Come fall, these soft, thick keto pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are the ones my kids actually ask for — packed with cinnamon and allspice, 5.1g net carbs. I almost cut the allspice during testing; so glad I didn't.
I developed this recipe because I wanted a pumpkin cookie that actually tasted like the real thing. Not cakey, not crumbly, not "healthy tasting." Soft and chewy with edges that get just barely crisp. That took me four rounds of testing to figure out, and the difference came down to three things: moisture control, cold cream cheese, and the right spice ratio.
The biggest mistake I see with pumpkin baking is too much moisture. Canned pumpkin puree is wet, and if you don't account for that, your cookies spread flat and never set up in the middle. I spoon my puree onto a paper towel and press out the extra liquid for about 30 seconds before mixing it in. That single step changed everything for me. The dough holds its shape on the baking sheet and the centers stay thick.
Cream cheese is the other key. I use it cold, cut into small pieces, and cream it with the butter. Cold cream cheese creates pockets that melt during baking and give you that dense, chewy pull instead of a cakey crumb. If you've made my keto almond flour chocolate chip cookies, you know the texture I'm going for. Same principle, different flavor profile.
The spice blend here is cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. I almost simplified it down to just cinnamon during testing because allspice can be polarizing. But when I pulled the batch without it out of the oven, something was missing. The allspice rounds out the pumpkin flavor in a way cinnamon alone can't. One reader, Josh, said the cinnamon and allspice hitting the kitchen air took him straight back to his mom's November baking. That's the reaction I was after.
For the chips, I use a full cup of sugar-free ones. They need to be keto-friendly (I like Lily's or ChocZero) because regular chips will spike the carb count. The chocolate works against the warm spices the same way it does in my best keto chocolate chip cookies, but the pumpkin adds this earthy sweetness underneath that I love.
If you're into pumpkin season baking, I have a whole lineup. My healthy pumpkin cookies are a lighter take, and my keto pumpkin whoopie pies go all in with cream cheese filling. These low carb cookies sit right in the middle: indulgent enough to feel like a treat but simple enough to make on a Tuesday.
The yield is about 12 cookies if you scoop them at 1 inch, which is what I recommend. Smaller scoops bake faster and get crispier; bigger ones stay softer in the center. Either way, they hold up for 3 days at room temperature and freeze well if you want to batch them out for the whole season.
Scoop the dough into 1 inch balls, space them about 1 inch apart on the tray, and press each one down with your fingers before baking.
Skipping the Egg
The egg in this recipe is optional. If you are allergic to eggs or do not have one on hand, leave it out. The pumpkin puree gives the dough enough moisture and binding to hold the cookies together on its own.
How to Make Chewy Pumpkin Cookies with Almond Flour
Mixing order matters more than you'd think with almond flour cookies. Cream the butter and cold cream cheese first until smooth, then add the sweetener and egg. The pumpkin puree goes in next (blot it dry on a paper towel first), and the dry ingredients fold in last. Overmix the dry ingredients and you get tough cookies.
Press each dough ball flat with your fingers before baking. These won't spread much on their own because almond flour doesn't behave like wheat flour. If you skip the press, you'll get round puffs instead of flat cookies. I scoop mine at about 1 inch and press to roughly 1/2 inch thick.
Pull them at 12 minutes when the edges just start to brown. They'll look underdone in the center, and that's what you want. They firm up as they cool. Give them at least 2 minutes on the baking sheet before moving to a wire rack, or they'll fall apart.
Chewy Keto Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies Ingredients
Step by Step Instructions
1
Preheat oven
Preheat the oven to 325.
2
Combine dry ingredients
In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients: flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. Whisk until combined and set aside.
3
Cream butter, cream cheese and egg
In a large bowl, cream together butter, cream cheese, egg: if using, and sweeteners.
4
Add pumpkin
Stir in pumpkin puree and vanilla extract and continue to mix until combined.
5
Mix the dough
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until combined. Stir in the sugar-free chocolate chips.
6
Scoop cookies
Scoop 1 inch balls of cookie dough and place on a parchment-lined baking tray about 1 inch apart. Press down each dough ball with your fingers.
