Gluten-Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

These gluten-free pumpkin chocolate chip cookies have crisp edges and moist chewy centers. Optionally studded the hazelnuts for crunch, they're the perfect fall cookie! With nut-free variation!

I used to be able to tell you exactly how much cumin I put in the veggie chili I made on the fly last week or how I adjusted the flour ratios in the cupcakes I made three months ago without writing a single thing down. Then I had a baby and my working memory reached max capacity and started deleting things like baking/cooking right out of my brain. A hard lesson in pausing long enough to jot down notes.

Okay, "hard lesson" is a stretch. A too-flat cookie IS STILL A COOKIE. A deliciously buttery chocolate-y chewy and crispy cookie. Really, what hard lesson ever ended in freshly baked cookies? Exactly.

So, boo-hoo poor me, I had to re-test the recipe for Thanksgiving just to nail it down. Our dessert table featured three homemade pies, berry cobbler, bread pudding, and 4 dozen (mini) pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. The cookies disappeared first.

The Best Gluten-Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

After many tests, I can confidently say these are the best gluten-free pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Their chewy gooey chocolate-y center and crispy buttery edges flirt with you every time you walk by the plate. Their warm pumpkin spices lure you in. You can't resist grabbing one. Then another. Then another. You make special "errands" to the kitchen just to happen upon the plate of cookies. And before you know it, they're ALL GONE.

Ingredients for pumpkin chocolate chip gluten-free cookies

• Trio of gluten-free flours: hazelnut flour or almond flour, tapioca flour, and sweet rice flour.
• Leavener and spices: Baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves
• Unsalted butter
• Light brown sugar and granulated sugar
• Pumpkin purée
• Large egg yolk
• Vanilla extract
• Chopped chocolate chunks or chocolate chips
• Optional: toasted hazelnuts or pecans

Bob's Red Mill  Gluten-Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

While I prefer the slight nuttiness of the hazelnut or almond flour version of these cookies, I also developed a nut-free version using oat flour. Unless tasting side-by-side, they're almost indistinguishable. Either way, you'll love these cookies!

Both versions pair either hazelnut flour or gluten-free oat flour with tapioca flour and sweet rice flour to create a cookie that bakes up soft, chewy, and moist with crisp edges.

• Hazelnut Flour: Hazelnut flour offers a naturally sweet nutty flavor that bakes up with a deep roasted notes. 
  • Sub in by weight: Almond flour, whish is more easily accessible, offers a subtle sweet nuttiness and is one of the most neutral gluten-free flours to capture that classic cookie flavor and texture. If you can't tolerate nuts, use the oat flour version.
• Tapioca flour: Tapioca flour offers chewiness and adds to the fluffiness and crisp edges of the cookies. It's what keeps the cookies from being too dense.  
  • Sub in by weight: While I haven't tested it, I would recommend substituting by weight with arrowroot starch. 
• Sweet Rice Flour: sweet rice flour is distinctively different than white rice or brown rice flour. Sweet rice flour is the same flour used to make mochi, and as such, it also contributes to the chewiness of the cookie center. 
  • Sub in by weight: additional tapioca flour. The results will be a bit less chewy, but still delicious.

NUT-FREE OAT FLOUR VARIATION

For a nut-free version, skip the hazelnuts, or add in additional chocolate chips, and use the oat flour variation.

If using the oat flour variation, be sure to look for Bob's Red Mill gluten-free oat flour if you want to be sure your cookies are 100% gluten-free.

When used alone, oat flour is a soft and light flour that's almost cakey. When combined with tapioca flour and sweet rice flour, it acts as the structure of the cookie, imparting a warm wholesome flavor, that, well, tastes just as an oatmeal cookie should. 

