When the season overflows with sugar-laden bon-bons, these cookies offer just the right touch of sweet. Soft, tender, and lightly spiced, they're a holiday treat that won’t tip you into dessert overload.
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Dress them up with festive sprinkles (affiliate link) or powdered sugar icing, or keep them simple. They’re deliciously adaptable for any celebration.
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🥰What you'll love about this cookie
- Cute, tender, pumpkin spice cookie with less sugar and fat in a season of excess!
- You can prep the dough ahead
- Short baking time
- Easy to customize for any of the fall holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas
Ingredients
- Whole wheat pastry flour
- All-purpose flour
- Cinnamon
- Salt
- Ginger
- Nutmeg
- Maple sugar
- Brown sugar
- Butter
- Vegetable oil
- Eggs
- Ricotta cheese
- Pumpkin puree
- Decorating sprinkles or colored sugars
🌾Whole wheat pastry flour: Adds whole grain goodness without the grainy taste that is objectionable in cookies and cakes.
All-purpose flour: Counterpoint to the mild wheat-ey flavor or the pastry flour.
🫚Cinnamon* (affiliate link), Ginger, Nutmeg: Aka, pumpkin pie spice. Feel free to sub it in for the spice combo if you have it in your pantry.
🍁Maple sugar: (affiliate link) More stores are carrying this flavorful, natural sweetener with a tad more nutrition and less refinement that white sugar. You can also order it online. Regular white sugar is an easy swap.
Brown sugar: For a more robust flavor note.
🧈Butter/Vegetable Oil: Combining the two cuts the saturated fat in your cookie with no loss of texture or flavor.
🥚Eggs: These cookies need the lift from real eggs rather than something that simply binds them. Plus, real eggs have protein and a slew of nutrients (including vitamin D).
Ricotta Cheese: Choose part-skim to decrease the saturated fat and calories. Of course, whole milk is also a decadent and delicious choice for the holidays! Do not use fat-free.
*Many brands of cinnamon contain dangerous levels of lead, and there is currently a large recall. McCormick cinnamon (affiliate link) or one of these other brands that were tested by Consumer Reports and found to contain less of the toxic metal.
👩🏽🍳How to Make
Wash your hands, lathering with soap and rinsing with running water for 20 seconds, before starting.
Whisk (affiliate link) together the flours, salt, and spices.
In a large deep mixing bowl or stand mixer bowl, combine the sugars, butter, and oil. Beat on low speed to blend. Increase the speed to high and beat until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add the ricotta and pumpkin puree, beating at low speed to blend and then at a higher speed to fully incorporate.
Pour the dry ingredients over the top and mix them in by hand until no dry streaks remain with a wooden spoon or spatula. Be careful not to overmix.
Cover the bowl holding the cookie dough and place it in the refrigerator to chill for about 4 hours or overnight. (Dough will hold for a day.)
When ready to bake cookies, preheat oven and line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Scoop out mounds of chilled dough with a moistened ice cream scoop (affiliate link). (Place a bowl of water nearby for wetting the scoop. Shake off any excess.)
To shape cookies, moisten the palms of your hands, and roll the dough mounds into balls.
Wet the back of a spoon and flatten the balls.
Decorate shaped cookies with sprinkles and seasonal decorations (affiliate link). Or, simply bake the mounds of dough as drop cookies to finish with powdered sugar glaze after baking.
Bake cookies for 13 to 16 minutes, reversing cookie sheets (affiliate link) halfway through.
When cookies are set and barely golden, remove from oven. Let them cool and finish baking on the hot cookie sheets for a good 5 minutes.
Then, remove to wire racks (affiliate link) to cool completely.
Plain cookies need to cool for at least an hour before any glaze/icing is applied.
These have Halloween sprinkles, but for Thanksgiving, mix some craisins into the dough or pecans. Mini chocolate chips are a nice addition any time of year!
*See recipe card below for complete quantities and detailed instructions.
📝Cooking Tips
The cookie dough will be rather sticky. Chilling helps with this, and moist hands are necessary for shaping them. Shaped cookies will have more structure than drop cookies, but will still be tender.
Be careful not to overbake. Bake only until set and perhaps, slightly golden around the edges.
Storage
These cookies are very perishable, and will stay fresh at room temperature for a short time (a day). Refrigeration helps them last longer and they must be refrigerated by the next day.
For longer life, freeze them. Do not apply any frosting or glaze before freezing. If you want to bump up the yummy factor with a powdered sugar icing, let them thaw completely first.
Note: These cookies are moister the second day after baking, which is why refrigeration helps.
Are these cookies healthy?
They boast healthy ingredients like part-skim ricotta, which is a good to excellent source of calcium. It's also an excellent source of vitamin B12, and has some protein.
