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The best ever Brown Butter Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. Homemade pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, made with browned butter, pumpkin butter, oatmeal, pumpkin spice, and plenty of chocolate. Plus one special ingredient that really makes these stand out…espresso. They’re the perfect fall pumpkin cookie. Slightly crisp on the edges, but soft and gooey in the middle. And the sea salt on top makes every bite even more addicting. Equally perfect for Halloween night as they are for Thanksgiving dinner.

Brown Butter Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies | halfbakedharvest.com

This is my year to bake all things pumpkin. When I was looking back at the last 10 years of writing recipes for HBH, I realized many things. But one thing that hit me about fall is the lack of sweet pumpkin recipes.

I actually have plenty of favorite pumpkin recipes. But when it comes to baking with pumpkin, I only have a handful of really solid go-to recipes.

I made it my goal this week to embrace baking with pumpkin. I’m two recipes down and wow, they’re both so delicious. Starting with my personal favorite though, cookies!!

We absolutely love oatmeal cookies around here. My mom’s recipe is pretty famous at this point. So all I do is use her recipe as a base, then adjust from there.

Shockingly, these didn’t take me long to test. I had a few ideas, but in the end, I landed on this cookie. I think it’s pretty perfect.

Brown Butter Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies | halfbakedharvest.com

Details

Like most of my cookie recipes during the fall, this one starts with brown butter. I just love the rich nutty flavor it adds. It makes your cooking and baking even more special.

I brown the butter and then add it to a bowl with brown sugar and pumpkin butter. The key here is pumpkin butter, not pumpkin puree. Pumpkin butter is more reduced down than pumpkin purèe and contains less moisture. Less moisture will give you a chewier cookie, not a cakey cookie. You can use my homemade pumpkin butter or pick some up at Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, your local market, or even via Amazon. Though I’m partial to my homemade recipe. Just make sure your pumpkin butter is spiced for best flavor.

Brown Butter Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies | halfbakedharvest.com

Mix in half the pumpkin butter along with an egg and vanilla. I also love to add a small amount of espresso powder. I found this paired so nicely with the flavors and chocolate in the cookie. Kind of like a pumpkin latte with melty chocolate.

Now mix in the dry ingredients: flour, oats, baking soda, pumpkin spice, and salt.

The next step is important. Dollop on the remaining pumpkin butter and add the chocolate, but don’t mix the pumpkin butter fully into the dough. You want streaks. This gives you more pumpkin flavor without creating an overly cakey cookie.

Roll the dough into balls, I love to use a cookie scoop for this. It’s so much easier and works nicely with this dough since it’s a bit stickier. Then bake.

Brown Butter Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies | halfbakedharvest.com

These cookies smell incredible, like cookies with the addition of warming fall scents.

Easy to make, no chilling, and take less than a half hour to make. Love that. Plus they’re full of actual pumpkin flavor, real pumpkin, and swirled with both pumpkin butter and chocolate.

These cookies are lightly crisp on the edges but soft and gooey in the center.

Brown Butter Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies | halfbakedharvest.com

Looking for other pumpkin recipes? Here are a few ideas: 

Cream Cheese Swirled Cinnamon Pumpkin Butter Bread

6 Ingredient Spiced Pumpkin Butter

Spiced Pumpkin Maple Latte

Chai Pumpkin Cake with Maple Browned Butter Frosting

Pumpkin Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cinnamon Swirl Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Butter Bread

Pumpkin Coffee Cake Muffins

Fluffy Pumpkin Butter Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Lastly, if you make these Brown Butter Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!

Brown Butter Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Servings: 18 -22 cookies
Calories Per Serving: 350 kcal

Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.