7
Bake
Bake at 325 degrees for about 12 minutes or until starting to brown around the edges. Remove from oven, let cool for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Nutrition
Per serving: 1 cookie
Calories
254
Fat
22.9g
Protein
5g
Total carbs
13.9g
Net carbs
5.1g
Nutrition is an estimate calculated from the ingredients listed. Brands vary, so check labels if you track closely.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are my keto pumpkin cookies cakey instead of chewy?
I went through this during testing. Nine times out of ten, it's too much moisture in the pumpkin puree. I blot mine on a paper towel before mixing, which pulls out the extra liquid that makes cookies spread and stay soft. The other fix is using cold cream cheese instead of softened. Cold cream cheese creates dense pockets that give you chew instead of cake. If you did both and they're still puffy, check your baking powder, too much will make them rise like muffins. My chewy keto peanut butter cookies use the same cold cream cheese method if you want to compare the texture.
Should I drain or blot the pumpkin puree before using it?
I always blot mine. I spoon the puree onto a double layer of paper towel and press gently for about 30 seconds. You'll see the moisture soak through immediately. I tested a batch without blotting and the cookies came out flat and wet in the center. It's one extra step, but it's the difference between cookies that hold their shape and ones that don't.
What's the difference between pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie filling?
Pumpkin puree is just cooked, mashed pumpkin. Pumpkin pie filling has sugar, spices, and thickeners already mixed in. I only use pure puree (Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin is my go-to) because I want to control the sweetener and spice levels myself. If you accidentally grab pie filling, your cookies will be too sweet and the spice balance will be off.
Which sugar-free chocolate chips work best for these cookies?
I've tried most of them at this point. Lily's are my everyday pick because they melt well and hold their shape in the cookie. ChocZero is slightly richer if you like a darker chocolate flavor. Both work here. I'd avoid chopping up a sugar-free chocolate bar. The pieces melt unevenly and you get chocolate smears instead of distinct chips throughout.
Does the sweetener I use change the texture of these cookies?
Yes, and I've tested several. Erythritol makes cookies firmer and crispier. It also crystallizes as cookies cool, which gives a slight crunch on the outside. Allulose keeps them softer and chewier, but they brown faster so pull them a minute early. My recipe uses a mix of erythritol and monk fruit sweetener. If you swap to all allulose, reduce oven temp to 315 and watch them closely. Any 1:1 sugar replacement works, but the texture will shift slightly with each one.
Can I freeze the dough or baked cookies?
Both. I freeze dough balls all the time with this recipe. Scoop them onto a sheet pan, freeze until solid, then transfer to a freezer bag. Bake straight from frozen and add 2-3 minutes to the time. The pumpkin holds up fine after freezing. Baked cookies freeze well too, up to 3 months. I layer them between parchment in an airtight container. They thaw in about 20 minutes at room temperature.
How many cookies does this recipe make?
About 12 if you scoop at 1 inch, which is what I do. If you go bigger with a regular cookie scoop, you'll get fewer and they'll need an extra minute or two in the oven. The size is really up to you. I prefer smaller ones because the edge-to-center ratio is better and you get more crispy surface area.
Can I make these dairy-free?
I've made them with coconut oil instead of butter and dairy-free cream cheese (Kite Hill is my favorite brand for baking). They come out slightly denser but still chewy and good. If you can't find dairy-free cream cheese, skip it entirely and use all coconut oil. The texture won't be quite as rich but it works. For a cookie that's naturally dairy-free, my keto no bake cookies are a good option.
My daughter’s dairy-free so butter and cream cheese are both out for us. Anyone tried vegan swaps for both at once? I keep wondering if that wrecks the texture. She’s been asking for pumpkin cookies forever and I really want to pull this off.
Kendra, I’ve made these dairy-free. They work. Coconut oil 1:1 for the butter, Kite Hill dairy-free cream cheese for the other. A little denser, still chewy.
The coconut flour is what separates this from every all-almond keto cookie I’ve tried with pumpkin. Almond flour alone can’t handle the moisture. It spreads, it goes gummy. Coconut flour absorbs it and the dough actually firms up. Annie finally got the ratio right. Two years of keto baking and this is the first pumpkin version I’ve kept. Five batches in, same result every time: thick, holds its shape, day two tastes like day one.
