Frosted Pumpkin Cookies

These soft Frosted Pumpkin Cookies are incredibly tender and adorned with a layer of cream cheese frosting on top. The addition of pudding mix keeps them moist and bakery-soft for days, so the last cookie is just as good as the first!

Ingredients Needed

The full list of ingredients and amounts are in the recipe card below, but I wanted to draw attention to a few of them along with some substitutions:

• Pudding Mix – I love the combination of the butterscotch flavor with the pumpkin. It’s very subtle but it really helps keep the cookie moist. Use instant pudding mix; though pumpkin spice or vanilla pudding mix will work, too.
• Pumpkin Pie Spice – You can use store-bought or make your own with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and allspice!
• Pumpkin Puree – Make sure to use pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie mix.
• Cream Cheese – You’ll want to use block cream cheese for this (vs the tubs of spreadable cream cheese) so the texture is thick and creamy.

Recipe Testing to Find the BEST!

Recipe testing is one of my favorite parts of my job. I get to think back to my food science courses where I learned all about ingredients and how they interact. Here’s what I tried…

• Butter vs Oil – The flavor of butter is always better than oil (in my opinion) but in this case, the pumpkin flavor is really the star! The texture of the cookies with the oil was more tender than with the butter.
• Number of Eggs – I wanted soft cookies, but not so soft that they wouldn’t hold their shape with frosting. I thought an extra egg might help hold up the structure, but the water from the egg white seemed to add too much moisture.
• Adding Pudding Mix – The addition of pudding mix was an idea I had after adding butterscotch pudding to my pumpkin cupcakes. The pudding adds great structure to the cookies and keeps them so soft!

How to Make Soft Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

Start by combining the dry ingredients in a bowl. They’ll get added into the dough later, but I like having them mixed first so the pudding can be well-dispersed.

To start the dough, add the wet ingredients (and the sugar) to a mixing bowl. I like to use a whisk or an electric mixer to make sure it’s well-combined.

Then stir in the dry ingredients. It’ll look more like a thick batter than a classic cookie dough. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure everything gets well-incorporated.

Scoop the dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets, making sure to give them a little room to spread as they bake. Bake the cookies one pan at a time so they cook evenly.

Once they come out of the oven, let them cool for a couple minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Once the cookies are completely cooled, it’s time to frost them (or else the frosting will melt and run right off the cookies!).

To make the frosting, you’ll start by combining the softened butter and cream cheese. Then add the powdered sugar and stir until smooth. If it feels too thick, you can add a little bit of milk, but be sure you have the powdered sugar incorporated before you do so (cream cheese has enough moisture that you really shouldn’t need milk).

Recipe Variations

• Skip the frosting and add 1 cup of mini chocolate chips to the batter.
• Make browned butter cream cheese frosting for even more flavor.
• Make them gluten-free! Most pudding mixes are free of gluten (though of course you’ll want to double-check all ingredient labels, of course), so all you should have to do is swap the flour out for a gluten free flour.

Other Pumpkin Recipes To Try!

• Pumpkin Muffins
• Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
• No Bake Pumpkin Pie
• Pumpkin Churro Mini Muffins
• Pumpkin Coffee Cake