Ingredients

Instructions

  • 1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
    2. Add the butter to a skillet set over medium heat. Cook until the butter begins to brown, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from the heat and transfer to a heatproof bowl. Let cool 5 minutes or so.
    3. To the browned butter, mix in the brown sugar, 1/3 cup pumpkin butter, the egg, vanilla, and espresso powder, mixing until smooth. Add the flour, oats, baking soda, pumpkin spice, and salt.
    4. Dollop the remaining 1/3 cup pumpkin butter over the dough. Sprinkle over the chocolate chips. Gently fold the pumpkin butter and chocolate into the dough, being careful to not over-mix. You want streaks of pumpkin butter.
    5. Roll the dough into rounded tablespoon size balls, it might be a little sticky. Place 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. Gently flatten the dough down. Bake 8 minutes. Remove from the oven, rotate, and tap the baking sheet on the counter 1-2 times to flatten. Bake another 2-3 minutes or until the cookies are just beginning to set on the edges.
    6. Sprinkle with sea salt (if desired). Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet. They will continue to cook slightly as they sit on the baking sheet.

Notes

Pumpkin Butter: you can use my homemade pumpkin butter or just pick some up from Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, your local market, or even via Amazon.
If you want more Pumpkin Spice Flavor: add in 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice along with the flour. 
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Comments

  1. 5 stars
    I almost didn’t make these bc I didn’t have pumpkin butter on hand. So I decided to make a batch even though it’s springtime…….’cause anything pumpkin is delicious year round, right?!! Then, knowing I would be sharing these I doubled the recipe. I have to say, that was a lot of butter to brown, lol, but so worth the effort. These are crunchy on the outside and soft and chewy inside. Yum 🙂

    1. Hey Kathryn,
      Happy Monday!!⛅️ Thanks a bunch for giving this recipe a try, I love to hear that it turned out well for you:)

  2. 5 stars
    These are so delicious! I made your pumpkin butter recipe (which really does go great in my morning coffee, by the way) specifically for this recipe – wow! I didn’t notice the swirl in the cookies, as others have noted, and they don’t flatten much, even with the tapping on the counter. I wonder if that’s affected by using chocolate chips – which are made to keep their shape and not melt – vs chocolate chunks. I got about 45 cookies, and I use the 1.5″ cookie scoop. Definitely a keeper!

    1. Hey Ginny,
      Happy Sunday!😃 Thanks so much for making this recipe and your comment, I am so glad it turned out well for you! You also want to make sure the dough isn’t cold for a flatter cookie:) xx

    2. 4 stars
      Another yummy cookie recipe. Thank you. You definitely have a gift for pulling together flavors. My cookies never look like yours, lol, but I hope they taste the same. I used Traders Joe’s pumpkin butter, which I bought while vacationing in the US after seeing it used in so many of your recipes. Now I have to buy more! Haha. This recipe was very easy to make. I didn’t need to smack the tray after 8 minutes as they were nicely flattened already for me. Nom nom nom…..

      1. Hey Cathy,
        Happy Wednesday!! Thanks so much for making this recipe and sharing your feedback, so glad to hear it was tasty! xx

  3. 5 stars
    Wow these are amazing! The pumpkin spice flavor was just right, not too overpowering. I am so glad I gave some away or we would have ate them ALL!

    1. Hey Kim,
      Happy Wednesday!!❄️ Thanks so much for giving this recipe a try and sharing your feedback, I am so glad it was a hit! xx

  4. 4 stars
    I loved Tieghan’s pumpkin chocolate chip cookies so I had to give these a try. They were perfect! I loveeee how she uses pumpkin butter so the texture isn’t cakey. So good!

    1. Hey Sarah,
      Happy Monday!!☃️ I truly appreciate you making this recipe and sharing your review, so glad it was enjoyed! xT

    1. Hi Gabby,
      Wonderful!! Thanks so much for making this recipe, I love to hear that it was enjoyed!! Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃

  5. 4 stars
    I’m not sure what I did wrong, but mine did not end up looking like the picture despite following all the steps. They are very cakey, I can see a lot more oats, and the chocolate chips didn’t really melt. They still taste good but I didn’t get much pumpkin flavor. Maybe I’ll add more pumpkin and bake longer next time.

