Brown Butter Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

Close up of brown butter pumpkin sugar cookie with bite missing

4.75 from 8 votes

Brown Butter Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

These brown butter pumpkin sugar cookies are crisp on the outside, chewy (not cakey) in the middle, perfectly spiced, and made with canned pumpkin puree for ease.

Prep Time15

Cook Time10

Total Time25

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Cookies, Pumpkin, Pumpkin Spice

Servings: cookies

Calories: 157kcal

Author: Mike Johnson

Ingredients

113 g unsalted butter
100 g granulated sugar
55 g light brown sugar
60 g pumpkin puree *see Notes*
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
125 g all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
Garnish: sparkling, demerara, or granulated sugar

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Cube the butter and place it in a light-colored skillet. Melt the butter over medium heat, stirring constantly. Once melted, the butter will start to foam. Keep stirring. After 5-8 minutes, the butter will begin browning; you'll notice lightly browned specks begin to form at the bottom of the pan, and you'll start to smell a nutty aroma. Once browned, immediately remove from the heat, and pour into a heatproof bowl.
Add the granulated sugar, brown sugar, pumpkin puree, and vanilla to the brown butter. Using a whisk, whisk together until combined, about 1 minute.
Add the flour, pumpkin spice, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the wet ingredients and stir using a silicon spatula until everything is combined. The dough will be thick and a little greasy.
Using a 1½-tablespoon spring-loaded scoop, scoop the dough into balls and place dough balls on a lined baking sheet, loosely cover with plastic wrap, and place in the refrigerator to chill for 20-30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
Roll each dough ball in sugar, if using, and bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned on the sides. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Notes

Pumpkin puree is full of moisture (approximately 90% water by mass), which is what helps make pumpkin bread so moist! But for cookies, excessive moisture = cakey texture. To combat this, squeeze as much of the moisture out of the pumpkin puree as you can before adding it to the cookie dough. Place the puree on top of a few paper towels and then just squeeze out the liquid over the sink. This will help produce a more traditional chewy/dense cookie as pictured. Measure ¼ cup (60 grams) AFTER the pumpkin has been squeezed/blotted.

Nutrition