Healthy Pumpkin Breakfast Cookies
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Pumpkin Breakfast Cookies are a yummy, healthy breakfast! Made with only 8 ingredients, they are great for easy meal prepping & gluten free.
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Is there really anything better than cookies for breakfast? These Healthy Pumpkin Cookies are the perfect combo of delicious, hearty, and fun for your fall breakfasts, made with wholesome ingredients like oats, pecans, and fall spices. Plus, they’re sweetened with just a little bit of maple syrup (with no refined sugars).
I’ve always been a fan of oatmeal, but hate cooking it. Yes, my Egg White Oatmeal is delicious, but it still requires you to wash a sticky, oatmeal covered pan.. who has time for that?! Baked oatmeal is a great option (especially this Chocolate Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal) but even though it only requires one dish, it’s not very portable (unless you put it in a container to go!)
Breakfast cookies are the perfect solution for busy mornings! Portable, easily customizable and SO delicious, especially when paired with a Healthy Pumpkin Spice Latte.
liz’s top tip for pumpkin breakfast cookies
- Make a batch on Sunday with our Egg Muffins and enjoy the next few mornings for a healthy breakfast on the go.
- Use a cookie scoop to make uniform cookies that will bake at the same rate.
Ingredients
Substitutions
To make nut free: omit pecans
To make vegan: You can sub the egg with one flax egg
Oil: If you don’t have coconut oil you can use olive oil or avocado oil
Sweetener: You can sub maple syrup with honey. These cookies may not be sweet enough for you/your family’s taste. You can always add more maple syrup if you prefer your breakfast sweeter, but I wanted to make these cookies as low in sugar as possible.
Add ins: You can add chocolate chips to these cookies to make them more dessert-like. Nuts (like chopped walnuts) and seeds are also great add ins!
Pumpkin: You can substitute pumpkin puree with mashed banana or applesauce if you don’t have it! You can also use Homemade Pumpkin Puree! Be sure to use pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling.
Spices: You could also try adding pumpkin pie spice instead of the other spices for the same flavor.
How to make Pumpkin Breakfast Cookies:
- Put all your ingredients in a large bowl.
- Mix all ingredients.
- Place your cookies on a parchment paper lined baking sheet + bake.
Like I said before, you can easily customize these breakfast cookies – or use one of our other breakfast cookie recipes like these Banana Breakfast Cookies or Gingerbread Breakfast Cookies!
Can you use quick cook or steel cut oats in this recipe?
No, unfortunately, you can’t use quick cook or steel cut oats to make these healthy breakfast cookies. Quick cook oats can get too mushy when mixed with these ingredients as they are often smaller and less hearty than old fashioned oats.
With steel cut oats, they can’t soak up the ingredients and cook in time. They need to be cooked for much longer over with heat to make them edible. You’ll wind up with a mess unless you use old fashioned oats.
How to store pumpkin breakfast cookies:
Refrigerator: I recommend storing these healthy pumpkin oatmeal cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. I would not store these on the counter as they will likely get moldy/stale tasting due to the moisture in the cookie/lack of preservatives.
Freezing: These cookies freeze very well! You can put them in a ziploc bag or a container and store in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Whether you meal prep these cookies, enjoy them as after school snacks, or just enjoy them for a lazy fall breakfast, I know you’ll love them!
If you’re looking for other pumpkin recipes, check out this Pumpkin Protein Smoothie or these Healthy Pumpkin Recipes
Other healthy breakfast recipes
Healthy Pumpkin Breakfast Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup pumpkin puree
- 3 tablespoons coconut oil melted and cooled
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 egg
- 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats gluten free if necessary
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds
- ½ cup chopped pecans
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper or silpat liner
- In a bowl whisk together pumpkin, coconut oil, maple syrup and egg.
- Stir in oats, spices, chia seeds and pecans.
- Drop the cookies in 1 tablespoon balls on the baking sheet about 1 inch apart (12 cookies per sheet) Press flat with palm of your hand. You can top with additional pecans if you’d like.
- Bake at 350 for 17-19 minutes until bottom of the cookies have browned. Allow the cookies to cool and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 5-6 days.
Notes
- To make nut free: omit pecans
- To make vegan: sub egg with one flax egg
- Oil: If you don’t have coconut oil you can use olive oil
- Sweetener: You can sub maple syrup with honey
Can you make this with almond flour and what amount?
No you can’t. This recipe has no flour in it, and you can substitute oats for almond flour. Sorry!
I tried your recipe and it was good. I baked the cookies and I left them in the oven slightly too long, next time I will take them out a little earlier. Overall, they are really good.
Sorry that you over cooked them. 🙂
Do the chia seeds need to be soaked before using (like in making a ‘chia egg’ with one tablespoon chia seeds and three tablespoons water)? Or do they just get put in dry? Or could they be left out if I don’t have any?
Also, could the recipe be doubled?
Thanks so much.
No, they don’t need to be soaked! put them in dry. I haven’t tried making it without them, it might affect the texture, but I think it would be ok without them! You can double the recipe!
Thanks for getting back to me!
Was also wondering if the recipe might work with making into bars? Any suggestions for pan size / baking time? I’d really appreciate it; thank you!
I’m sorry but I haven’t tried that. We have 10 different baked oatmeal recipes on our site – maybe try one of those instead if you’re looking for bars!:)
I’ve made these exactly per the recipe and have also subbed in butter, pumpkin pie filling, raisins and probably something else I’m forgetting and they’ve been tasty any of these ways! Great versatile recipe that keeps me from drinking coffee on an empty stomach and makes sure I’m getting some yummy oatmeal, even if it is disguised as a cookie!
Great recipe! I’m always looking for new ways to use pumpkin and this is perfect. All of the delicious pumpkin flavor and zero guilt starting my day with one of these.
So happy you liked them, Marisa! thank you so much!
The instructions mention vanilla extract but I didn’t see it listed in the ingredients. How much vanilla do you suggest?
Sorry for the typo. I removed it from the recipe – vanilla extract is expensive and it’s not necessary for these cookies but if you’d like you could add 1 teaspoon!
Just found this and was wondering is the nutritional information per cookie? Is a serving a single cookie?
Thanks!!
Hi! Yes, this recipe makes 12 cookies and the serving size on the nutrition facts is listed as 1 cookie. You could of course eat more or less, but that’s what the nutrition facts are for. Thanks!
These are delicious!! I made them and freezed half per the suggestion in the recipe. Have been heating them up + topping with peanut butter for breakfast. So good!
Yum!! Love the peanut butter on top!