These soft pumpkin cookies are sweet and packed with warm spices and a sweet maple cream filling. You can make them as sandwich cookies or simply spread them with the icing – it’s pumpkin spice heaven either way! They’re gluten free, dairy-free, refined-sugar free and paleo.
Every year in September I go basically wild baking all sorts of pumpkin goodies. There are always cookies involved!
From chewy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to pumpkin spice latte cookies, a good pumpkin spice fix in cookie is always a good idea.
For today’s new pumpkin cookies, I made a similar soft and chewy basic grain free pumpkin cookie with a creamy frosting made from maple sugar. You can make the frosting into a filling a call them sandwich cookies, or simply spread the frosting on top – you can’t go wrong.
The cookies themselves are super simple. They use blanched almond flour and tapioca flour, a good dose of pumpkin puree, some creamy almond butter, and coconut sugar to sweeten.
The dough should chill for 15-20 minutes or so, as pumpkin cookie dough is known to be pretty sticky. Sticky is good though, because you know the finished product will wind up chewy and soft.
Since the cookies don’t spread on their own much while baking, I recommend flattening them a little bit before they go in the oven. If you forget to do this though, no worries, they’ll still taste amazing!
The creamy maple frosting is a spin on the maple drizzles I usually do when I want to make a paleo friendly icing that tastes like the real deal. Or better, if I’m being totally honest here.
It all starts with maple sugar. Not syrup, but sugar. Maple sugar is fine and light in color to begin with, which makes it an awesome alternative to traditional powdered sugar. However, you WILL still need to blend the maple sugar into a powder to avoid a grainy icing.
I always do this with my NutriBullet and it takes less than a minute to get to a nice powdery consistency. If you can’t use maple sugar, you can also do the same thing with coconut sugar. Just expect the frosting to be much darker in color – the flavor will still be delicious.
Once you have your paleo powdered sugar, you just mix it with a few extra ingredients. Palm oil shortening or ghee, dairy free milk, and vanilla – to magically turn it into a super creamy frosting/filling. The frosting will firm up a bit as it sits, but will still remain creamy.
As you can see from the photos, I couldn’t resist making these into epic sandwich cookies! Whether you do the same, spread the filling all over the cookies OR simply use it as a dip (oh yes – I’ve done this!) I know you’re going to love them! Grab your pumpkin get ready for some fun in the kitchen – let’s go!
Pumpkin Cookies with Maple Cream {Paleo, GF, DF}
Pumpkin Cookies with Maple Cream {Paleo}
Ingredients
Cookies:
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup smooth almond butter
- 2/3 cup organic pumpkin puree
- 2/3 cup organic coconut sugar
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups blanched almond flour
- 1/4 cup tapioca flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp fine grain sea salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
Filling/Cream:
- 1 cup powdered maple sugar *see note
- 2 Tbsp palm oil shortening or ghee room temperature
- 1 Tbsp almond or coconut milk
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
Cookies:
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In a large mixing bowl using an electric hand mixer, mix together the egg, almond butter, pumpkin, coconut sugar, and vanilla on medium speed until very smooth. Add in the almond flour, tapioca flour, baking soda, salt, and spices and mix on low speed until fully combined. Dough will be very sticky.
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Place the bowl in the refrigerator and chill for at least 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350° F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
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After chilling the dough, use a medium cookie scoop to scoop 16-18 mounds of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets. If you’re making sandwich cookies, make sure there’s an even number since each cookie will use two.
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Press down gently on each one so it’s about 1/2-3/4” thick, using parchment paper to help since the dough will be sticky.
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Bake in the upper half of the oven for 10-12 minutes or until set. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes on the bakings sheets, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
Filling:
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While the cookies cool, make the filling. After blending the maple sugar to a powdery consistency (see note*) measure to make sure you have 1 cup of powdered maple sugar. Place it in a bowl along with the shortening or ghee, almond milk, and vanilla, then whisk together until a thick creamy icing forms.
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Once the cookies are completely cooled, place about 2-3 tsp of the frosting on the flat side of half of the cookies, then top them with the second half to form sandwich cookies. Store leftover cookies covered in the refrigerator for up to Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
*Making powdered sugar from maple sugar is surprisingly easy. Simply blend your maple sugar in a NutriBullet (what I use), high speed blender, or food processor until you have a powdery consistency. You’ll want to measure the sugar after blending to make sure you’re adding the right amount. If you prefer, you can use organic powdered sugar.
**This recipe should make about 18 single cookies, or 9 sandwich cookies.
Nutrition
Shop Products and Ingredients:
Want More Paleo Pumpkin Goodies? Try One of These!
Classic Paleo Pumpkin Pie
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Blondies
Double Dark Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread {Nut Free}
Triple Chocolate Pumpkin Brownies
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These sound so yummy and I love the idea of that maple frosting! Such a great fall baking recipe!
These look so good but the maple sugar always gets me! I guess I need to break down and get some so I can make this recipe 🙂
I would REALLY LOVE for you to make a cookbook and publish it.
Any chance this could be done with a flax egg? Egg allergy here but they look so good!!!
I made them today with “flax eggs” 🙂 I think it worked just fine!
Along with a few other substitutions — and I forgot the baking soda! — but still tasty! I recommend flattening dough, espec with my changes. I’m just calling them “gingerBREAD” to add expectation of chewy middles. 😉 I haven’t even added the icing yet, so they will only get better.
What if you don’t have tapioca flour, is there something else that can be used instead ?
Questions about the nutritional information, is that per cookie or for a sandwiched cookie?
I love pumpkin cookies! These look so delicious and perfect for the season ♥
Is the nutritional info for one cookie or one cookie sandwich? Wishful thinking !
My whole family loved them only lasted a day at our house
Oh my gob!
I just made these and they are amazing! I will make these again for sure!
I didn’t have any maple sugar (couldn’t find it at Sprouts OR Natural Grocers…only on Thrive Market, but it wouldn’t ship in time) so I made it with powdered coconut sugar instead! (Blended in KitchenAid food processor).
To make the icing actually creamy, I had to do 2Tbsp of alt. milk instead of 1. 1Tbsp was still chunky & sticky.
They’re baking now & smell SO good.
Can’t wait to make these I love all of your recipes! I was wondering how long will these last in the fridge?
Sooooooo good! And easy to make. All my guests loved them as much as I did!
I have your “PALEO BAKING at home” cook book and love it. Do you ever use or do you know if Molasses (unsulphured) in your cookie recipes work in place of maple or coconut sugars?
I am allergic to almonds so subbed my GF flour mix with some tigernut flour. The tigernut flour offered some nut oil, which these cookies need since I’m not using almond flour. They are tasty, but turned out a bit dry. I probably need to experiment a bit more with the flour. Love the powdered maple sugar. Given the sugar in the frosting, I reduced the coconut sugar to 1/2 c. Sweetness was just right!