With oats instead of flour, not only are these pumpkin breakfast cookies gluten-free but they make for a great healthy breakfast or snack during the fall season.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
Combine chia seeds with warm water in small bowl and let sit for 5 minutes. Take 1 ¼ cups oats and place in food processor and pulse until fine flour.
In large bowl, mix together oat flour, remaining oats, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt.
In a medium bowl, combine pumpkin puree, almond butter, maple syrup, coconut oil and vanilla extract. Stir in chia seed mixture.
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips and pumpkin seeds.
Using an ice cream scoop or ¼ cup, scoop out batter onto baking sheet. Gently press flat with back of spatula. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown, rotating the pan halfway through. When done, remove from oven and let cook on sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.
Notes
Let the chia seeds sit in water for at least 5 minutes so it soaks up the water and creates an egg-like consistency.
While you can substitute oats, I suggest using old-fashioned oats so you get a heartier breakfast cookie.
If you're looking for some substitutions for ingredients, you can use vegetable oil instead of coconut oil and honey instead of maple syrup.
Use baking powder that is less than a year old since it has been opened. If you use older baking powder, it won’t be powerful enough to help leaven the cookies. You can test it by stirring half a teaspoon of baking powder into a cup of hot water. It will immediately start to fizz and release carbon dioxide gas if it’s still fresh enough to use. Baking soda should be less than six months old and you can use the same test.
Don't skip out on roasting the pumpkin seeds. By roasting them they will stay crispy in the batter and bring out the flavor.
Use ice cream scoop to be consistent with the size of the cookies.