    1. Hey Phoebe,
      Thanks so much for trying this recipe and sharing your feedback!! Did you try tapping your baking sheet on the counter to flatten the cookies? Please let me know how I can help! xx

    2. 2 stars
      I had the same result unfortunately. Chocolate didn’t melt, the cookies taste very dry, no pumpkin flavor, and the don’t appear to look anything like the photo.

      1. Hi Cait,
        So sorry to hear this recipe was not enjoyed. Is it possible anything was adjusted in the recipe? Any chance the cookies were over-mixed? Let me know how I can help! xx

  6. I don’t usually comment on recipes, but this was so delicious, I made an exception! I made your pumpkin butter recipe to use in this, and then made a first batch of cookies according to your recipe, excluding the expresso (I don’t do coffee). It was so good. The next batch I made some alterations, still excluding the coffee: I put all the pumpkin butter in at the same time (because it didn’t make much of a swirl difference to me), and then subbed white chocolate chips for the semi-sweet ones, added 2 handfuls of chopped walnuts and craisins, and the zest of half an orange. Both iterations were excellent. Thank you for posting! I will definitely be making them again! 😋

    1. Hey Veronica,
      Wonderful!! Thanks so much for making this recipe, I love to hear that it was enjoyed!! Thanks so much for your kind message🤍 Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃

  7. Happy thanksgiving!!!! I’m not sure if you’ll see this but I made the dough yesterday and put it overnight in the fridge because I got tired 😂 will baking with the cold dough mess up the cookie balls ? !!

    1. Hey Eileen,
      Just let the dough come to room temp before baking, that will work well for you! I hope you love these cookies! xT

  8. 5 stars
    This cookie recipe is so perfect for Fall and the holidays. Delicious!! They lasted on the counter for a few days and stayed fresh. Making another batch tomorrow for family thats flying in for Thanksgiving.

  9. 5 stars
    I made the brown butter pumpkin oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Everything about this recipe is great. The cookies turned out perfect and that is saying a lot for me because I generally don’t do well with baking. I liked the finishing touch of sea salt against the chocolate it really adds a savory quality to the cookie. I ordered more pumpkin butter through Amazon and am planning to make more.

    1. Hey Beth,
      I truly appreciate you giving this recipe a try and sharing your feedback, love to hear that it was enjoyed!❄️ xx

  10. 5 stars
    This is my second time making these because they are delicious! I did have two comments. I added the pumpkin at the end (the last 1/3 cup) and after cooking I had no streaks despite not stirring it completely in. The pumpkin butter is pretty much the same color as the dough. Still delish though! Also, whenever I make your cookie recipes I get so many more cookies than you, even though I measure it out to what you say in the recipe. Are your cookies actually just REALLY big? A TBS size in this recipe yielded me 45 cookies!

    1. Hey Jennifer,
      Wonderful!! I love to hear that this recipe was a hit, thanks so much for making it and sharing your review:) I use a tablespoon size scooper, but they are not perfect, probably more like a heaping tablespoon. I hope this helps! x

    2. Any tips for making them ahead of time/keeping them fresh? I have a work event tomorrow and what to make them today but want them to be fresh when I hand them out.

    1. Hey there,
      I would use an equal amount of gluten free flour! I hope this recipe turns out well for you, please let me know if you give it a try! xT

      1. 5 stars
        I tried it with gluten free flour. I made one batch with regular flour and one batch with the gluten free flour, and both were delicious (I couldn’t taste any difference between them)!

  11. 5 stars
    Delicious! So flavorful! A great recipe to spice up your cookies and please a crowd. Followed the recipe exactly and the texture was perfect!

    1. Hey Lauren,
      Yes, that will work well for you! Please let me know if you have any other questions, I hope you love these cookies! xx