No Bake Pumpkin Cookies, Vegan Friendly

no bake pumpkin cookies with pumpkin decorations

No Bake Pumpkin Cookies, Vegan Friendly

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: no bake ookies, pumpkin cookies, vegan cookies

Prep Time: 15

Total Time: 15

Servings:

Calories: 117kcal

Author: Cindy Rainey

These no-bake pumpkin cookies are deliciously spiced with pumpkin pie spice and made with oats and pumpkin puree. I make them vegan-friendly with vegan butter and oat milk. Cook together a few ingredients, form your cookies, and you will have these tasty seasonal no-bake cookies ready to enjoy in no time at all!

Print Recipe

Ingredients

2 cups quick oats see notes
1 cup old fashioned oats see notes
4 Tablespoons vegan butter see notes
4 Tablespoons oat milk or other plant milk of choice
1½ cups sugar
½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice see notes
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup pumpkin puree see notes

Instructions

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Measure out the oats and have them ready in a large mixing bowl. Set aside. I use a combination of quick oats and old-fashioned oats for this recipe. Please see the notes below.
I also measure out the pumpkin puree and have the vanilla handy to measure and add at the end.
In a medium saucepan, melt the vegan butter, oat milk, sugar, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. Mix as you are melting.
Stir frequently, cooking over medium heat until the mixture reaches a rolling boil. Turn the temperature down to low. Set the timer and continue to cook for two and a half more minutes, stirring constantly. It will continue to be frothy and boiling even at this lower temperature. If the boiling ever stops then for a few seconds stop the stirring, or perhaps you've turned it down too low.
Remove the boiled mixture from the heat and stir in the pumpkin puree and the vanilla extract.
Pour the hot mixture over the oats and stir until the oats are completely covered and incorporated.
Work VERY QUICKLY! Spoon the cookie mixture onto a cookie sheet in individual cookie mounds. The cookies will not flatten or spread or change shape in any way as they cool. Make sure you are happy with the shape. Press down slightly with a spoon if they are too rounded and high for you.
Cool completely before removing the no-bake cookies from the baking sheet. This will take up to two hours.
Store in an airtight container and consume within a few days.

Notes

I have long debated with myself if I should use quick oats or old-fashioned oats. I have found a combo of 2 cups of quick (one-minute or instant) oats and one cup old fashioned (or rolled oats) is best. This recipe will work with either or any combination though. When using full quick oats, I find the texture less...interesting. When using full old-fashioned oats, I find the texture too spikey which is why I recommend using a mixture of mostly quick oats with some old-fashioned oats thrown in for good measure.

The number of cookies will depend on the size you make them. Dropping from a small spoon you could actually get up to 36 cookies - but they will be small. A much larger cookie will likely fall apart. I drop from the larger spoon you'd use for soups and such and get around 24. You might need to experiment the first time.

We are a vegan family and so this recipe uses vegan butter. Use stick butter - not the vegan tub butter and make sure it is a flavor of butter you enjoy by itself. If you are not vegan, then any salted dairy butter will do.

I used oat milk in this recipe which is my go-to for plant milk. Use any unsweetened plant milk of your choice.

If you can't find pumpkin pie spice, you can make your own!

Make sure to use pure pumpkin puree, not the "pumpkin pie mix" you can sometimes find in a can.

Take seriously that you need to work fast after everything is melted, cooked, and mixed. Scoop right away because if you wait too long before spooning and pressing the cookies then they will end up a crumbled mess rather than cookies.

Nutrition