When I make pumpkin cookies for my kids, I prefer to make them grain-free to mix things up. I occasionally make a crustless pumpkin pie or pumpkin pie with a no grain crust made of almond flour for the same reason.
While we are fortunate not to have any grain allergies in our home, I still try to limit the grain-based foods. Have you noticed that the Western diet is supersaturated with grain foods everywhere you turn? This is not in any way how Traditional Cultures consumed their grains!
Most folks do not realize how incredibly dependent their diet is on grains until they try to cut them out or simply cut them down. I know I was shocked when I first tried to reduce grains to a moderate level. It is much harder to do than you might think!
Homemade Pumpkin Cookies
I love this particular pumpkin cookies recipe not only because it is grain-free, but also because it includes a vegetable!
As we all know, all those wonderful minerals in veggies are not absorbed that well without the presence of healthy fat. Hence, this pumpkin cookies recipe includes plenty of grass-fed butter and coconut oil as well.
The key to the taste is the seasonal, freshly pureed pumpkin. Do yourself a favor and skip the canned puree for these cookies. Make it fresh! It is quite easy as this recipe plus video on how to make pumpkin puree demonstrates.
Gorgeous pumpkins are everywhere in the Fall. Take advantage of the local bounty in your neighborhood and make a batch of delicious pumpkin cookies for your family that will both nourish and delight their tastebuds!
If you enjoy this recipe for pumpkin cookies, be sure to try this recipe for pumpkin bread too! If you would like to try using pumpkin puree in a savory recipe, this traditional pumpkin soup is amazing!
Paleo Pumpkin Cookies Recipe (soft batch style)
Delicious, grain-free, Paleo pumpkin cookies to enjoy any season of the year made with real pumpkin puree for the most nutrition and taste. Soft batch style!
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups pumpkin puree baked, peeled and mashed
- 1.5 cups arrowroot powder
- 1/4 cup grassfed butter
- 1/4 cup expeller pressed coconut oil
- 1 egg preferably pastured or free range
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ceylon cinnamon ground from fresh sticks
- 1 tsp ground allspice
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 cup sucanat
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
Instructions
-
Process all ingredients together in a food processor until smooth. Form ping pong sized balls on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.
Alternatively, make one giant cookie and shape the batter with a knife into a pumpkin with a stem. This saves time and works well if you prefer a cookie cake.
You can also get really creative and use a pumpkin-shaped cookie cutout for making these cookies.
-
Bake at 350F/177 C for about 20 minutes.
-
After 5 minutes in the oven, press down each pumpkin cookie with a fork and then finish baking. Skip this step if you made a cookie cake with the batter.
-
Cool.and serve. These soft batch style cookies are great for the lunchbox.
Store pumpkin cookies in airtight containers in the refrigerator.
Recipe Notes
Sweet potato can be substituted for pumpkin as desired.
Make sure the baked pumpkin is moist yet firm and not too runny else your dough will be too wet.
Substitute finely ground nut flour of choice for the arrowroot if you are avoiding starch.
Coconut sugar or date sugar can be substituted for the sucanat. Note that date sugar is permitted on the SCD or GAPS diet, but it does not dissolve very well in batter. You may wish to add a few drops of stevia too.
Do not use honey as baking with honey is not a recommended traditional cooking practice.
Substitute potato, tapioca or cassava starch for the arrowroot (or a blend) if you prefer. Using potato starch adds the nutritional benefits of resistant starch to the cookies once they've fully cooled.
mmmmmm totally makes these tonight. Thx.
temp? do I have to stab it so it doesn’t explode? 🙂
Thank you, it looks great. Any ideas for an egg substitute? (My body doesn’t tolerate them.)
see above
Looks wonderful; thank you. I’m wondering, since I can’t do eggs, whether there is anything that could substitute for the egg.
Good egg replacer in baking: Simmer 1/4 cup flax seeds in 3/4 cup water for 5-7 mins, till thick. Strain the seeds out in a cheesecloth lined strainer –you’ll need to squeeze it. Use 4 tablespoons for 1 egg. For extra lightness, whip the “gel” and fold through at the end of mixing.
from http://www.westonaprice.org/Going-Gluten-Free.html
I use 1 tablespoon of chia seeds to 3 tablespoons of water. Let it sit for 10 minutes until it gels. Also, I have used a ripe banana instead of an egg.
My daughter is allergic to eggs and I’ve always substituted 1/4c apple sauce for 1 egg in recipes. Makes the most moist and delicious cake!
These sound great. Do you think I could make them with butternut squash and no baking soda for the gaps diet? Deb
Baking soda is allowed on GAPS last time I checked .. not on SCD though.
The arrowroot flour is starch though and not permitted on GAPS. I haven’t tried these using just almond or pecan flour so not sure how that would turn out.
I don’t think maple syrup is not allowed on GAPS. Does honey work okay?
You are correct – maple syrup is not allowed. Honey will work fine as a sub.
Hi Sarah,
I was so excited to try these cookies this morning for our daughter on GAPS to take to our church Fall Festival tonight! They are delicious and she is excited. Thanks!
For GAPS, I substituted 1 c. almond meal + 1/2 coconut flour for the arrowroot and honey for the maple syrup. The batter was really wet–I think it would have worked OK for drop cookies, but my girl really wanted to use cookie cutters. So, with the processor running I added another 1/2 c. almond meal and probably about 1/2 c. coconut flour (I just added it by the tablespoon). This gave a stiff enough dough to roll into balls, but not roll out/cut into shapes.
Do you have any suggestions for making a stiff enough dough to roll out? I thought about adding the butter and all other ingredients and holding the coconut oil until the end and adding it as needed. I also wondered if the fact I used home made almond meal was a factor. Any thoughts?
Thank you so much for the work you put into educating others!
Amber
I made them also and it was more of a batter rather than something to be formed??? Any suggestions would be very appreciated!
Thank you
Were your almonds blanched? That makes a difference.
what is the easiest way to cook a pumpkin??
I cut the pumpkin in half, discard the seeds and place it open-side-down on a cookie sheet.
Bake it at 325 F for about an hour, then scoop out the meat. You can compost the skin 🙂
YUM! Thanks for the recipe! 🙂
I can’t tell you how excited I am to make these cookies! I love pumpkin…nothing says fall like pumpkin flavors and scents!
Pumpkin Cookies (Grain Free) – The Healthy Home Economist http://t.co/7qCrfVx4
Mmmm… I love pumpkins! Best part of fall!
Thanks for the recipe! I think I’ll see if I can make these for break fast sometime this week.