aside. You will use this mixture later to roll the unbaked pumpkin cookie balls. This step is optional, but it adds a lovely crunchy texture to the outside of the pumpkin cookies.
Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). - Rolling Cookies – Roll each cookie dough ball into the cinnamon sugar to cover all sides (photo 6).
- Baking – Place each cookie dough ball on the baking sheet, leaving a thumb space between each cookie.
Press the top gently with your fingers to flatten the cookies. Don’t over-press them so they are a bit thick in the middle and stay moist.
Bake the cookies on the center rack of the oven for 13 to 15 minutes or until golden brown on the sides. - Cooling – Let them cool down on a wire rack completely before eating (photo 8).
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the answers to your most common questions about this cookie recipe.
Almond flour is a low-carb flour, it’s low in starch and high in healthy fats, and consequently, it needs a binder to hold it together in a cookie recipe.
If you didn’t use enough or any binder, the cookies are dry, crumbly, and fragile. The best binder for almond flour cookies is coconut oil, maple syrup or mashed banana, pumpkin puree, or sweet potato puree.
Eventually, you can add 1/4 teaspoon of xanthan gum to your cookie batter to avoid any issues.
Almond flour is made of blanched almond grinded in a thin texture that resemble flour.
You can store the cookies in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4-5 days.
You can freeze them in zip-lock bags for up to 1 month. Thaw at room temperature the day before.
More Pumpkin Recipes
If you like recipes with pumpkin, you’ll love these:
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Almond Flour Pumpkin Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups Almond Flour - scoop, lightly packed, sweep (note 1)
- ⅓ cup Coconut Sugar - (note 2)
- 2 teaspoons Pumpkin Pie Spices - (note 3)
- 2 tablespoons Melted Coconut Oil - cooled, (note 4)
- ⅓ cup Pumpkin Puree - canned
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract - optional
Cinnamon Sugar – to roll
- 2 tablespoons Coconut Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Slightly grease the paper with cooking oil spray. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir all the dry ingredients: almond flour, coconut sugar, pumpkin pie spices.
- Stir in canned pumpkin puree, melted coconut oil, and vanilla extract, if used.
- Stir with a spatula until the batter is thick, moist, and consistent. It should be slightly wet but not liquid.
- In a small bowl, prepare the cinnamon sugar by stirring sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
- Scoop out two tablespoons of batter per cookie, roll into a nice ball between lightly oiled hands, then roll the ball into the cinnamon sugar made before.
- Place each cookie dough ball onto the baking sheet covered with parchment paper, leaving one thumb's space between each ball. Repeat until all the cookies are made.
- Slightly flatten the cookies with your finger.
- Bake the cookies for 13-15 minutes at 350°F (180°C) or until golden brown on top.
- Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
Storage
- Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 4-5 days or freeze up to 1 month in Ziploc bags and thaw the day before serving.
excellent
I followed this recipe to a tee but the cookies barely even cooked! I ended up baking them at least double the amount of time than this recipe calls for
This is very odd! These normally bake quite quickly! Did you use the right temperature?
Can I use maple syrup or honey for processed or coconut sugar which I’m not eating in my diet?
No, you need a crystal sweetener, so anything from sugar, coconut sugar, allulose, tagatose, xylitol, erythritol, etc.
I don’t do oil. Can I sub apple
Sauce?
Yes, possibly!
Do you think date sugar works instead of coconut?
Yes you can!
I loved this cookie. What a great little compliment to a cup of coffee.