These freeze well if you’re doing any kind of weekly prep. I put parchment between them and they come out three weeks later with the cream cheese still soft and the allspice still there. Worth the double batch.
Three weeks with the cream cheese still soft is good to know. I freeze the dough balls more than the baked ones, scooped and frozen solid, then straight into the oven with an extra 2 to 3 minutes. Parchment between the layers is the step people skip and then they pull out one solid cookie brick. The allspice holding on that long doesn’t surprise me, I almost took it out during testing and it turned out to be the thing that makes these taste like fall. Thank you for sharing that with me!
Standing in the kitchen eating my fourth one when I realized I hadn’t thought about ‘real’ cookies in months. That’s what these did. Diet journey stuff aside, the allspice is doing heavy lifting here, it’s what separates this from every other keto cookie that tastes like sweetened sawdust. The cream cheese keeps them genuinely soft, not stiff-but-soft, actually soft. My only complaint is I slightly overbaked my first batch because they looked underdone at 15 minutes and I panicked. Pull them early. Other than that these are going in the permanent rotation.
Four batches in and I finally stopped second-guessing the bake time. They look underdone when the timer goes off but they firm up on the pan, and pulling them too soon means they fall apart. Took me two rounds to just trust it. Four stars. On batch three I pushed for a crispier edge and lost the whole texture. That’s the point of the recipe.
Crispy doesn’t work with this dough. The cream cheese ratio means they can’t crunch up at the edges, they just go from chewy to overbaked. I pull mine looking underdone every single time.
First time keto baking and I went straight for pumpkin in June. Couldn’t shake the fall craving. The allspice caught me off guard, it keeps the cinnamon from going flat. Did you blot the puree first, or was the dough fine as written?
Blot it. Spoon the puree onto a double layer of paper towel and press gently for about 30 seconds, you’ll see the moisture soak right through. I tested a batch without blotting and they spread flat and stayed cakey.
Tried three other keto pumpkin cookie recipes before this and they all came out cakey and crumbly. These actually hold together and have some chew. The allspice is doing something the others were missing.
Used half Lily’s dark chocolate chips and half white chocolate, and the allspice really comes through now that there’s less bitterness competing with it.
Browned the butter instead of softening it and now there’s this almost toffee-y thing underneath the allspice that I wasn’t expecting. Still a little softer than I’d want, but that swap makes it really hard to stop at one.
That toffee note with allspice is something I want to test now. The softness comes from going in as liquid fat, brown butter doesn’t behave the same way cold butter does. Chill it until it firms back up before mixing.
Pulled the moisture out of the pumpkin puree with a few layers of paper towels before adding it in, and these came out completely different from my first batch, less cakey, actual chew to them the way the name suggests. First time I skipped that step and the middles stayed a little soft in a way that bothered me (still ate them, but still). Also the allspice is not optional, don’t skip it, that’s what separates these from just sweet almond flour cookies. Thinking about trying Lily’s dark chips next round instead of the semi-sweet.
The blotting makes such a difference, I do it every batch. Lily’s dark is worth trying here, it’s a little less sweet which works better with the allspice than the semi-sweet does.
New to keto baking, these look like a good starter recipe. The cold cream cheese while the butter’s softened is throwing me off a bit though. Is that intentional? Or would both at room temp work?
Cold is intentional. The pieces stay a little separate when you mix, which is what creates that chewier texture. Both at room temp would blend together and you’d end up with something more cakey.
The spreading is almost always the pumpkin. I blot mine on a paper towel before mixing, pulls out a surprising amount of liquid. And yeah, I almost cut the allspice during testing.
I almost skipped this because I couldn’t picture cream cheese in a cookie dough working. Made it anyway out of curiosity and now I’m freaking annoyed that I doubted it. The texture is thick and soft with none of that dry, crumbly thing that kills most keto cookies. The allspice is quiet but you’d notice if it wasn’t there. Four stars because I still haven’t nailed my bake time, mine were perfect at 18 minutes, but that’s on my oven.
Making a double batch of these for my daughter’s class Valentine’s party next week – can I freeze the dough now and bake them fresh Friday morning, or will the pumpkin puree get weird after freezing?
Yes freeze the dough balls now. I’ve done it with this recipe and the pumpkin holds up fine. Bake straight from frozen, just add 2-3 minutes to the time.
