These Vegan Gluten-Free Chocolate Chips Pumpkin Cookies are incredibly easy to prepare and use only natural ingredients that you likely already have in your pantry. They’re free from starches and refined flours, and best of all, there are no strange ingredients or flax eggs involved!
This recipe features two of my favorite ingredients: almonds and oats. Almond flour adds texture and flavor, while oat flour helps absorb the extra moisture from the pumpkin. Oats and almonds make a great combination of taste, no one will discover these are glute-free cookies. Usually, I make my own oat flour by blending rolled oats until fine. If you don’t have a powerful blender, you can buy whole oat flour—it’s very fine and works perfectly in gluten-free cookie recipes. The same goes for almond flour. You can make it at home by blending peeled almonds, but be careful not to over-blend, or you’ll end up with almond butter! Otherwise, store-bought almond flour works great too.
Tips for Making Vegan Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cookies
To make this recipe vegan, room temperature light flavored olive oil replaces dairy butter, but you can also use melted coconut oil. If you don’t enjoy the coconut aroma, be sure to use deodorized coconut oil for a more neutral flavor.
Use 100% pure canned pumpkin for this waffle recipe (like this one). Don’t grab pumpkin pie filling by mistake, which has added spices and sugar.
Since these are gluten-free cookies, the dough will be slightly more moist and less compact than traditional cookie dough.
As for baking, the times can vary. I recommend baking the cookies at 340°F (170°C) in a static oven for about 20 minutes. Keep an eye on them, as gluten-free dough tends to brown faster than those made with regular flour.
When you take them out of the oven, the cookies will still be soft. Let them cool completely to enjoy cookies that are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside—the perfect texture for a cozy fall treat! If you move them too early, they could break apart.