A single serve pumpkin chocolate chip cookie, for when you just want one (giant) pumpkin cookie to yourself.
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single serve pumpkin chocolate chip cookie
This is a cookie for when you just want one giant, delicious pumpkin chocolate chip cookie. It’s thick and soft with crisp edges, made with brown butter for extra flavor, loaded with chocolate chips, swirled with marshmallow fluff, and we’re using pumpkin puree not only for pumpkin flavor, but it also takes the place of the egg in these so they just so happen to be eggless. Fair warning – when I say that this cookie is giant, I mean it — so you can definitely bake this off as two more “regular” sized cookies if you prefer.
Aaaand if you’re thinking “why in the world would I only want one cookie?” – here is my recipe for pumpkin cookies – which is very similar to this recipe and yields 8 cookies.
expert baking tips
Weigh your ingredients:
My recipes are all written in grams because it is the most accurate way to bake. When you use a kitchen scale, you ensure that your baked goods turn out as close to the written recipe as possible. Plus, the cleanup is way easier when using a scale! I will provide standard cup measurements but please note that I have not tested the recipe using cup measurements and therefore can not guarantee your recipe will come out how mine did. Here is my favorite kitchen scale.
Mix the dough carefully:
When adding in the flour, only fold the mixture just until no flour streaks remain. Over mixing the dough leads to more gluten formation, which can make the cookies thicker and more tough in texture.
chill the cookie prior to baking
I know, I know – it’s frustrating to have to wait! However, because we’re using melted brown butter, we want to give the dough time to firm up. Letting the cookie dough chill just a little bit in the freezer means that the cookies will bake up thicker.
Under bake for perfect cookies:
Cookies continue baking after they have been taken out of the oven. Once the edges turn slightly golden brown, and the cookies look just a little wet on top still, they are ready to come out. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for an additional 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool.
The secret to perfectly round cookies:
Wanna know the secret to perfectly round cookies? It’s cookie scooting! Right when the cookies come out of the oven, take a bowl, cup, or biscuit cutter that is just slightly larger than your cookies and place it over one of the cookies. Gently swirl the bowl around the cookie to make the cookie perfectly round (and slightly thicker). And that’s all there is to it!
A note on oven temperature:
Ovens vary and fluctuate in temperature and might not always actually be at the temperature they claim to be at. If you love to bake like I do, I highly recommend getting an oven thermometer. They are super helpful for letting you know when your oven might be lying to you! I use this one.
ingredients for a single serve pumpkin chocolate chip cookie:
- All purpose flour: for structure and chewiness.
- Baking soda: for helping the cookies rise.
- Salt: to help balance and bring out the sweetness of the cookies
- Unsalted butter: for tenderness and flavor. You can use salted butter in place of the unsalted, just be sure to omit the extra salt from the cookies. We’ll also be browning the butter for some extra delicious toasty flavor. If you’re looking to make this dairy-free, Miyoko’s Creamery vegan butter has the ability to brown just like regular butter and works like a charm.
- Granulated sugar & dark brown sugar: a combination of both gives us cookies with crispy edges and soft and chewy centers. In a pinch you can use light brown sugar in place of the dark brown sugar.
- Pumpkin puree: our egg replacement for these cookies – make sure you are using 100% pure pumpkin and not pumpkin pie filling here.
- Vanilla: for flavor.
- Semi-sweet chocolate: I recommend semi-sweet or dark chocolate (or a combination of both!) Please note that if you use all chocolate chips, the cookies will bake up a little thicker, and if you use all chopped chocolate, they will be a tad thinner. In the pictures I used a combo of guittard super cookie chips & a chopped chocolate baking bar.
- Marshmallow creme: or marshmallow fluff, for swirling into the cookies.
how to make a single serve pumpkin cookie
Here’s a little look into the process of making a single pumpkin chocolate chip cookie. The full recipe is at the end of this blog post!
- Brown the butter on the stove, then chop the chocolate and pat the pumpkin puree dry.
- To the brown butter, mix in both sugars, the pumpkin puree, and the vanilla.
- Mix in the dry ingredients and chocolate chips, then set the dough to chill in the freezer for 5 minutes.
- Form the cookie dough into one giant cookie dough ball, top it with more chocolate, marshmallow, then bake & enjoy!
single serve pumpkin cookie recipe q&a
What is brown butter?
