Soft Teff Pumpkin Cookies (Gluten-Free)

These pillowy soft, cake-like pumpkin cookies combine teff flour and gluten-free flour for a moist cinnamon spiced autumn treat.

Be sure to check out more of my recipes with teff flour including my teff chocolate chip cookies, multi-grain teff bread and gluten-free teff flour pancakes.

Is Teff Gluten-Free?

Yes! Teff actually comes from a seed and gluten is only found in grains, so teff is 100% gluten free. If you are super sensitive to gluten or have celiac disease, I recommend using a certified gluten-free option like Anthony’s Teff flour which is batch tested.

Why Teff Flour?

Why bother adding another flour to your crowded pantry? Those of us on a gluten-free diet tend to eat a lot of rice. Rice flour is often the base for gluten-free flours, crackers, breads, pasta and many other gf products. So it’s a great idea to add some variety.

Teff works so well in baked goods and as a bonus is a powerhouse of nutrition. Teff is rich in B vitamins and is a great source of minerals.

Ingredients

Teff Flour – Teff has a wonderful sweet and nutty flavor which is perfect in baked goods and goes well with the pumpkin and warm spices. Teff flour comes in white and brown but I prefer the flavor of brown teff flour. The recipe was tested using only brown flour.

Pumpkin Spice Blend – a pumpkin spice blend adds the zing of warm spices to these cookies. If you don’t have a blend, you can easily combine a few spices to make your own. Cinnamon, ground ginger, ground cloves and nutmeg are all good options. Instructions for a DIY pumpkin spice are included in the recipe card below.

Pumpkin Puree – Canned pumpkin puree makes these cookies super moist and pumpkin flavored. Be sure to use pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling.

Gluten-Free Flour Blend – King Arthur Measure for Measure Flour is my preferred gluten-free flour blend for baking. It works well in almost all of my recipes and is sold in most grocery stores. It is also the most affordable of the gf flours I’ve tested.

Cup4Cup and Pamela’s All Purpose Artisan Blend usually work in my recipes as well although I have not tested them specifically in this recipe. Namaste flour requires a different combination of ingredients and will not work well in this recipe.

If you use a gluten-free flour blend that does not contain xanthan gum, guar gum or inulin, add 1/2 tsp xanthin gum to the recipe.

These cookies are sweetened with a combination of light brown sugar and white sugar. I also tested the recipe using coconut sugar. Since coconut sugar is a little less sweet, use 1/2 cup of coconut sugar with 1/2 cup sugar.

The rest of the ingredients are just the basics – an egg, baking soda, vanilla and salt. Be sure that your egg is at room temperature. Because the cookie dough contains butter, it’s important that the egg is not cold. If it is, it will cause the butter to curdle. So place the egg in a bowl of warm water as your first step. It should be warm enough by the time you’re ready to use it.

Cookie Toppings

There are so many yummy ways you can top these cookies. To be perfectly honest, they are not the most attractive on their own. So a little something extra makes a big difference.

Take these cookies to another level with cream cheese frosting-one of my personal favorites. The warm spices with a sweet and tangy frosting are a great combo.

Personally, I’m a sucker for a pretty icing drizzle on cookies. This icing is super simple but will add a little visual appeal to these brown cookies. Combine:

• 1 c powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp water, milk or dairy-free milk sub
• 1 tsp light corn syrup
• ¼ tsp of salt

Stir it until it is smooth. Immediately drizzle or coat the cookies.

A cinnamon sugar dusting is a super simple option. Mix two tablespoons of coarse sugar with 1/4 tsp cinnamon. Sprinkle over cookies right before baking.