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Chewy, sweet, Brown Butter Pumpkin Oatmeal Latte Cookies. A cross between a really great soft, chewy pumpkin cookie and a delicious steaming pumpkin latte made with real espresso. These cookies are made with sweet dark brown sugar, warming spices, and the real secret – espresso powder. They’re generously glazed with a thick, sweet, and creamy brown butter icing that melts in your mouth. So yummy. Equally perfect for Halloween night as they are for Thanksgiving dinner. A wonderful cookie to bake, share, and gift this holiday season!
I think we can all relate, but there are times when you just want a yummy simple chocolate chip cookie. Nothing fancy, nothing too sweet.
That was us recently. I knew sharing a simple pumpkin cookie was what I wanted and I knew that I wanted the pumpkin flavors to really come through. These took me a while to get just perfect, but I’m now so excited to share the recipe.
If you love a pumpkin spice latte, then you have to make these. They’re even better!
As with most of my cookies, I envisioned these would also include chocolate. But shockingly, after a few rounds of testing, I landed on this cookie. A straight pumpkin cookie.
Made with pumpkin butter, a mix of warm spices, brown butter, oats, and then a touch of espresso powder. I was shocked at how delicious the espresso powder made each cookie. Even better than a pumpkin spice latte from your favorite cafe.
Here are some details
Step 1: brown the butter
This pumpkin cookie starts with brown butter. I just love the rich nutty flavor it adds. It makes your cooking and baking even more special, especially at this time of year.
Step 2: make the dough
Brown the butter, then add it to a bowl with brown sugar and pumpkin butter. The key here is pumpkin butter, not pumpkin puree. I say this all of the time, but to me, you have to use pumpkin butter while baking, it makes such a difference.
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. Just make sure that whatever pumpkin butter you use is spiced for best flavor.
Next, mix in half the pumpkin butter along with an egg and vanilla. Then, add the espresso powder. Mix in the dry ingredients: flour, oats, baking soda, pumpkin spice, and salt.
Dollop in the remaining pumpkin butter, 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.
On to the icing
This icing is everything. Just a handful of ingredients, but I love the nutty brown butter flavor and creaminess. It’s what makes these cookies really melt in your mouth.
The ingredients: butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt. I use this combination a lot, but it’s so delicious.
The key is to brown the butter on the stove. Then add everything to the brown butter and thin it out with some milk. Ice each cookie quickly, as the frosting sets up pretty fast.
This combo of pumpkin, pumpkin spice, espresso, and brown butter is unexpected. Certainly not one my mom or Asher thought they would care much for. But after some convincing, they gave these a try and agreed, even without the chocolate, these are the yummiest pumpkin cookies.
I’m finding that everyone LOVES these. You won’t even detect the espresso, it just compliments the brown sugar and cinnamon so wonderfully. The result is a perfectly chewy, sweet pumpkin cookie with rich notes of espresso, vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice.
We couldn’t love these easy pumpkin cookies more. And the frosting really makes them special. Hope you guys love these just as much as I do!
Looking for fall cookie recipes? Here are a few ideas:
Chewy Frosted Cinnamon Swirl Snickerdoodles
Easy Slice ‘n’ Bake Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookies
Lastly, if you make these Brown Butter Pumpkin Oatmeal Latte 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!
Vanilla Pumpkin Oatmeal Latte Cookies
Servings: 22 cookies
Calories Per Serving: 226 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 2 sticks (1 cup) salted butter
- 1 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2/3 cup pumpkin butter
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2-4 tablespoons espresso powder or instant coffee
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups old fashioned oats
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 – 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie or chai spice (see note)
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- sea salt (optional)
Brown Butter Icing
- 1 stick salted butter, at room temperature
- 1 1/2 -2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
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 of pumpkin butter over the dough. Gently fold the butter 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. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet. They will continue to cook slightly as they sit on the baking sheet.7. Meanwhile, make the icing. Add the butter to a pot set over medium heat. Allow the butter to brown lightly until it smells toasted, about 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat. Whisk in the powdered sugar, vanilla, a pinch of salt. Immediately spread the icing over the cookies moving fast, as it will set quickly. Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.Â
Notes
Chai Spice Blend: Mix 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom, 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon all-spice, and 1 tiny pinch black pepper.
So far, Im on Day 2 of prep for these cookies…Pumpkin butter in crockpot, pantry tossed for chai spice mix, and Brown Butter #1 cooling on the stove…these better be the best things Ive ever tasted. Btw, I bake regularly.
Sorry for the trouble Suzi..let me know if I can help in any way!
These taste so good. However, mine turned out like a thin crispy wafer. Could this be because I’m at sea level in Florida? I know you’re baking in a higher altitude state. Is there a way to account for this?