Brown butter is super simple to make so don’t worry! It’s just regular butter that is cooked on the stove until some of the moisture evaporates, allowing the milk solids in the butter to be toasted. The result is this butter with an amber hue and little speckles that has a toasted and slightly nutty aroma.
can I double this recipe?
If you’re looking for a larger batch of cookies, check out my pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. They’re very similar to this recipe and yield 8 cookies.
do you have a plain single serve chocolate chip cookie?
Why yes I do and you can find it here! ☺︎
why did my cookies turn out more dry/crumbly/thicker than pictured?
- Measuring error: Typically, the #1 culprit for this is always not measuring the flour properly. If you use cup measurements rather than weighing, you run the risk of adding too much flour to the dough which can make it super dry. If you’re using cup measurements, make sure that you fluff up your flour and then spoon it into your measuring cup, rather than scooping up the flour with the measuring cup. Weighing will also ensure that you end up with the right amount of brown butter and that you cooked it for the proper amount of time.
- Overmixing: if you over-mix the dough, you will introduce more gluten into the cookies which will lead to tougher, thicker cookies. Make sure to only fold in the flour just until that last streak of flour disappears into the dough.
- Oven temperature: Like I said before, it’s possible that your oven isn’t at the temperature that it claims to be at – which is, unfortunately, more common than it should be. If your oven is hotter than 350F without your knowledge, you’ll end up with thicker, more dry cookies.
why did my cookies spread so much?
- Chilling the dough: The #1 reason for this would be that you didn’t chill the cookie dough. Although it can be frustrating to wait, the cookie dough does need to chill to give time for the butter to firm up and the ingredients to meld together so that they don’t completely spread out in the oven.
- Browning the butter: Another reason I recommend measuring your ingredients. When you brown the butter, moisture cooks off of it. So, if it wasn’t cooked for long enough then there would be extra moisture in the dough, which would make the cookies spread out more.
- Oven temperature: It could also be that your oven temperature is running lower than it claims to be. For that reason, I recommend always using an oven thermometer. The one I use is linked under “baking tools” in my amazon storefront below!
tools and ingredients:
You can find all my favorite tools and ingredients that I use on my Amazon Storefront page, here!
other recipes you might enjoy:
did you make this recipe?
I’d love to see and know your thoughts! please leave a comment and review below, and tag me on instagram @freshbeanbakery. #freshbeanbakery
Single Serve Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie
Ingredients
- 28 g unsalted butter (2 tbsp.)
- 25 g pumpkin puree (1 ¾ tbsp.)
- 25 g dark brown sugar (2 tbsp.)
- 12 g granulated sugar (1 tbsp.)
- ¼ tsp. vanilla
- 40 g all purpose flour (⅓ c.)
- ⅛ tsp. baking soda
- ⅛ tsp. salt
- 40 g semi-sweet chocolate* (¼ c.) chips and/or a chopped baking bar
- 10 g marshmallow fluff (2 tbsp.) + extra for topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F / 175°C. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Add the butter to a small saute pan or saucepan. Set the butter over medium heat, stirring occasionally until the butter bubbles up, then turns amber in color (this took me ~2 minutes.)
- Pour the brown butter into a small mixing bowl and set it aside. You should be left with 22g of brown butter.**
- If you're using a chocolate baking bar, chop it up into small pieces while the butter is cooling down. Also, place the pumpkin puree on to a napkin and press down on it with the napkin to remove excess moisture, until you are left with only 18g of pumpkin puree.
- Add the dark brown sugar, granulated sugar, pumpkin puree, and vanilla into the browned butter and mix until well combined.
- Add in the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix together just until a few flour streaks remain, then add in ~¾ of your chocolate and mix just until no flour streaks remain. Place little scattered dollops of the marshmallow fluff on top of the cookie dough.
- Set the cookie dough in the freezer to chill for 5 minutes.
- Scoop out all the cookie dough and roll it into one large ball. Top the cookie with extra marshmallow fluff, and your remaining chopped chocolate. Bake for 14-16 minutes, until the edges are golden brown and the middle of the cookie no longer looks “wet.”
- Once the cookie comes out of the oven, use a large bowl to gently form it back into a perfect circle. Allow the cookie to rest on the hot baking sheet for 5-10 minutes before transferring it to a wire rack to cool (or just before enjoying it warm.) Serve and enjoy!