Soft & Chewy Vegan Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies – No eggs!
These soft pumpkin cheesecake cookies are stuffed with a dairy free cream cheese filling and rolled in a pumpkin spice sugar coating! And they’re unbelievably vegan!
Table of contents
The best of pumpkin cookies and cheesecake in one!
If you love cookies and you love cheesecake, then let me introduce you to your new favorite cookie of the fall season: vegan pumpkin cheesecake cookies!!
These soft pumpkin cookies are stuffed with a creamy and rich brown sugar cheesecake filling, making it the perfect fall treat.
Like my soft vegan pumpkin sugar cookies, vegan pumpkin oatmeal cookies, and vegan pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (we really love pumpkin desserts here!), the dough comes together so quickly and easily in one bowl.
And the cream cheese filling is so simple to make: just a bit of vegan cream cheese, brown sugar, and cornstarch! When you take a bite paired with the warming spices of the pumpkin cookies, the flavors are just beautiful.
Oh, and that’s right, I didn’t mention: you don’t need any eggs nor dairy to make these cheesecake cookies! Yep, that’s right. Just like my red velvet cheesecake cookies, these pumpkin cheesecake cookies are entirely dairy free and eggless. Yet you’d never know!
Ingredients for pumpkin cheesecake cookies:
- Flour: I use all purpose flour here. You can use gluten free baking flour here too to make gluten free pumpkin cheesecake cookies. I recommend King Arthur measure-for-measure gluten free flour.
- Light brown sugar & sugar: A combination of both adds that rich and chewy texture to the cookies. We’re also using just brown sugar in the cheesecake filling for extra richness!
- Vegan butter: I like using Miyoko’s here- it’s great!
- Pumpkin puree: You can use store bought or homemade pumpkin puree!
- Vegan cream cheese: For brands, I love Kite Hill or Tofutti. You can also make your own vegan cream cheese too!
- Cornstarch: This helps to bind the cream cheese into that creamy yet sturdy cheesecake texture that won’t let the cheesecake seep out of the cookies when heated!
- Baking soda: We’re not using any baking powder here- just baking soda!
- Pumpkin spice: This is a combination of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. You can make your own or use store bought.
Add ins: If you want to spice up your pumpkin cheesecake cookies even more, feel free to fold in vegan white chocolate chips or crushed vegan graham cracker crumbs to the cookie dough before scooping!
Why don’t I need eggs in this cookie recipe?
If you’re a traditional baker looking at this recipe, then you might be wondering how we’re making ultra soft and chewy pumpkin cookies without any eggs.
That’s because the pumpkin puree acts as our vegan egg substitute! Yep, no additional egg replacements are needed for this recipe. That’s why I thought it was a great cookie recipe for both traditional bakers and my vegan bakers (hi, hello, I’m you!).
The ingredients are so straightforward and perfect for beginners and pros alike!
Overview: how to make pumpkin cheesecake cookies step by step:
Below is a step-by-step overview with images, but keep in mind that measurements for the full recipe, as well as written instructions are found down below in the recipe card!
What if my cookie dough is too sticky?
No problem! Sometimes the cookie dough will feel a bit too sticky to handle right away. If that’s the case, you can chill the cookie dough in the fridge for 10-20 minutes before scooping and rolling into cookie dough balls.
Can I use homemade vegan cream cheese instead?
Yes, you most definitely can!
My favorite homemade vegan cream cheese recipe is perfect for these cheesecake cookies. But you can also use store bought! For store bought, I love Kite Hill and Tofutti as my go-to cream cheese brands.
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If you make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below. This helps others to find the recipes! As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there as well!
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Soft & Chewy Vegan Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies – No eggs!
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 11
- Total Time: 41 minutes
- Yield: 13 1x
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
These soft pumpkin cheesecake cookies are stuffed with a dairy free cream cheese filling and rolled in a pumpkin spice sugar coating! And they’re unbelievably vegan!
Ingredients
Cheesecake filling:
- 1/2 cup (113 g) vegan cream cheese, room temperature
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp Edward & Sons cornstarch
Pumpkin cookie:
- 1 3/4 cup (220 g) all-purpose flour or gluten-free 1:1 baking flour
- 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- ½ cup (113 g) vegan unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/3 cup (80 g) pumpkin purée, patted dry
- 2 tbsp (30 g) dairy free yogurt, room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (110 g) light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pumpkin spice sugar coating:
- 5 tbsp sugar
- 5 tbsp pumpkin spice
Instructions
- Prep: We’ll first make the cream cheese filling, followed by the pumpkin cookie dough. Pat the pumpkin puree dry if you haven’t done so already. Just a little bit to soak up excess moisture and liquid. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper to start.
- Make the cream cheese filling: In a small bowl, use a hand mixer to cream together the room temperature cream cheese, brown sugar, and cornstarch.
- Chill the cream cheese in balls: Use a teaspoon to measure 11-13 scoops of cream cheese and dollop them onto the parchment paper, space apart. Once you’ve scooped all of the cream cheese into little dollops onto the baking sheet, place the baking sheet into the freezer to chill while you make the cookie dough.
