These Healthy Sugar Free Pumpkin Cookies are soft and chewy, made with pumpkin spice, almond flour, and topped with cream cheese icing or frosting. This sweet and sugar-free dessert treat is perfect for fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the holidays.
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Fall is in the air! Soon we will be planning for Halloween treats, and then Thanksgiving…..and oh yes Christmas! These cookies are pretty simple to make! The hardest part is waiting for them to cool, which is absolutely necessary!
What Type of Sweetener to Use
I like to use Lakanto’s granular monkfruit sweetener Monkfruit is zero-calorie, zero-carb, and is made without the use of artificial sweeteners. The best thing about it, is it measures 1:1 to like table sugar. This makes it super easy to convert conventional recipes. No need to look into a conversion table, it’s an even swap, which is super convenient!
It also tastes like sugar. There’s no aftertaste or cooling effect like you find with some sweeteners. The perfect mix of monk fruit extract and erythritol with no fiber, no maltodextrin, and no artificial flavoring or sweeteners.
How to Make Healthy Sugar Free Pumpkin Cookies
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cream butter and sweeteners together in a mixing bowl using a hand mixer or standing mixer.
- Add in pureed pumpkin, egg, and vanilla extract. Beat.
- Add almond flour, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, baking powder, and salt to a separate bowl. Stir to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until the mixture is combined.
- Line a sheet pan or cookie sheet with a silicone baking mat.
- Form balls with the cookie dough about 1 1/2 tablespoons each. The dough will be wet and sticky. Using wet hands help.
- Place the balls on the baking mat. Flatten the cookies with the palm of your hand.
- Bake for 10-13 minutes.
What Type of Pumpkin to Use
Is pumpkin keto and low carb? The type you buy is crucial. When purchasing canned pumpkin, be sure the label says 100% pure pumpkinand not pumpkin pie filling. You can grab it here from Amazon. Pumpkin pie filling is sweetened and loaded with sugar.
Baking Tips
Watch these closely while they are in the oven. You want it to appear as though you have under-baked the cookies at first. The cookies should never look fully baked while they are in the oven.
Once the bottom of the cookies begin to turn brown and the cookie has taken shape and appears somewhat firm, remove the cookies from the oven. Almond flour bakes fast. If you leave the cookies in too long you will end up with burnt cookies.
Every oven bakes differently. I notice that items toward the back of my oven brown faster than food toward the front. Sometimes I have to rotate the positioning of sheets and pans to take this into account, otherwise, some cookies would turn out done while others were way too soft. Become familiar with how your oven bakes.
Cooling is Important
The longer the cookies cool, the firmer they will be. Patience is crucial. Because this recipe uses pumpkin puree, the cookies will need a little bit more cooling time.
Cookie Texture
These cookies are soft and tender with firm edges. The edges aren’t crisp, like with other cookies, but they are firm enough for you to handle. Be careful if adding frosting or icing. A gentle touch works best.
Cream Cheese Icing
I like to serve these with a little icing, I usually only ice half of the batch because the cookies are so good on their own!
For the icing you will need softened cream cheese, vanilla extract, and powdered sweetener.
Can You Add Chocolate Chips?
Absolutely! If want to add chocolate chips, fold those in after you have mixed the batter and before you form balls with the dough.
How to Store
Store these tightly sealed in the fridge. Since these are made with pumpkin, I don’t recommend storing them at room temperature. They may start to get really moist.
Freezer Tips
To freeze, store them tightly sealed. They will freeze for 2-3 months. Thaw at room temperature.
More Pumpkin Recipes
Keto Low Carb Pumpkin Pie
Sugar Free Pumpkin Spice Latte
Pumpkin Chicken Chili
Keto Pumpkin Mug Cake
Sugar Free Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew
Keto Low Carb Pumpkin Bread
Creamy Pumpkin Soup with Canned Pumpkin
Keto Low Carb Pumpkin Muffins
Keto Pumpkin Spice Latte
No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars
More Sugar Free Cookie Recipes
Sugar Free Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies
Keto Low Carb Chocolate Chip Cookies
Keto Peanut Butter Cookies
Sugar Free Edible Cookie Dough
Sugar Free Ginger Snaps
Keto Double Chocolate Cookies
Sugar Free Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
Sugar Free Lemon Cookies
Healthy Sugar Free Pumpkin Cookies
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter Softened at room temperature.