Hi Kristy,
Thanks so much for making these cookies:) I would try chilling the dough next time so they aren’t as thin! I hope this helps! xx
These turned out amazing! Thank you for all that you do for us! xo
Thanks so much Charlotte!! So glad to hear that these cookies were enjoyed:) I appreciate your kind message! xx
I know you are on a quest to discover all recipes pumpkin…I’m thinking of developing a Pumpkin Spiced Latte Pie; still not sure how I’ll do it but it’s in the works. I did a quick Google search to see if anyone else has done it and Pillsbury has done one but I want to make my own…I may turn it into Pumpkin Spiced Latte Pie bars…May not be good enough to publish or share this year but that’s how it goes…it will be a start for next year. Your website is so creative and inspiring; I’m constantly sharing it with another friend who loves to cook as well. Keep up the creativity and good work!
Love this idea Charlotte! Thanks so much for your kind message and trying so many recipes:) xx
I have made these cookies three times in one week and they are amazing!! Can’t wait to make them again. The perfect fall treat! I did add some hot water to thin the icing and that helped. But everything else was perfect!
Lol love to hear this Annie!! Thanks so much for trying these cookies and sharing your review:) Thanks for sharing your tip for the icing! xT
I really wanted to love these cookies! While the flavour is great, they turned out more cakey than chewy. That’s not a bad thing, and they still taste delicious, but I do prefer a chewier texture. I’ll keep trying Tieghan’s recipes anyway as I’m a huge fan! I’ll try the gingerbread latte cookies for Christmas 🙂 The brown butter icing is divine!
Hey Samantha,
I appreciate you trying these cookies and sharing your feedback:) So glad the flavor was enjoyed! Let me know how the gingerbread cookies work for you! xx
This is a fabulous cookie! All of my family, both young and old, all love this cookie. FYI: Living in Denver, one never knows with the altitude how a baked good will turn out. Even though my cookies looked different – more puffy, they were incredible! I didn’t have pumpkin butter, but substituted puréed canned pumpkin. I was distracted and accidentally used baking powder instead of baking soda- Oh, NO, but I did. For the altitude, I used an additional ½ egg. Try these cookies. You won’t be disappointed. Absolutely delicious!
Thank you so much for giving the recipe a try! Have a Happy Halloween! 🙂 xT
These are AMAZING!!! The detailed instructions above say to add a little milk to thin the icing but that tip is not in the stepwise instructions at the bottom and I often don’t look above…so glad I did because otherwise my icing would have been chunky – maybe that can be added to the stepwise instructions!
The flavors of this cookie are wonderful! They are easy to pull together in one bowl and don’t take a lot of time. I did have some issues with the texture of the cookie being a little bit like an underdone oatmeal cookie, which I don’t really love. I also had issues with the icing seizing on me and so I added a bit of cream to thin it out. That ended up causing it to break. The icing still tasted good but the presentation wasn’t much to look at.
Hey Melinda! I’m so sorry about that! Thanks for the feedback on this recipe! xT
Delishious and very rich with all the browned butter goodness. I substituted Apple Butter for Pumpkin Butter because I had it on hand. They were a hit with the family. A nice change from chocolate.
Thank you so much Kym! xT
So glad you posted this, it was exactly what I was looking for because I have apple butter but couldn’t find pumpkin butter!
Ok, these are pretty dang good. I ended up mixing in the pumpkin butter a bit too much at the end, so mine didn’t turn our swirled, my bad, but they’re still delicious. Nice and chewy and tasty. I did put in about 3.5 Tbsp of the Espresso powder because I wanted to make sure it brought out that PSL flavor!
Tips for y’all: this recipe makes A TON. It says 22 cookies, but ohhh no, it made 56 cookies!! I made mine the 1 Tbsp size as she says in the recipe and my God I couldn’t believe how much dough I still had after filling up 2 full sheet pans (30 cookies right there). I would suggest cutting the recipe in half. Also, I only made half of the said recipe’s icing, where I did have to add a little cream, and whisk it, to make it a drizzle consistency since it made a paste on its own. Even with just the half icing recipe, it was almost too much!
Thank you so much for the feedback Katrina! xT
Hi! You mentioned thinning out the icing with milk, but I don’t see milk in the recipe instructions below. Just wondering what’s the best way. Thanks!
Could you try these with Apple Butter?
Definitely would be delicious! xT
I made these last night, and they turned out great a little more dense than yours, but a great flavor!
Thanks so so much for trying out the recipe, I really hope you loved it! xT
Can you use gluten free flour in these cookies?
I haven’t ever tried this with GF flour before, so sorry! xT
Kathy Jefferson: I make all my recipes with Bob’s GF flour. It is a 1:1 ratio. The texture and consistency come out the same as with regular flour. You can now buy it at Costco. 🙂
Question! Would love to make these but the recipe says 2/3 cup pumpkin butter then the instructions read 1/3 cup pumpkin butter. Which is correct? These looks delicious!
Welp nvm I see where the other 1/3 cup goes. My b!
Where do you get pumpkin butter?
You can make it (she has a recipe) otherwise I have purchased it from trader Joe’s