This recipe was originally inspired by one from an NPR segment where a person posted her recipe for a "clone" of a local grocery store’s pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I assumed the store was Kroger because my sister had been raving about the Kroger bakery's very spicy, soft pumpkin cookies. Based on that, I tried a version posted on NPR. They were good, but not the same as Kroger's, which I realized once I finally got to taste the cookies from their bakery. Here is a photo of the first one's I bought.
Kroger Pumpkin Cookies Ingredient List
The NPR cookies were very good, but not quite the same. Shortly thereafter, I found a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipe on the Kroger website. I baked a batch and thought they were good, but very different from the ones in the bakery. They were soft, dense, and while you might call them cakey, they were kind of a velvety cakey, as things made with sour cream tend to be. But the actual bakery cookies don't have sour cream. Here's the ingredient list.
Since the old recipes from NPR and Kroger STILL were not like the bakery, I started referring people to my old Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies with Oil recipe and others (listed at the bottom of the post) and just resigned myself to buying the real thing. We don't have Kroger in our town now, but we do have Harris Teeter and their bakery sells what seem to be the same cookies. Here's a fresh picture of some I bought this week. So if you live near either store, just stop reading all this and go buy them.
But if you want to try my version, here's a new one!
Dark and Chewy Pumpkin Cookies Recipe
This one’s the closest I’ve come to the grocery store cookies, though not a clone. I’m not sure how they make their cookies so flavorful with just sugar, oil and spices (per the ingredient list in the photo), but I took one bite of this butter/oil/molasses version and knew I had to keep those ingredients in – especially the molasses.
Small Batch
This is a relatively small batch that will give you 8 large cookies or 14 to 16 small ones. I am sure it will double, but don’t recommend doing that until you try it as written. It’s really easy! You mix it together in one microwave-safe mixing bowl. If you don’t have a microwave, you can melt the butter over the stove and pour the hot butter over the sugar. No electric mixer required.
How To Make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Here's a quick rundown of the steps.
- Blot the pumpkin on paper towels.
- Melt the butter and stir hot butter with the sugar until shiny.
- Add the molasses, oil, vanilla and pumpkin.
- Mix together dry ingredients and stir to make a soft, shiny dough.
- Cover and chill, then stir in chocolate chips.
- Shape into balls and bake.
- Let cool completely.
New Recipe
Lastly, this recipe is new. I've tested it multiple times, but only in my kitchen with my own ingredients and near constant distractions from a wild young dog. Results may vary, so if you want something that is guaranteed to work and has been tested by more people, go for one of the recipes listed below or just go to allrecipes.com or food.com and look for something with multiple stars. Or if you live near Kroger or Harris Teeter, well....
Recipe
Dark and Chewy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies 2023
Ingredients
- ½ cup canned pumpkin (Libby's Brand) (132 grams before draining)
- 3 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into chunks (50 grams)
- 7 tablespoons granulated sugar (87 grams)
- 1 ½ tablespoons molasses (mild, not blackstrap) (30 grams)
- 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons vegetable oil (the oil weighed about 28 grams)
- ⅜ teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, weigh for best results. If you don't have a scale, stir the flour and aerate it, then spoon into the cup and level. (130 grams)
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch (8 grams)
- ⅜ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt, plus extra pinch (so about ⅜)
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ⅜ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon cloves
- ½ cup mini chocolate chips or any small chocolate chips Add as many or few chips as you like
Instructions
- Spread the pumpkin in a circle on a 3 folded paper towels and blot dry. If you start with 132 grams, you should have a little under 90 once drained. May vary among brands.
- Meanwhile, in a microwave-safe mixing bowl, melt the butter. Add sugar to hot melted butter and stir until shiny. If it's not hot and shiny, you can heat it again for 15 seconds.
- Stir in the molasses, oil, vanilla and blotted-dry pumpkin (about 85-90 grams) into the butter mixture.
- Mix the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, salt and spices together, then add flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture. Stir to make a soft dough. Cover bowl and chill for about 30 minutes or until it is cool. Warm dough will melt the chips.
- Add the chocolate chips to the cooled dough. At this point you can shape and bake, or you can shape the dough into balls and keep the cold, portioned, dough balls covered until ready to bake.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Using a large cookie scoop, scoop up large balls of dough (a little over 2 oz each) and roll between the palms of your hands to make smooth. Arrange on a parchment lined baking sheet spacing 3 inches apart. For small cookies, make half the size.
- Bake large chilled pumpkin dough balls at 350 degrees F. for about 18 minutes. Bake the small ones for about 13 to 15 minutes. Let cool completely before eating.
More Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Sue gave me this recipe years ago. These are soft and cakey and perfect for frosting with buttercream or cream cheese icing. Sue's recipe here.
My daughter is a big fan of the Roasted Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. For this recipe, you bake some of the moisture out of the pumpkin before adding it to the dough.
Here are some Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. I haven't made these in a while, but with a few small changes they might come close to Kroger's, seeing as how the ingredient list from the bakery does not include eggs.
Again, not Kroger, but how about a big pumpkin cookie cake?
And finally, why not just try the Taylor Swift recipe? Hers and Miranda Lambert's (from her cookbook) are next on my list.
patricia Baldock says
I'd like to know if the pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipe for Fred Meyer has molasses in them??
Anna says
Hi Jess,
I go to Kroger all the time now, so I'll check the bakery and see if they have those cookies. It's hard to really copy the commercial bakery recipes because commercial bakeries have access to special preservatives, leavening agents and baking fats that give their products specific qualities. It's still fun to try, though!
