Dining In - Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies - Post Punk Kitchen

I love the fall! I enjoy the change of the season into more mild weather with crisp, cool air and brightly colored leaves...whenever I can find them in the concrete jungle, that is! It's also the return of one of my favorite fruits, pumpkin. Feeling festive for the week leading up to Halloween, I decided to make these Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies to bring into work. I did a quick search online to find a vegan recipe and recognized the credible source PPK (or Post Punk Kitchen, an online vegan cooking and baking community), so I went with the first recipe I looked at. This was made by Isa Chandra, posted back in 2008! You can see the full recipe here, as well. It's a versatile recipe that you can change to your liking (gluten-free, chocolate chips instead of raisins, add ginger, etc.), as demonstrated by the many comments below it.

Sadly I couldn't get the baking times quite right so my first batch was slightly dark and the final batch was a little too soft, but those that I gave a chance to rest to cook more on the baking sheet came out just right. I preferred these over traditional Oatmeal Raisin cookies! They had the subtle sweet pumpkin flavor and a nice chewy texture with some of the sugar caramelizing in the cooking process. The chopped walnuts gave a light nutty, buttery taste to the cookies that balanced out the sweetness and brought in some healthy fats and fiber. 


Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
2 cups flour
1 1/3 cups rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 2/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons molasses
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup raisins

Dry Ingredients for Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

To Prepare Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies:

Grease two large baking sheets with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

In a medium bowl sift together flour, rolled oats, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.


In a separate large bowl, mix together sugar, oil, molasses, pumpkin, vanilla extract and flaxseed. Stir until well combined. Add dry ingredient mixture in 1/3 of it at a time, by folding into the batter. Finally, fold in raisins and walnuts. 

Use a tablespoon or large spoon to scoop out batter onto baking sheet. Leave about an inch between cookies. Flatten cookies with a fork (this got a little too sticky for me to do easily) or use your palm to gently flatten each cookie. 

Bake cookies for 15 minutes and if using both levels of your oven at the same time, switch the sheets halfway through baking time. 

Batter Without Walnuts & Raisins

Remove cookies from oven and allow to cool completely. I even put them in the fridge to firm them up quickly. 

Share with friends and family and enjoy the fall flavors!