Soft Pumpkin Cookies – gluten-free & vegan with grain-free, low-carb, & AIP options

Although pumpkin is typically a fall food, I personally think it should be eaten year round. We love these Pumpkin Snickerdoodles and this Pumpkin Spiced Creamer, but today I am sharing a favorite pumpkin cookie recipe that we've been making for years.

These cookies are amazingly low in sugar (which is great if you are on a candida diet) and yet they still taste great.  The pumpkin adds a natural sweetness and the orange flavor adds a nice hint of orange.

Often when you add flavors or extracts you can get away with less sweetener.

They are soft and moist and my whole family loved them.

My oldest was walking around the kitchen, nibbling on them and saying, “Now these really remind me of something.”  And then he remembered what, and my youngest agreed.  They reminded him of Enjoy Life's Gingerbread Spice cookies.

Now mind you, even in my sugar-aholic days, I never really bought those, mainly because they're expensive.  We'd sample them at Gluten-Free fairs and then feel plenty sick afterwards.

Not that there is anything technically wrong with Enjoy Life.  We just couldn't handle all of the sugar and white flour.

Well, he was sure right.  These soft little bites are like Enjoy Life's yummy treats, minus the white flour and all the sugar. Healthy.  Yum

I adapted this recipe ever so slightly from one on Whole Approach's Forum.  I basically lived in this forum when I first started learning about candidiasis – that's for another post.

We made the cookies four different ways – with and without nuts and with and without rolling them in sweetener. Hubby likes nuts in his cookies and oldest son does not like crunchies in his cookies. In my opinion, rolled in sweetener, either with or without nuts, is the best option :-).

When you roll them in sugar, you get a nice punch of sweetness without a bunch of added sweetener to the whole recipe.

The top photo shows the plain version and here is a photo of the nut-filled version with walnuts.

By the way, any of the following links may be affiliate links. If you click on them and make a purchase, I might make a commission. Your support is much appreciated and helps keep this free resource up and running.

If you end up using stevia for this recipe, you will for sure want these spoons since you'll be measuring out such teensy amounts.  The 2nd smallest size is the one that you will use, but I am finding that stevia powders are now greatly varying in their strengths, so sweeten to taste.

Either way, you will find these spoons to be a huge help.

I think you are just going to love these and love how good they are for you.  It's a great way to have healthy sweets around to help you avoid eating the junk.

Particularly if it's around the fall and winter Holiday season when those kinds of sugar-laden treats are everywhere.

Here are more “Pumpkin Treats” to enjoy:

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Pumpkin Pie Spiced Creamer (DF & SF)
Pumpkin Custard
Pumpkin Chia Pudding
Pumpkin Pie Spice – DIY for use in your own recipes!

Soft Pumpkin Cookies (vegan w/ gluten and sugar-free options)

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These Soft Pumpkin Cookies are gluten-free, vegan, and sugar-free. Perfect for fall or all year round. The perfect allergy-free cookie.

Ingredients

Wet Ingredients

• 1 c unsweetened pumpkin
• 1/2 c coconut oil, or other healthy fat, melted
• 1/4 c sweetener, either granulated (here is a link to xylitol, which is a good low-carb option) or liquid (use coconut sugar or honey for AIP)
• 1 T orange flavoring or extract (Try Nielsen-Massey or Frontier Flavor.)

Dry Ingredients

• 1 1/2 c gluten-free flour (use almond flour for low-carb, tiger nut flour for AIP)
• 3-4 scoops stevia extract (each scoop is about 1/32 tsp), or approx 4-8 T additional sweetener, to taste (For stevia, I recommend NuNaturals. If using stevia, add it to either wets or dries. See How to Use Stevia for usage tips.)
• 1 tsp baking soda (If you use flour with gluten, decrease to about 3/4 tsp)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt (I recommend Real Salt)
• 1/2 chopped or ground nuts, optional (We used walnuts. Almonds, macadamias, or even pumpkin or sunflower seeds would be great. Please use soaked and dried nuts if possible.)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375. Combine pumpkin, oil, sweetener, and orange flavoring in a medium bowl.
2. Add flour, baking soda, & seasonings. Mix just 'til combined.
3. Fold in nuts if using.
4. Make spoonfuls or scoops with a 2 Tbsp muffin scoop. If desired, roll in a bit of granulated sweetener before baking. You get a really nice "punch" of sweetness without adding a lot of sweetener when you coat cookies rather than adding more to the batter. :-P.
5. Place spoonfuls or scoops on a baking sheet (the scoops result in a cookie that really resembles the Enjoy Life ones :-)).
6. Bake 8 -10 minutes or until lightly browned. They will harden a bit as they cool, but will still be nice and soft.

by Adrienne

Recipe Notes

1. As I always say, with sweeteners, choose the healthiest one that you can. If you aren't on a sugar-restricted diet, use honey, sucanat, or maple syrup. If you cannot have those, use vegetable glycerin, stevia, or yacon. If you have no other alternatives, xylitol or erythritol will work, but you will need about 25% more sweetener if using erythritol.

If using a granulated sweetener, add 1T water. Oh - and 1 scoop of stevia is a teensy amount - just 1/32nd tsp (this is for the pure extract. If using pourable stevia, use 3-5 tsp, to taste.). Read What Stevia Is and How to Use it for more tips.)

2. Both the nut-filled and plain versions were great, but my boys and I much preferred the plain version (my husband simply loves nuts in just about anything.)

3. Try whatever gluten free flour blend, or individual flour, that you have on hand. Each will give the final cookies a bit of a different result, but they will be delicious! These are pretty forgiving little treats :-)!

4. If you make them with a nut or seed flour, they will have to bake longer. Add on at least an additional 5 minutes but keep an eye on them.

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What is YOUR favorite pumpkin recipe?