Soft and pillowy cookies, healthier (and better) than a drinkable pumpkin spice latte. These pumpkin spice latte cookies are free from the top 8 allergens, gluten-free, vegan, and paleo. You’ll be sure to get a dose of real pumpkin here!

Think I can blow your minds again this week? Well I think I can with this recipe. And no, Strength and Sunshine is not having an identity crisis. You came to the right blog! You may just have thought that I just never share dessert recipes, and that is true (somewhat). Anything I make as a dessert can double as a breakfast and vice versa. So can these cookies, but I’ll just call them dessert (play along). The only time I do “bake” more “dessertish” recipes is during this start of the holiday season, Fall and Winter. So the recipes usually include some pumpkin and fun like these cocoa pumpkin cookies and this crustless pumpkin pie. However, these are no ordinary pumpkin cookies, you see.

You see, I happen to have some really awesome friends who just so happen to create some really awesome “flours”. I’ve been able to make grainless butternut squash bread, apple gingerbread muffins, and sweet potato chocolate chip pancakes. I’ve always been blown-away but the creativity and ground-breaking products Anti-Grain Foods has produced. When they came out with their new organic pumpkin flour this year, I knew the lives of pumpkin loving fiends were about to change forever.

This flour is so ground-breaking that it got me to bake cookies! I mean, that’s telling you something! Crazy thing is, I had zero intention of baking cookies with the flour. I had 2 other recipe ideas in my head to make first. One was a sort of breakfast cake and the other was some doughnuts. (Those will still happen, don’t worry!). I even had out my baking pan and my doughnut pan, while mixing together ingredients, not a cookie thought in my mind.

But then as the dough I’d made took its form, I felt it with my hands and thought no. NO! This isn’t cake or doughnut dough…this is COOKIE DOUGH! I didn’t want to add any cocoa powder or a few other things I had planned for the other recipes since I wanted to keep this perfect texture intact. But if this dough was meant to make cookies, it needed something extra to make them stand out even more in this crazy world of pumpkin love.

That’s when I started thinking about just what makes a pumpkin loving fiend go crazy this time of year. I’ve heard about this thing that makes them swoon. I believe it’s called the Pumpkin Spice Latte (or PSL for those who can’t handle the whole title). I’ve never had my own firsthand encounter with this majestic latte from Starbucks, but I do know (how could you not) that it’s extremely popular and lusted over until the season finally comes. Since I won’t be drinking one any time in the near future, I though I might as well appease myself as well are the loving fiends with the lovely taste in cookie form! (I’m also not one for drinks anyway.)

But maybe the greatest part about these pumpkin spice latte cookies is that fact that they have REAL pumpkin and not some fake concoction that Starbucks was trying to pass off as pumpkin these last few years (until they changed it this year). To keep the pumpkin and pumpkin flour the stars with highlights from the flavor of the latte, I didn’t want to take away from the allergy-free and grainlessness. You won’t find nuts in the form of almond flour here, nor will you find the trendy bandwagon of “bean” desserts happening today. Although I do think beans are good with pumpkin. So I’m pretty sure I nailed the dessert of the season for all my food allergy friends. #1 goal? Accomplished!

These cookies are thick, soft, fluffy pillows of pumpkin love. When you roll and flatten them a bit in to discs, your hands turn a bit orange (don’t worry, it rinses right off…but it also gave me the idea of dressing up as a pumpkin for Halloween). They’re healthy and nourishing enough for a fun breakfast treat, a snackable coffee extra, or of course the dessert they are meant to be. I also had to make them just a tad more fun by adding my favorite allergy-free Sprinklez since sprinkles make everything just that much more amazing! Right?

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Aren’t these orange discs of pumpkin love just beckoning you? I know they are for me! If my photos aren’t enticing your enough, then let me tell you about the lovely smell these emit as they’re baking! Pure Fall happiness! Taking these pictures and trying to hold myself back from devouring the plate was rather difficult. They made me want a huge mug of coffee to dip them into 😉 Now that’s an idea! Just take black coffee and dip these pumpkin spice latte cookies in the coffee to make you’re own “PSL” 😉 Hahahaha!

So tell me:

+ Are you a PSL fan? I’m pretty content with just the cookies 😉

+ Soft cookies or crispy cookies? Soft, thick, and chewy please!

*Recipe linking up for the week! Allergy Free Wednesdays, #RecipeOfTheWeek,#StrangeButGood, Real Food Friday, Gluten-Free Fridays, Tasty Tuesdays, Savoring Saturdays, Healthy Vegan Fridays, Tasty Tuesdays, Lena’s Tasty Tuesdays, Meatless Mondays, Waste Not Want Not!*

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