These delicious pumpkin butterscotch cookies have a soft, cake-like texture and a pleasing combo of pumpkin and sweet butterscotch flavors. Their small size makes them perfect for quick snacks.
Why These Are Great
These pumpkin butterscotch cookies are easy to mix together, don't require any chilling prior to baking, and they create perfect snackable little cookies filled with warm fall flavors and sweet butterscotch. They are an ideal autumnal treat! If you're familiar with cake mix cookies, these have a very similar soft texture, except they are made from scratch!
What Equipment Do I Need?
To make these pumpkin butterscotch cookies, you don't need anything special or fancy. Here's a few things you will need:
- Cookie Sheets - a standard metal cookie sheet is all you need. Rotating two of them will make your baking process faster.
- Parchment Paper - lining your cookie sheets with parchment avoids the need to grease the sheets and helps prevent spread of the cookies while baking. As a bonus, clean-up is way easier!
- Cooling Racks - not necessarily a requirement, but I love cooling baked goods on these racks to allow air to reach all sides of the treat so they cool faster and with less condensation.
- Cookie Scoops - the smaller scoop in this OXO set will create the perfect sized cookies.
The one piece of equipment you definitely need is some kind of an electric mixer, either a hand mixer or a stand mixer. Using a powered mixture ensures that the butter and sugar are creamed well, resulting in light cakey cookies.
What Ingredients Do I Need?
These pumpkin butterscotch cookies are quite simple and use basic baking ingredients that you may already have available in your pantry. Let's take a look at them.
- Butter and White Sugar - you'll want the butter to be fully softened so that it creams easily with the sugar. Don't rush the creaming step - give it several minutes to become fluffy and pale yellow before moving on.
- Pumpkin Puree - I used Libby's canned pumpkin since it has a less liquid-y texture than fresh or other brands. Make sure what you are using is plain pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling, which has other ingredients added.
- Vanilla Extract and Salt - flavor enhancers that intensify the flavor of the other ingredients. As always, pure vanilla extracts are best as imitation versions can have an off-flavor.
- Baking Powder and Baking Soda - these are the leavening agents that give these cookies their light and cakey texture.
- All-purpose Flour - Measure by spooning the flour into your measuring cup and leveling off with a knife. Do not dunk the measuring cup into the container of flour - this can pack it down and may result in using more flour than you intended.
- Ground Cinnamon - the warm flavor of cinnamon is a welcome pairing with both butterscotch and pumpkin.
- Butterscotch Chips - The flavor notes of molasses and salty butter in butterscotch works amazingly well with the pumpkin in these cookies. For a fun variation, you can try chocolate chips instead!
Can These Be Made Ahead Or Frozen?
These cookies are quite soft and moist, so they will spoil a bit faster than crunchy cookies with less moisture. To make the leftovers last longer, I recommend keeping the leftover cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator. They will keep for many days like this.
Pumpkin butterscotch cookies will also freeze quite well. To Freeze: place layers of cookies separated by wax paper into a freezer-safe zip top bag and freeze on a flat shelf. Once the cookies are frozen, you can remove the wax paper and place the bag anywhere you want in the freezer. To thaw: remove desired number of cookies from the freezer and let them come to room temperature on the counter.
Use frozen cookies within 3 months for best flavor and texture, though they will remain safe to eat for far beyond that time as long as they are kept frozen solid.
Print
Pumpkin Butterscotch Cookies
Soft, cake-like cookies full of pumpkin and cinnamon and dotted with sweet butterscotch chips for a delicious combo. Their smaller size makes them perfect for easy-grab snacking.
- Total Time: 21 minutes
- Yield: 36 cookies
Ingredients
- 1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¾ cup butterscotch chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line 2 large cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl using a hand or stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until pale yellow and fluffy - 4-5 minutes. Add the pumpkin puree and vanilla and mix until combined.
- In a second bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Add the dry mixture to the wet in 3 additions, mixing on low speed after each one. Stop mixing when just combined, being careful not to overmix.
- Fold in the butterscotch chips. Use a small 2-tsp size cookie scoop to drop flat scoops of dough onto the prepared pans, spacing them 2 inches apart. If desired, press some extra butterscotch chips into the dough balls for looks.
- Bake on the center rack for 9-11 minutes or until cookies are set. If you bake 2 pans at once, rotate the pans halfway through.
- Allow cookies to cool on the pan for 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack. Repeat steps 4-6 as needed until all dough has been used. Make sure pans are cool between each bake.
- Because cookies are soft, they do best stored in airtight containers in a cool room or, even better, in the refrigerator.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 11 mins
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
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