- 1/3 cup granulated sweetener
- 1/3 cup brown sweetener
- 1/2 cup 100% pureed pumpkin
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 2 1/2 cups blanched almond flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice See Notes for how to make your own.
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Optional Icing
- 3 oz cream cheese softened
- 1 teaspoon powdered sweetener Confectioner's
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cream the butter and sweeteners together in a mixing bowl using a hand mixer or standing mixer.
- Add in the pureed pumpkin, egg, and vanilla extract. Beat until creamy.
- Add the almond flour, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, baking powder, and salt to a separate bowl. Stir to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until the mixture is combined. Do not overmix. This will result in dry cookies.
- Line a sheet pan or cookie sheet with a silicone baking mat. This will prevent the cookies from over-browning.
- Form balls with the cookie dough about 1 1/2 tablespoons each. The dough will be wet and sticky. Using wet hands will help.
- Place the balls on the baking mat. Flatten the cookies with the palm of your hand.
- Bake for 10-13 minutes. When checking in on the cookies they should look really soft, but golden at the edges when ready. They will harden up as they cool. You don't want them to look firm in the oven. That will result in burnt cookies. Mine were ready right at 10 minutes.
- Remove the cookies and cool on the silicone baking mat and cookie sheet for 10 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack. This is important. If you move the cookies too soon, they will crumble. Give them a chance to firm up.
- Cool the cookies on the cooling rack for another 15 minutes. Wait until cooled to apply icing. Be gentle while icing.
Icing
- Combine the ingredients and spread on the cookies. If this doesn't produce enough icing for you, add more cream cheese and confectioners sweetener as needed.
Video
Notes
- If you don’t want keto cookies, you can substitute almond flour for 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour. You can also use the same measurements noted above for regular table sugar.
- 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough with result in medium-sized cookies. 2 tablespoons are on the low end of large and 2 1/2 tablespoons will make large cookies. The bake time for the larger cookies was closer to 13-16 minutes.
- Watch these closely while they are in the oven. You want it to appear as though you have under-baked the cookies at first. The cookies should never look fully baked while they are in the oven.
- Once the bottom of the cookies begin to turn brown and the cookie has taken shape and appears somewhat firm, remove the cookies from the oven. Almond flour bakes fast. If you leave the cookies in too long you will end up with burnt cookies.
- Every oven bakes differently. I notice that items toward the back of my oven brown faster than food toward the front. Sometimes I have to rotate the positioning of sheets and pans (halfway through) to take this into account, otherwise, some cookies would turn out done while others were way too soft. Become familiar with how your oven bakes.
- The longer the cookies cool, the firmer they will be. Patience is crucial. Because this recipe uses pumpkin puree, the cookies will need a little bit more cooling time.
- Macros do not include icing. Input the ingredients into your preferred calculator.
- If want to add chocolate chips, fold those in after you have mixed the batter and before you form balls with the dough.
- Ground Cinnamon (1 teaspoon)
- Ground Ginger (1/2 teaspoon)
- Ground Nutmeg (1/2 teaspoon)
Kate Wollin
Sunday 15th of October 2023
Your notes don’t include how to make the pumpkin pie spice
staysnatched
Sunday 15th of October 2023
They are dry spices. You just combine them. The notes do include the measurements and ingredients.
Melissa
Wednesday 30th of August 2023
I just made these and me and my husband and two teenage boys loved! I could eat them all! Definitely doing a double batch next time. I used regular swerve for the sweetener and didn’t use a brown sugar alternative. Also didn’t ice and they turned out great
staysnatched
Thursday 31st of August 2023
Glad to hear it!
Erica
Sunday 2nd of October 2022
These look amazing and the recipe so simple! Thank you for sharing! I am excited to try the recipe! As I am new to Keto, does the nutritional info include the icing, if not, what would the carb info be then?
staysnatched
Monday 3rd of October 2022
You should be calculating your own macros based on the brand of the ingredients you use in the recipe.
Andrea Baker
Tuesday 21st of December 2021
What is golden sweetener?
staysnatched
Tuesday 21st of December 2021
Click on the link. All the information is there.
Emily R.
Sunday 26th of September 2021
Keep coming back to your recipes because you make baking for non-bakers doable! Thanks for another great one!
staysnatched
Monday 27th of September 2021
I'm so glad you enjoyed these!