• Option: grind up gluten-free old-fashioned rolled oats in a food processor or blender, then sift out any big pieces. Make sure to measure this by weight as homemade gluten-free oat flour is less finely ground so the volume per weight will be different.
• Sub in by weight: Teff Flour or Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking

Steps for easy gluten-free pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

1. Whisk together dry ingredients and set aside.
2. Brown the butter in a small saucepan and pour over the sugar in a stand mixer or medium mixing bowl.
3. Mix in the pumpkin puree, followed by the egg yolk and vanilla, mixing until combined.
4. Slowly add the dry ingredients, mixing until combined.
5. If using, add the chopped chocolate and, if using, chopped hazelnuts, and mix until evenly distributed.
6. Cover and chill for at least 1 hour.
7. Scoop large (~3 tablespoon) balls of dough onto a baking sheet and sprinkle with flaky salt. 
8. Bake at 375°F  for 16-18 minutes, until the edges are golden brown and the top is set, but still soft, rotating the pan halfway through.
9. Remove from oven and let cool on the baking sheet for a minute or two before carefully transferring with a thin spatula to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Options for gluten-free pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

Hazelnuts: Hazelnuts are one of my favorite things to add to cookies. Their roasted deep nutty flavor reminds me of fall, but if hazelnut/hazelnut flour isn't your thing, almond flour and toasted pecans work just as well!

Large Cookies: This recipe is written to make 12 big cookies (ahem, normal-sized for folks like me), but it can also be baked up as two dozen smaller cookies, shortening the baking time to 11 minutes.

More Chewy Gluten-Free Cookies

• Chewy Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cookies
• Chewy Gluten-Free Chocolate Cookies
• Gluten-Free Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
• Gluten-Free Monster Cookies
• Gluten-Free Oatmeal Cookies

Recipe

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

yields: 12 large cookies

prep time: 15 minutes mins

cook time: 16 minutes mins

Chill Time: 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

total time: 1 hour hr 41 minutes mins

These gluten-free pumpkin chocolate chip cookies have crisp edges and moist chewy centers. Studded the hazelnuts for crunch, they're the perfect fall cookie!

5 from 1 review

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Ingredients

• ▢ ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons (106 g) hazelnut flour , or superfine blanched almond flour (See nut-free version below)
• ▢ ½ cup + 3 tablespoons (90 g) Bob's Red Mill tapioca flour
• ▢ 3 tablespoons (33 g) sweet rice flour, also called "mochiko" different from "white rice flour" or "brown rice flour"
• ▢ ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ▢ 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ▢ ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
• ▢ ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
• ▢ ½ cup unsalted butter
• ▢ ½ cup (115 g) (115g) light brown sugar, packed
• ▢ ¼ cup + 2 teaspoons (60 g) granulated sugar
• ▢ ⅓ cup canned pumpkin puree
• ▢ 1 large egg yolk, room temperature
• ▢ 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ▢ 4 ounces (½ cup) chopped chocolate chunks
• ▢ ½ cup hazelnuts, toasted, loose peels rubbed off & discarded, and coarsley chopped or toasted pecans, coarsely chopped
• ▢ Optional: Flaky salt, for garnish

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INSTRUCTIONS

• In a medium bowl, whisk together the hazelnut flour, tapioca flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. Set aside.
• Add the sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer or, if mixing by hand, a large bowl.
• In a small saucepan or skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Keep cooking, stirring occasionally until the butter browns. First it will foam up and then smell toasty with little brown flecks. Pour the browned butter over the sugar and stir a couple of times.
• Mix in the pumpkin puree, followed by the egg yolk and vanilla, mixing until combined.
• Slowly add the dry ingredients, mixing until combined.
• Add the chopped hazelnuts and chocolate and mix until evenly distributed.
• Cover the dough with plastic and chill for at least 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 375°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Drop large scoops (3 tablespoons) of dough onto the lined baking sheet, about 3 inches apart (you might need to bake in batches). Sprinkle the tops of the cookies with a few flakes of salt. If the dough has softened up, chill the dough on the baking sheet for another 10 minutes.
• Bake for 16-18 minutes, until the edges are golden brown and the top is set, but still soft, rotating the pan halfway through.
• Remove from oven and let cool on the baking sheet for a minute or two before carefully transferring with a thin spatula to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Notes

Nut-free variation

If you cannot tolerate nuts, skip the added hazelnuts and use the oat flour version below. Sub the hazelnut flour, tapioca flour, and sweet rice flour with

• 94g Gluten-free oat flour
• 34g Tapioca flour
• 32g Sweet rice flour

This nutritional information has been automatically calculated, and as such, may be incomplete or inaccurate. Please reference the specific ingredients you use for the most accurate nutritional information.