- 🎃Pumpkin is another healthy cookie ingredient, but the amount used is not large. Still, it's an excellent source of beta-carotene and has rich mineral nutrition like potassium, magnesium, and calcium, vitamins A, E, and C.
- 💪🏼Eggs are also a source of protein, minerals, and vitamins, particularly vitamin D, which is not found in many foods.
- Flour is the largest source of nutrition in the cookies. The whole grain pastry flour adds fiber, B vitamins, and minerals.
A serving of 2 cookies is a tasty dessert with 4 g of protein, 70 mg of calcium, 2 mg of iron (excellent source), and more! (Add a glass of your favorite milk for extra protein, calcium, vitamins, and minerals.)
FAQ
Fresh pumpkin that has been roasted and then pureed is delicious and full of flavor! It will enhance the taste of the cookies.
For best flavor and texture, use part-skim ricotta cheese. Whole-milk will have a richer taste, but might cause them to fall apart and does increase the saturated fat and calories.
Non-fat ricotta cheese lacks flavor and may take the cookies in the opposite direction, making them rubbery.
They were tested with part-skim ricotta.
Yes; these are happy holiday variations. Mini chocolate chips and nuts like pecans and pine nuts pair well when it comes to texture and flavor.
You could also top them with pumpkin seeds before baking.
Thumbprints made with jam are another delicious variation. After shaping into balls, make a deep indentation in the center and fill that with jam before baking.
Using a 1:1 gluten-free flour (affiliate link) should work fine, but I haven't tested this recipe with gluten-free flour.
Using almond flour will make the cookies too fragile.
After a day at room temperature, it's best to place the cookies in the refrigerator where they should be good 2 or 3 days longer.
Freeze them for up to 3 months.
🙂↕️Other recipes you might like...
Are you (like me) in love with mild, milky flavor of ricotta cheese? This Honey Ricotta Dip recipe may take you to heaven by adding sweetness and lemon. Wonderful for dessert or snacking!
Holiday cookies!! Cranberry Chocolate Chip Oatmeal are the bomb. This hearty, easy cookie is crammed full of goodies in every bite.
Need more seasonal ideas? Fall Fruit Recipes: Apples and Pears has got you covered.
What would fall be without soup? This fast and easy Creamy Pumpkin Tomato Soup with Apples just might be the perfect meal to whip up on Halloween night!
Pumpkin Ricotta Cookies
Equipment
- Dry and liquid measuring cups
- 1 Medium bowl
- 1 Whisk
- 1 Large, deep mixing bowl
- 1 Electric mixer, or stand mixer
- Wooden spoon and/or spatula
- Baking sheets for cookies
Ingredients
- 1¾ cups whole wheat pastry flour
- 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ginger
- ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup butter, softened
- ¼ cup vegetable oil, canola, light olive, sunflower
- ⅔ cup maple sugar
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- 1 cup ricotta cheese, part-skim or whole-milk
- ½ cup pumpkin puree, canned or fresh
- decorating sprinkles of choice. Use Halloween colors, chocolate flavor, or colored sugars
Instructions
- Wash hands thoroughly, lathering with soap and rinsing under running water.
- Preheat oven to 375℉. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, spices, and salt.1½ cups whole wheat pastry flour1¼ cups all-purpose flour (unbleached)1 teaspoon baking powder1 teaspoon cinnamon¼ teaspoon ginger⅛ teaspoon nutmeg½ teaspoon salt
- In a large deep bowl, beat together softened butter, vegetable oil, and sugar until light and fluffy. (You can also use a stand mixer.)⅔ cup maple sugar⅓ cup brown sugar¼ cup softened butter¼ cup vegetable oil
- Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.2 eggs
- Beat in the ricotta cheese and pumpkin puree.1 cup ricotta cheese½ cup pumpkin puree
- Pour the dry ingredients over the top of the wet ingredients and stir in by hand using a wooden spoon or spatula. Do not beat. Combine just until the batter has no more dry streaks.
- Cover the batter bowl and place in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours and up to a day.
- When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375℉ and line cookie sheets with parchment or a silicone mat.
- Using a tablespoon or cookie scoop (holding 2 Tablespoons), scoop batter onto the parchment-lined cookie sheets. Moisten your hands and shape the dough mounds into balls. You may need to re-wet your palms after shaping a few balls.Gently flatten the tops of the cookies with your fingers or the back of a wet spoon.
- Shake sprinkles over the cookies. Be generous!Decorating sprinkles
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, rotating the cookie sheet halfway through baking. The edges should be set and barely golden.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool on cookie sheets for 3 to 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Ruth Hall
Thank you Jani!