We Tried Reese Witherspoon’s Favorite Pumpkin Cookies—and They’re Our New Fave Too

I don’t know about you, but the second a crisp fall chill touches the air, I’m ready to whip out the canned pumpkin. Normally, I’d make a spiced pumpkin loaf or maybe even a hearty pumpkin chili, but when I stumbled upon a recent Reese Witherspoon Instagram post, I immediately found a new recipe to try.

Just like another one of our favorite Southern-born celeb home cooks, Jennifer Garner, every so often, Witherspoon will hop on social media to show off her favorite recipe of the moment. This month, the "The Morning Show" actress had me craving the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies she loves.

Of course, in addition to her Oscar Award-winning acting, Witherspoon is known for her Reese’s Book Club. In a post announcing her October pick, “Starling House,” Witherspoon says the spooky book is perfect to “sit down and read with a cup of coffee—and, maybe, a pumpkin cookie.”

She quickly makes her “new FAVORITE choc-chip pumpkin cookie recipe” on camera but shares the full recipe in the comment section.

According to the comment, the cookie recipe belongs to someone named Chef Sandra—but it’s unclear who that is, exactly, and how they might be related to Witherspoon. But, relationships aside, what really matters is that Chef Sandra makes an easy—and incredibly tasty—pumpkin cookie.

We pulled the recipe from Witherspoon’s Instagram comments—here’s how to make her favorite pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

Reese Witherspoon's Favorite Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 6 tablespoons strained pumpkin puree
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Whisk melted butter, brown sugars, and white sugar together until no brown sugar lumps remain. Whisk in vanilla and strained pumpkin until smooth. Set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice together. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix. The dough will be very soft. Fold in chocolate chips.
3. Cover the dough and chill for 30 minutes or up to 3 days. Chilling the dough makes or breaks this cookie.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
5. Scoop the dough and roll each into balls. Slightly flatten the tops of the dough balls with a spoon so they can evenly spread while baking.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 11-12 minutes or until the edges appear set. The cookies will look very soft in the center. Remove from the oven.
7. Cool cookies on the baking sheets for at least 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. The longer the cookies cool, the better they taste!

Note: Cookies stay fresh, covered, at room temperature for up to 1 week.

I Tried Reese Witherspoon's Favorite Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Witherspoon’s pumpkin cookie recipe is just the thing I needed to kick off fall baking. They were incredibly quick and easy to whip up—the most time-consuming thing is just waiting for the dough to chill. But, to make Witherspoon proud, you can read a few chapters of your current book while they chill and bake.

If you like soft cookies, these are definitely for you—they’re incredibly moist and almost cake-like because of the pumpkin. You can never go wrong with pumpkin, fall spices, and chocolate flavors together—but the addition of dark brown sugar gives the cookies a nice, rich depth that amplifies them that much more. 

It’s safe to say that I’ll be adding these cookies into my fall baking rotation alongside Jennifer Garner’s pumpkin bread and Mama Kelce’s chocolate chip cookies.