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This is the cookie recipe that fills your kitchen with spice, sweetness, and the cozy feeling of fall. The best sourdough discard pumpkin spice cookies are made with warm spices and have the perfect chewy texture. These pumpkin spice cookies are topped with a delicious, easy to make cream cheese frosting. They’re the coziest cookie you’ll bake this fall.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
There are fewer things I love more than a warm, cozy treat during the fall. My maple pecan donuts, pumpkin-shaped sourdough loaf, apple cinnamon sourdough, and sourdough discard pumpkin chocolate chip muffins are a few of my favorite fall bakes on the blog. I know you’ll love these sourdough discard pumpkin spice cookies because:
They’re super easy to make: All you need to do is brown the butter, wait for it to come to room temp, mix the ingredients, scoop, bake, let them cool, top with cream cheese frosting, and enjoy!
This recipe is super flexible: You can adjust the spices you add to your liking, and it is very easy to make adjustments for allergies.
The perfect frosted cookie: The cream cheese frosting on top makes this sourdough discard pumpkin spice cookie taste like a cookie and a cupcake had a baby. It’s so good!
Tips for Baking
- When you brown the butter, the milk solids will start to turn brown. Once they’re brown that’s how you know you should take it off the heat. Melt at a low temp to avoid burning.
- If you need to bring the butter to room temp quickly, pop it in your mixing bowl and set that bowl inside a bigger one filled with ice water. Once the butter doesn’t feel warm to the touch anymore, it’s good to go.
- If your cream cheese frosting is too runny add more powdered sugar. If it’s too thick add a little bit of milk.
- Wait for the cookies to cool completely before adding the cream cheese frosting. Otherwise the icing will melt right off the cookies.
Tools You May Need
Stand Mixer
Large pan – to melt the butter
Cookie scoop – TIP: You can use an ice cream scoop to make bigger cookies!
Parchment paper – This one is pre-cut.
Ziploc bags – To create a budget friendly piping bag
Offset spatula or a spoon
Substitutions
Bread Flour: Make the best sourdough discard pumpkin spice cookies gluten free by using a good 1:1 gluten free flour. I recommend the King Arthur 1:1 gluten free flour. I recommend using a food scale rather than using measuring cups for accuracy.
Cinnamon and Pumpkin Pie Spice: Cinnamon is the perfect match with the pumpkin pie spice. Feel free to also add nutmeg and clove if you’d like.
Butter: Any plant-based butter can be used in place of regular salted or unsalted butter.
Sourdough Discard: If your sourdough discard has been fed with regular flour, this recipe will not be able to be gluten-free. However, if your starter has been made and fed with exclusively gluten free flour then you’re in luck!
Egg: This recipe has not been tested without an egg.
Brown & Granulated Sugars: Maple sugar also works well and would make this recipe refined sugar free!
Vanilla Extract: This just enhances the other flavors in this recipe.
Sourdough Discard Pumpkin Spice Cookies Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
Bread flour – You can sub with all-purpose if needed
Baking soda
Salt – This is the only salt I use in baking. HIGHLY recommend.
Cinnamon & Pumpkin Pie Spice
Wet Ingredients (& Sugars)
Sourdough discard
Melted butter
Brown & Granulated sugar
Egg
Vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients
Powdered sugar
Softened butter
Cream cheese
Vanilla extract
How to Make Sourdough Discard Pumpkin Spice Cookies
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Line your cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
Take your large pan and melt butter on low heat until the milk solids from the butter are toasted. Immediately remove from the heat and add to your stand mixer.
To bring the brown butter back to room temp. Place the stand mixer bowl into another large bowl filled with ice water. Once the butter is no longer hot to the touch, it’s ready to be mixed.
Mix the brown and granulated sugar with the butter in your stand mixer on a low setting. Slowly add the sourdough discard, egg, and vanilla extract while the mixer is on low.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.
Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until the dough forms.
Take your cookie scoop or ice cream scoop and add the dough balls to your cookie sheet.
Bake the sourdough discard pumpkin spice cookies at 400 degrees for 12 minutes or until golden brown.
Let the cookies cool while you make the cream cheese frosting.
