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Chewy, sweet, Brown Butter Pumpkin Oatmeal Latte Cookies. A cross between a really great soft, chewy pumpkin cookie and a delicious steaming pumpkin latte made with real espresso. These cookies are made with sweet dark brown sugar, warming spices, and the real secret – espresso powder. They’re generously glazed with a thick, sweet, and creamy brown butter icing that melts in your mouth. So yummy. Equally perfect for Halloween night as they are for Thanksgiving dinner. A wonderful cookie to bake, share, and gift this holiday season!
I think we can all relate, but there are times when you just want a yummy simple chocolate chip cookie. Nothing fancy, nothing too sweet.
That was us recently. I knew sharing a simple pumpkin cookie was what I wanted and I knew that I wanted the pumpkin flavors to really come through. These took me a while to get just perfect, but I’m now so excited to share the recipe.
If you love a pumpkin spice latte, then you have to make these. They’re even better!
As with most of my cookies, I envisioned these would also include chocolate. But shockingly, after a few rounds of testing, I landed on this cookie. A straight pumpkin cookie.
Made with pumpkin butter, a mix of warm spices, brown butter, oats, and then a touch of espresso powder. I was shocked at how delicious the espresso powder made each cookie. Even better than a pumpkin spice latte from your favorite cafe.
Here are some details
Step 1: brown the butter
This pumpkin cookie starts with brown butter. I just love the rich nutty flavor it adds. It makes your cooking and baking even more special, especially at this time of year.
Step 2: make the dough
Brown the butter, then add it to a bowl with brown sugar and pumpkin butter. The key here is pumpkin butter, not pumpkin puree. I say this all of the time, but to me, you have to use pumpkin butter while baking, it makes such a difference.
Pumpkin butter is more reduced down than pumpkin purèe and contains less moisture. Less moisture will give you a chewier cookie, not a cakey cookie. You can use my homemade pumpkin butter or pick some up at Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, your local market, or even via Amazon. Just make sure that whatever pumpkin butter you use is spiced for best flavor.
Next, mix in half the pumpkin butter along with an egg and vanilla. Then, add the espresso powder. Mix in the dry ingredients: flour, oats, baking soda, pumpkin spice, and salt.
Dollop in the remaining pumpkin butter, but don’t mix the pumpkin butter fully into the dough. You want streaks. This gives you more pumpkin flavor without creating an overly cakey cookie.
Roll the dough into balls, I love to use a cookie scoop for this. It’s so much easier and works nicely with this dough since it’s a bit stickier. Then bake.
On to the icing
This icing is everything. Just a handful of ingredients, but I love the nutty brown butter flavor and creaminess. It’s what makes these cookies really melt in your mouth.
The ingredients: butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt. I use this combination a lot, but it’s so delicious.
The key is to brown the butter on the stove. Then add everything to the brown butter and thin it out with some milk. Ice each cookie quickly, as the frosting sets up pretty fast.
This combo of pumpkin, pumpkin spice, espresso, and brown butter is unexpected. Certainly not one my mom or Asher thought they would care much for. But after some convincing, they gave these a try and agreed, even without the chocolate, these are the yummiest pumpkin cookies.
I’m finding that everyone LOVES these. You won’t even detect the espresso, it just compliments the brown sugar and cinnamon so wonderfully. The result is a perfectly chewy, sweet pumpkin cookie with rich notes of espresso, vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice.
We couldn’t love these easy pumpkin cookies more. And the frosting really makes them special. Hope you guys love these just as much as I do!
Looking for fall cookie recipes? Here are a few ideas:
Chewy Frosted Cinnamon Swirl Snickerdoodles
Easy Slice ‘n’ Bake Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookies
Lastly, if you make these Brown Butter Pumpkin Oatmeal Latte Cookies be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Vanilla Pumpkin Oatmeal Latte Cookies
Servings: 22 cookies
Calories Per Serving: 226 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 2 sticks (1 cup) salted butter
- 1 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2/3 cup pumpkin butter
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2-4 tablespoons espresso powder or instant coffee
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups old fashioned oats
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 – 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie or chai spice (see note)
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- sea salt (optional)
Brown Butter Icing
- 1 stick salted butter, at room temperature
- 1 1/2 -2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.2. Add the butter to a skillet set over medium heat. Cook until the butter begins to brown, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from the heat and transfer to a heatproof bowl. Let cool 5 minutes or so.3. To the browned butter, mix in the brown sugar, 1/3 cup pumpkin butter, the egg, vanilla, and espresso powder, mixing until smooth. Add the flour, oats, baking soda, pumpkin spice, and salt.4. Dollop the remaining 1/3 cup of pumpkin butter over the dough. Gently fold the butter into the dough, being careful to not over-mix. You want streaks of pumpkin butter.5. Roll the dough into rounded tablespoon-size balls, it might be a little sticky. Place 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. Gently flatten the dough down. Bake 8 minutes. Remove from the oven, rotate, and tap the baking sheet on the counter 1-2 times to flatten. Bake another 2-3 minutes or until the cookies are just beginning to set on the edges.6. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet. They will continue to cook slightly as they sit on the baking sheet.7. Meanwhile, make the icing. Add the butter to a pot set over medium heat. Allow the butter to brown lightly until it smells toasted, about 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat. Whisk in the powdered sugar, vanilla, a pinch of salt. Immediately spread the icing over the cookies moving fast, as it will set quickly. Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Notes
Chai Spice Blend: Mix 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom, 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon all-spice, and 1 tiny pinch black pepper.
