Our gluten-free Pumpkin Spice Icebox Cookies are the perfect way to indulge in pumpkin this fall! These cookies are soft and fluffy — with just the right amount of pumpkin, warm spices, and hints of white chocolate chips and toasty pecans to create the perfect bite.
Table of Contents
- This recipe is…
- Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Pumpkin Spice Cookies Recipe Ingredients
- Recipe Variations and Modifications
- How to Make Pumpkin Cookies
- Icebox Cookies Recipe Tips
- How to Serve Spice Pumpkin Cookies
- How to Store Icebox Cookies
- Frequently Asked Questions
- More of Our Best Pumpkin Recipes
- Pumpkin Icebox Cookies Recipe
This recipe is…
It’s officially pumpkin season and these spiced pumpkin cookies are, quite possibly, one of our most favorite cookie creations yet! Best of all, you can keep the dough in your fridge or freezer, slice a few pieces off, and bake as needed (though, once you have one you might want to go ahead and bake them ALL right away!).
We started developing these pumpkin spiced icebox cookies by creating a gluten and egg-free dough with REAL pumpkin and grass-fed butter as the perfect base for these fall-inspired cookies.
Throw in some roughly chopped pecans, chunks of decadent white chocolate, and pumpkin spice mix, and you’ve got everything you could ever need in a dessert! After you mix the dough, you’ll roll it into a log, and wrap it in parchment paper, refrigerate until firm, and then remove to slice and bake.
Open up a can of pumpkin to make these icebox cookies, or make a batch of homemade pumpkin puree in the Instant Pot.
If you go the homemade route, use the puree here as well as breakfast recipes like our Pumpkin Spice Overnight Oats, sweet baking recipes like Classic Pumpkin Bread, Gluten Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins, and Pumpkin Dump Cake. Or, go savory with our delicious Pumpkin Lasagna Rolls and Pumpkin Turkey Paleo Chili!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- A delicious combination of pumpkin puree, warm spices, white chocolate, and toasty pecans
- Makes 2 dozen icebox cookies: slice and bake some now, and freeze some dough for later
- Easy to adapt: swap the white chocolate for dark chocolate, and omit or change the nuts
Pumpkin Spice Cookies Recipe Ingredients
Here’s everything you’ll need to make these delicious spiced pumpkin cookies. Find ingredient notes (including substitutions and swaps) below.
- Flour – 1 1/4 cup gluten free flour we used King Arthur Measure for Measure
- Baking soda – 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- Salt – 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- Pumpkin pie spices – 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice mix
- Butter – 1/2 cup butter
- Sugar – 3/4 cup brown sugar or coconut sugar
- Vanilla extract – 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pumpkin puree – 1/4 cup pumpkin puree (canned or homemade)
- Chocolate chips – 1/2 cup white chocolate chips (or swap in dark or milk chocolate)
- Pecans – 1/2 cup pecan pieces
A full ingredient list with exact amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
Recipe Variations and Modifications
Make these icebox cookies your own with a few easy substitutions:
- Use Different Nuts – if you don’t like pecans, feel free to swap them for any nut that you do like (walnuts would be delicious here!), or if you’d rather go nut-free, just omit the nuts altogether.
- Swap the Chips – if white chocolate chips aren’t your thing, swap them for milk chocolate, dark chocolate, or even butterscotch chips (YUM!).
How to Make Pumpkin Cookies
Here’s how these easy pumpkin spice cookies come together!
Step 1: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, pumpkin spice, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
Step 2: In a large bowl, add the butter and sugar. With a hand-held mixer or stand mixer, whip the butter and sugar on high speed until the mixture is slightly fluffy.
Step 3: Add the vanilla and pumpkin to the butter mixture, then beat with the mixer on high speed until fully combined.
Step 4: Gradually add the flour into the butter mixture ½ cup at a time, mixing on high speed, until you can no longer see the flour and a thick dough has formed.
Step 5: Stir the chocolate chips and pecans into the dough.
Step 6: Lay out two pieces of parchment paper then set half of the dough on each piece of paper.
Roll the dough into two equally-sized rolls, each 1 1/2-2 inches thick. Then, roll the paper around the dough and twist the ends until dough is securely wrapped. Refrigerate dough for 2 hours, until firm.
Step 7: Once you’re ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Remove the dough from the parchment paper and cut 1/2 inch thick slices. Lay the slices on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes, until cookies have slightly spread and begun to brown on top.
Remove from the oven, let cool, and enjoy!
Icebox Cookies Recipe Tips
These icebox cookies are pretty fail-proof, but here are a few things to keep in mind so that yours turn out perfect every single time!