After you make the cream cheese frosting and the cookies have cooled, place the frosting into a ziploc bag and cut a hole in one of the corners of the bag. This will create a piping bag to make frosting the cookies easier. If you don’t have ziploc bags, adding a dollop of frosting with a spoon should also work.
Add the frosting to the center of the cookie and take an offset spatula or the back of a spoon and spread the frosting to the edges of the cookies.
Finish with adding pumpkin pie spice to the top and enjoy!
How to Make the Cream Cheese Frosting
Whisk together softened butter and cream cheese on medium speed in your stand mixer.
Gradually add the vanilla extract, then the powdered sugar until you get your desired consistency.
TIP: If the frosting is too runny add more powdered sugar. If it’s too thick, add a little bit of milk.
Storage
These sourdough discard pumpkin spice cookies can be stored in the fridge for up to 5 – 7 days, and in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Sourdough Discard Pumpkin Spice Cookies
Equipment
- Stand Mixer
- Large pan – to melt the butter
- Silicone spatula
- Mixing bowl
- Whisk
- Cookie scoop – TIP: You can use an ice cream scoop to make bigger cookies!
- Parchment paper
- Cookie sheet
- Ziploc bags – To create a budget friendly piping bag
- Offset spatula or a spoon
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 1¼ cups (173g) Bread flour – You can sub with all-purpose if needed
- ½ tsp (5g) Baking soda
- 1 tsp (10g) Salt
- 1 tsp each (10g) Cinnamon & Pumpkin Pie Spice
Wet Ingredients (& Sugars)
- ½ cup (130g) Sourdough discard
- ½ cup (136g) Melted butter
- 1 cup (164g) Brown sugar
- ⅓ cup (65g) Granulated sugar
- 1 Egg
- 1 tsp (10g) Vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 3¾ cup (450g) Powdered sugar
- ½ cup (136g) Softened butter
- 8 oz Cream cheese
- 1 tsp (10g) Vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Line your cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Take your large pan and melt butter on low heat until the milk solids from the butter are toasted. Immediately remove from the heat and add to your stand mixer.
- To bring the brown butter back to room temp. Place the stand mixer bowl into another large bowl filled with ice water. Once the butter is no longer hot to the touch, it’s ready to be mixed.
- Mix the brown and granulated sugar with the butter in your stand mixer on a low setting. Slowly add the sourdough discard, egg, and vanilla extract while the mixer is on low.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until the dough forms.
- Take your cookie scoop or ice cream scoop and add the dough balls to your cookie sheet.
- Bake the sourdough discard pumpkin spice cookies at 400 degrees for 12 minutes or until golden brown.
- Let the cookies cool while you make the cream cheese frosting.
- After you make the cream cheese frosting and the cookies have cooled, place the frosting into a ziploc bag and cut a hole in one of the corners of the bag. This will create a piping bag to make frosting the cookies easier. If you don’t have ziploc bags, adding a dollop of frosting with a spoon should also work.
- Add the frosting to the center of the cookie and take an offset spatula or the back of a spoon and spread the frosting to the edges of the cookies.
- Finish with adding pumpkin pie spice to the top and enjoy!
How to Make the Cream Cheese Frosting
- Whisk together softened butter and cream cheese on medium speed in your stand mixer.
- Gradually add the vanilla extract, then the powdered sugar until you get your desired consistency.
- TIP: If the frosting is too runny add more powdered sugar. If it’s too thick, add a little bit of milk.
Notes
-
- When you brown the butter, the milk solids will start to turn brown. Once they’re brown that’s how you know you should take it off the heat. Melt at a low temp to avoid burning.
-
- If you need to bring the butter to room temp quickly, pop it in your mixing bowl and set that bowl inside a bigger one filled with ice water. Once the butter doesn’t feel warm to the touch anymore, it’s good to go.
-
- If your cream cheese frosting is too runny add more powdered sugar. If it’s too thick add a little bit of milk.
-
- Wait for the cookies to cool completely before adding the cream cheese frosting. Otherwise the icing will melt right off the cookies.
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Want More Pumpkin Sourdough Recipes?
Check these out!
Sourdough Discard Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Pumpkin Cinnamon Sourdough Bread
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