Can you use canned pumpkin instead of the pumpkin butter?
Hi Tara,
I think that should be okay for you to use! Please let me know if you give these cookies a try, I hope you love them! xT
I tried these out on my husband and a friend, they both gave them 5 out of 5 stars! Will definitely be making them again. I wasn’t sure about the tapping on the counter, what did that do?!
Hey Bonnie,
Awesome!! Love to hear this recipe turned out nicely for you, thanks for making it! The tapping on the counter just creates a flatter cookies:) Hope you are enjoying fall! XxT
Update: these are now my husband’s favorite cookies. He says I could make them and sell them, they’re so good!
Love to hear this, Bonnie! Thanks so much! xT
This recipe is perfect, the cookies came out great. A new top cookie recipe for me!!!
Hey Mar,
Fantastic! So glad to hear this recipe turned out well for you, thanks for making it! xx
So delicious! The only thing was my icing turned out so thick, I ended up just spreading it on. I had everything pre-measured and ready to go so I don’t think I could have worked any faster. Any tips for next time for a thinner icing like your pictures?
Hey Kaitlin,
Thanks for trying this recipe and sharing your feedback! So glad to hear you enjoyed the cookies! Next time, I would thin the icing out with some warm milk, that should help! xT
Hi Tieghan! I have what might be a very dumb question – after browning the butter, do you let it cool in the fridge or the freezer? Or does it really not matter? Thank you!! I can’t wait to make these 🙂
Hey Sarah,
Not dumb at all! Either one is fine to do, you just don’t want it to be hot:) I hope you love this recipe! xT
This looks so good. I was wondering if you can make the dough balls, flatten and freeze them to bake later on.
My question is similar to yours, is it okay to make the dough, keep it in the fridge for a day or two, then bake? Thanks in advance!
Yep, you can definitely refrigerate the dough and then bake! 🙂 xT
Hi there! Yes, you can definitely prep the dough balls before hand and freeze them! xT
The recipe looks delicious. For this Christmas season could you offer a Wonky Christmas Tree cookie cutter for us to buy? Cheers.
Thanks so much Shar!! The Christmas Tree “cutter” that I have is a stencil that I drew:)
Written recipe doesn’t mention thinning the icing with milk and mine came out like buttercream. I will make the correction on my copy.
Hi Emilie,
Thanks for sharing your feedback and trying this recipe! I hope the cookies tasted great! xx
The flavor on these is great! I’m bummed because I tried to he really careful with folding in the second round of pumpkin butter but the cookies still came out really cake-y. I love a good thin, chewy cookie! Any tips?
Hi Melissa,
Thanks so much for making these cookies! Have you tried banging the pan on the counter while baking? That will help to create a flatter cookie. I hope this helps! xx
I’ve made these twice and love them! Since I was using maple pumpkin butter, I left out 1/4 of the brown sugar the second time I made them and increased the espresso powder closer to the recommended 4 tablespoons. Added the sea salt after drizzling with icing and it was perfect! I’m curious, though, what are the dark flecks in your icing? Vanilla beans? I just used regular vanilla extract with the browned butter and my icing just looks a tad different. Thanks!
Hey Lindsay,
Fantastic! I am thrilled to hear that this recipe turned out well for you, thanks for making it! Yes, I used some vanilla bean paste rather than the extract, both work well here! Have a great weekend:)
These are so good! I was a little nervous making them because Ive never browned butter in baking, but it was super easy. Definitely making these again! Thanks Tieghan!
Hey Jennifer,
Wonderful!! I am so glad that this recipe turned out well for you, thanks for giving it a go! xx
These turned out really good, hearty and not too sweet. The frosting definitely adds more sweetness but I really liked it. Pretty strong pumpkin flavor. The main thing I would suggest is, when you make the pumpkin butter (which you need for this recipe) to halve it. You end up with what seems like 3 cups of pumpkin butter but only need 2/3 cup for this recipe. Unless you feel confident you will use it up on other cookies or breads, I would definitely halve it so it does not go to waste.
Hey Lala,
Love to hear that this recipe was delish! Thanks for making it and your feedback! Have a great weekend!🍁🍃
Really good! I did place my cookie sheets in the refrigerator (with dough in balls) for about 10 minutes prior to baking. I live at high altitude and changed nothing for the cookie itself. My frosting I did add a bit of milk so I could dip the top of the cookies in frosting like the old fashion iced oatmeal cookies we had as kids. Not sure I can post a pic but they turned great.
I will be delivering some tomorrow morning for my Orangetheory coaches 😂
Thank you for another great recipe!
Hey Ann,
Happy Friday!🍂 I love to hear that this recipe was a hit, thanks a lot for trying it and your comment! xx