Jess says
Hi Anna. Thanks for the recipe you posted years ago. I noticed a comment left by another Jessica, asking about a recipe for Kroger's soft top cranberry orange cookies. Any luck on that one?? I've been trying to track the recipe down, myself, with no luck. They have a cranberry orange cookies recipe on their website, but its for a different type of cookie, not the deliciously soft and chewy "soft top" cookies I adore.
If you do find a copycat recipe for the Kroger soft top cranberry orange cookies, or any other of their soft top cookies, please let me know!
SGE says
Kroger has this recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies on their website:
https://www.kroger.com/r/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-cookies-recipe/102246
Anna says
I'll have to look! We don't have Kroger here in Austin, so it makes it kind of hard to really compare.
Lisa Smith says
Hi Anna, I have found a recipe for the Pumpkin Choc Chip, how about the Cranberry Orange Soft Tops that they make? Yummmo! I am searching but still have not found one. Any ideas?
jessica says
You can make these eggless, you can use egg replacer they sell it at most health food stores or any vegetarian/ vegan stores. It is egg free but you can use it in any recipe as egg. it turns out really good you just have to make sure you measure it properly.
Anna says
Hi Laura,
Thanks for the tip! I can see how yellow cake mix might play into it since some bakeries use mixes.
Laura P. says
Hi Anna
I just wanted to let uou know..i found a recipe too that called for a yellow cake mix to mimic the recipe from Fred Meyer (in the Pacific Northwest)/Kroger supermarket. I finally made my own recipe but added Raisinets to them..they are unbelievable! I will post it at another time.
Cindy says
Anna,
I am allergic to eggs and the Kroger cookies are eggless, do you think i could make the cookies from your recipe and just not add the eggs. I really love the Kroger Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Katherine says
Just made half a batch of theses as it is starting to feel like fall around here. They are good - not too sweet - so I added more chocolate chips after I took the first batch out of the oven. I also used pumpkin pie spice instead of the cloves and ginger. They will go great with a chai tea... or a pumpkin latte from Starbucks!! Yummy.
And mine were done in 12 mins.
Kay says
Anna,
Over the holidays I recieved a gift of some lemon cloud cookies - they were to die for. I have never tasted anything like them. The cookie was incredibly light and the frosting was tangy and sweet. My whole office went crazy over them. With Spring around the corner, I thought you might enjoy the recipe!
LEMON CLOUDS
By Kay Batchelder
Yield 4-6 dozen
2 c. margarine
2/3 c. powdered sugar
2 c. unsifted flour
1-1/3 c. unsifted cornstarch
Lemon Icing
6 tbl. margarine
1 box powdered sugar
Lemon juice for consistency
Lemon rind (optional)
Cream margarine and sugar. Sift in flour and cornstarch. Mix well. Drop by small teaspoonful on un-greased cookie sheet about one inch apart. Bake for 15 minutes at 350. Do not brown. Cool and ice.
To prepare icing, cream margarine and powdered sugar, adding lemon juice for consistency. Lemon rind may be added if desired. This recipe may be baked ahead
and frozen. Best if eaten within a day or so.
Enjoy,
Kay
Stacy says
Anna - My grandma makes amazing whoopie pies - I'll have to ask her about converting a pumpkin cookie (a soft cookie) into a whoopie pie. Can you tell I love whoopie pies? But I could just eat the cookie as is and be happy as a clam. Just made a dbl batch of choc peanut butter fudge. The cookies will definately have to wait til next week. THX!
Anna says
Christine, I just eat small portions of everything. I've gotten use to it over the years and it doesn't bother me. Some days I do eat to many cookies....some weeks actually. When that happens, I drink Pu-ehr tea. I think it helps metabolize the extra cookie calories and settles my stomach. But mostly, I just try to balance it. Like a lot of people who cook, the more the more I do it the less I want to eat and eat. Again, that's most days. Sometimes I eat as I sit there and eat chocolate chips and nuts while I'm baking.
Anna says
Maureen, the day I ask you to Fed-Ex me grocery store cookies is the day I've truly gone off the deep end. So no. If you don't care for pumpkin, don't bother. Maybe just carry your camera into Kroger and secretly photograph the cookies. You might get kicked out, of course. Grocery stores hate that.
If the cookies are sold at Kroger year round, I'll just try one next time I'm in a city where there's a Kroger.
Stacy, you could try it. The thing with these cookies is they are rich and dense. They're soft, but they're so rich and dense they might not make the perfect foil to Whoopie Pie filling. They might be more like Little Debbie Oatmeal Pies. Gosh, I can feel myself teetering closer towards madness as I type this.
Maureen says
Hi Anna,
I do shop at Kroeger all the time - and I've seen the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, but have never tried them. I will pick some up tomorrow and take a photo. I'm not a big fan of pumpkin. Do you think I could take them out to photograph, and then drop them off at a Dr's office? (just kidding) Or should I just fed-ex them to you so you can see and taste the original?
Stacy says
Ohhh...you know what make this cookie even more amazing? Make them into a whoopie pie with cream cheese frosting. Ohhhh....have to make these next week!
Anna says
Laura, thanks for letting me know. Maybe the person who posted it on NPR is on track. At least it *looks* like a Kroger cookie. Heh.
Therese, you have to scroll a little after you click the link. I'm having problems making a direct link to the exact comment.
Laura says
at Kroger I mean.
Laura says
I saw a Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie that looked just like those the other day, so your probably right.
Therese says
Hi Anna!
Help...I tried to get the recipe that you had a link to and it gave me a bunch of recipes. Am I doing something wrong?
I love pumpkin and chocolate chips together!!
Can't wait to try it!