Keto Pumpkin Cookies

Introduction

My mom and I experimented with these cookies, and the first batch came out just plain sad looking. I changed a few things, and now I can’t tell you how much I love these keto pumpkin cookies.

They bake up soft in the middle with a slightly crisp edge, and there’s no aftertaste — which is the part that’s genuinely hard to get right in a low-carb cookie. The house smells like cinnamon and pumpkin for the rest of the afternoon, too, which is most of the reason we end up making them on repeat once the weather turns.

The timing helps. Not only are the holidays coming, but so is nearly every birthday in our family. My husband and I share one in November, my littlest sister’s is in October, and my mom, my dad, and Dylan’s mom are all in December. That’s a lot of eating packed into a few months, and it’s worth having something on hand you actually want to reach for.

What You’ll Want in the Pantry

• Pumpkin puree — check that pumpkin is the only thing in the can. Pumpkin pie filling comes already sweetened and spiced, so it would change how sweet these are and how much spice you’re actually adding.
• Pumpkin spice — only half a teaspoon goes in, working alongside a full teaspoon of cinnamon rather than carrying the spice on its own.
• Cinnamon — you need it twice, once in the dough and again over the tops before baking. Get the bigger jar.

Two Steps Worth Slowing Down For

This is a short recipe and most of it is hard to get wrong. Two steps are worth paying attention to, because they’re the ones that decide whether you end up with cookies or with a tray of pumpkin-colored lumps.

Chill the dough. Straight out of the mixer it’s soft and sticky, and trying to roll it at that point mostly means wearing it. Fifteen or twenty minutes in the fridge firms the butter back up and the dough turns cooperative.

Shape them yourself. These only expand slightly in the oven, so they come out very close to the shape you put in — the shaping is doing the work the spreading would normally do. The ones in the step photo are pressed lightly and stay thick and domed, and the twelve-minute bake is meant for that shape.

Then, right before the pans go in, sprinkle a little extra cinnamon over the tops. It takes ten seconds and it’s the difference between a plain beige cookie and one that looks like it belongs on the table in October.

The Sweetener We Use

We use Lakanto’s Classic monk fruit sweetener in these cookies. What matters is that it is granulated and measures 1:1 with sugar, because it gets creamed into butter at the very start and that step needs crystals rather than powder.

It also doesn’t leave the aftertaste we’re always watching for in a keto sweet. That counts for more in a cookie this plain. There’s no chocolate or frosting to hide behind, just pumpkin, spice, butter and almond flour, so whatever you sweeten it with is right out front — the same test we apply across our other keto sweets.

More Pumpkin While It’s in Season

If you’ve opened a can for these and have most of it left, our keto pumpkin bread and keto pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting will both put it to work. And if it’s specifically a cookie you’re after, the keto pumpkin snickerdoodles go in a tangier direction with cream of tartar. Everything else we make with pumpkin is on our keto pumpkin recipes page.

Make a batch of these and let us know how they turned out. We love hearing from you!