Drain Homemade Pumpkin Puree – if you’re using homemade pumpkin puree (this Instant Pot pumpkin puree is SO delicious and easy!), be sure to drain it first since homemade puree tends to be more watery than canned puree.
Refrigerate the Dough – be sure to either refrigerate or freeze the dough for a minimum of 2 hours. This is key in helping the cookies to not spread!
How to Serve Spice Pumpkin Cookies
Our favorite way to eat these Pumpkin Spiced Icebox cookies (besides inhaling 5 in one sitting straight out of the oven) is with a tall glass of cold almond milk.
How to Store Icebox Cookies
Store baked cookies in an airtight container for up to a week. Or, for the freshest cookies, slice and bake them as you want them, and keep the rest of the dough in the fridge or freezer.
Frequently Asked Questions
We think the best gluten-free flour for baking is King Arthur’s Measure for Measure flour, hands down. After sampling many options, we had the best results with this brand, and didn’t have any problems with our dough spreading.
Let’s talk about the history and science behind “icebox” or “refrigerator” cookies. You may or may not know that “iceboxes”, or refrigerators didn’t become a common household appliance until the 1920s, when some incredibly smart innovator figured out how to make a convenient at-home version of a cooler. Around this time, families started to develop recipes that called for refrigeration prior to baking. What started as icebox cakes, quickly developed into all sorts of icebox goodies, and now the world has some of the darn tastiest desserts you can imagine because of this little development almost 100 years ago!
So, now you may be wondering what makes icebox cookies different. Well, I’m glad you asked! Icebox cookies come with two benefits – first, freezing the cookie dough means it keeps for longer and you can use it as needed. Second, (and most important in our opinion) freezing the dough results in cookies that spread less. Why is this important? Because for these pumpkin spiced icebox cookies, less spread = the perfect ratio of browned, crisp top to chewy, doughy, delicious center. Yes, please!
To freeze the cookie dough, you’ll need to lay out two pieces of parchment paper and set half of the dough on each piece. Then, you’ll form each half of the dough into a 1.5-2-inch thick roll, wrap the paper around the dough roll, and then twist the ends of the paper to secure the rolled packaging (think: similar to how a Tootsie Roll is packaged!). Once rolled and wrapped, stick the dough into the freezer until you’re ready to use it.
More of Our Best Pumpkin Recipes
If you tried this recipe for Pumpkin Spice Icebox Cookies, or any other recipe on the Fed & Fit website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let us know how it went in the 📝comments below!
Pumpkin Icebox Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup gluten free flour, we used King Arthur Measure for Measure
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 3/4 cup brown sugar, may substitute coconut sugar, if desired
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
- 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup pecan pieces
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, pumpkin spice, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, add the butter and sugar. With a hand-held mixer or stand mixer, whip the butter and sugar on high speed until the mixture is slightly fluffy.
- Add the vanilla and pumpkin to the butter mixture, then beat with the mixer on high speed until fully combined.
- Gradually add the flour into the butter mixture ½ cup at a time, mixing on high speed, until you can no longer see the flour and a thick dough has formed.
- Stir the chocolate chips and pecans into the dough.
- Lay out two pieces of parchment paper then set half of the dough on each piece of paper.
- Roll the dough into two equally-sized rolls, each 1 1/2-2 inches thick. Then, roll the paper around the dough and twist the ends until dough is securely wrapped. Refrigerate dough for 2 hours, until firm.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Remove the dough from the parchment paper and cut 1/2 inch thick slices. Lay the slices on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes, until cookies have slightly spread and begun to brown on top.
- Remove from the oven and let cool. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
- You may also freeze the dough for later use. With this method, you’ll want to allow the dough to thaw on the counter after removing from the freezer so that it is easier to slice.
- You can use dark chocolate chips instead of white chocolate, omit the nuts and replace them with more chocolate chips, and vice versa.
- If you are using homemade pumpkin puree for this recipe, make sure it is drained first as homemade puree tends to be more watery than canned versions.
Nutrition
can I use regular flour instead of gluten free
Hi Julia! Absolutely you can!
Both batches I made burned on the bottom. I even put them in 3-4 minutes less than what was called for. The tops were barely browned. And they didn’t spread very much so they were pretty small. They were still good but I couldn’t put them on my cookie tray because they were so burned on the bottoms. Any idea what might have gone wrong?
So sorry to hear that Karen! I’ve made these dozens of times and haven’t had that issue. Did you use the King Arthur Measure for Measure flour?
Love these! We don’t have access to the King Arthur flour, so I subbed the Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 baking flour, and ended up needing about 1/4 cup more. We’re also dealing with a severe dairy allergy so used Earth Balance Buttery Sticks, and dairy free white chocolate chips. Again — AMAZING!
So glad you enjoyed it Lauren, and thank you for the substitution notes!