- Make the pumpkin cookie dough: In a large bowl, use a hand mixer to cream together the vegan butter, sugar, brown sugar, pumpkin puree, dairy free yogurt, and vanilla extract. Add in the pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and sea salt, and cream again until evenly distributed. Then add in the flour, and use a silicone spatula to fold the dry ingredients into the wet just until mixed.
- Chill the cookie dough: While the cookie dough is chilling in the fridge for 10-20 minutes, preheat the oven to 350F, and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. You can use the parchment paper lined baking sheet from the cream cheese dollops once you begin scooping the dough. In a small bowl, you can whisk together the sugar and pumpkin spice for the sugar coating.
- Shape the pumpkin cheesecake cookies: Remove the cream cheese from the freezer. Use a 1.5 tbsp cookie scoop, and scoop one cookie dough ball. Scoop the dough into your palm and press it flat between your palms. Then take a piece of the cream cheese and place it into the middle of the flattened cookie dough. Then form the dough around the cream cheese and roll gently into a smooth ball. Place the cookie into the sugar coating and roll it around to evenly coat. Then place the cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Repeat this for the remaining pumpkin cheesecake cookies, creating about 11-3 cookies.
- Bake the cookies: Place the baking sheets into the oven, and bake the cookies for 11-14 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden. Remove the cookies from the oven, and gently push any edges to be rounded. Then let the cookies cool for 10-15 minutes on the baking sheet.
- Enjoy! Enjoy your vegan pumpkin cheesecake cookies after cooling or store in an airtight container and in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Notes
Gluten free: Use King Arthur Measure for Measure gluten free baking flour- it’s the best!
Hi!! These look amazing. I was wondering when do you put the 2 Tbs of yogurt in? I mixed everything together and then realized I have the yogurt left over 🙂
Oh I’m so sorry for the confusion! It can go in with the pumpkin, but if you skipped it, it’s such a small amount they’ll still turn out!
Thank you! That is what I did. The dough looked pretty good, so I decided to bake them minus the yogurt. They turned out great! Thank you
Oh wonderful!! I’m so glad it worked out 🙂 Thanks so much for trying the recipe!! Enjoy!
Could I make these cookies ahead and freeze them? Or perhaps at least make the dough and bite-sized fillings ahead of time and freeze?
Hi Becky! Absolutely! So I would recommend if you’re freezing them until you’re ready to bake, assembling the cookies right until Step 7, when they would go in the oven. Then freeze them fully assembled on a baking sheet for 20 minutes. Then you can transfer the frozen cookie dough balls into a storage container to store in the freezer until you’re ready to bake! They’ll take longer to bake from frozen, but will still work!
I just made this recipe exactly as written except for the sugar mix – there is no way that is supposed to be 5 tablespoons of pumpkin spice, i used 1 and it was borderline too much. the recipe made 20 cookies, regular sized. they taste good. the filling on mine is not white after baking, it’s like a beige, but probably just because of the cream cheese I used, which was trader joes brand.
Absolutely delicious, already on repeat in my home!!! By far my favorite fall cookie
This is so wonderful!! Oh my gosh, I’m so happy to hear it! Thanks so much for the review 🙂 Enjoy!!
Made these and loved them! I had a slight issue with the ratio of the dough versus the cream cheese… I think I may just need to make the cookies slightly bigger or use less cream cheese filling in each cookie. Regardless, they tasted fantastic and I am planning to make again! I am curious if piping the cream cheese into the cookie dough may be another option? What are your thoughts/suggestions on this?
Thanks for the amazing recipe!
WOWZERZ!!!!! The texture of these is AMAZING! The flavor is perfect as well but unfortunately in me thinking Miyokos cream cheese would be of course the best brand here, it totally broke, wouldn’t freeze and therefore spread too much throughout the cookies when they baked. I wished I would have grabbed a block of vegan cream cheese instead of the spreadable option. I will definitely still be making these again!
Your flour weight is WAY OFF. 3/4 cup of flour is only 90g
Hi D! It’s actually for 1 3/4 cup, not 3/4 cup. 210-220 g is totally fine!
These are amazing! FYI to anyone, I was able to successfully sub half the flour for whole wheat pastry flour, and subbed the white sugar with a erythritol/stevia blend…just trying to reduce sugar and increase whole grains where I can! Otherwise I followed everything exactly! I would make more cream cheese filling next time bc I had extra cookie dough left over. I also used miyokos cream cheese with no issues (saw a comment where miyokos didnt work for them). Will make this again for sure, thanks!
These were delicious! Very soft and yummy. Will make a little more cream cheese filling next time to make them more rich
Loved these cookies! The photos were very helpful. It was pretty hard to tell when they were done because I couldn’t see the browning under the pumpkin spice sugar coating, so I baked them until they were slightly firm on top and that worked well. Mine also didn’t really flatten out while in the oven, but they settled down while cooling and ended up being perfect! Very delicious and much easier than I expected. 🙂
These came out delicious! Only problem is that they didn’t last long in my house, I’ll have to double the recipe next time 🙂