Pumpkin Pie Cookies

Can you believe Thanksgiving is exactly two weeks away? I certainly can’t. It seems like a million years ago it was October 1^st and now half of November has flown by.

So I know most of you have your own traditional foods that make their way into your Thanksgiving Day feast, but I’m hoping you consider adding these simple little cookies to the holiday dessert table.

These are just little shortbread type cookies with a pumpkin pie filling in the center. The cookie is soft and crumbly, but not too crumbly and it has just enough snap to it. The filling should have been a little sweeter, but other than that, it tasted like the best part of pumpkin pie. Of course I’m talking about the filling here.

I know a million things are going in and out of the oven every minute on Thanksgiving, so I did a little experiment. I baked a batch as soon as I was done filling the crevices in the cookie, and then I froze the rest of it to bake later. It turns out I liked the texture of the frozen cookies better. They were softer and didn’t brown as harsh. So if you do make these for Thanksgiving, which you should, you can make them now, freeze them, and bake them while everyone is gorging themselves on turkey, cranberry sauce, and bread rolls.

And because these are perfect for the holidays, I decided to add them to the 7^th week of Brenda’s 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats blog hop. Check the bottom of the page to see what other holiday goodies await you!

Pumpkin Pie Cookies

Adapted from Heather Likes Food

Makes about 2 dozen

Ingredients

cookies

½ cup (8 tbsp.) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/3 cup sugar

1 egg yolk

½ tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 cup + 2 tbsp. unbleached all-purpose flour

½ tsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp. salt

filling

¼ cup pumpkin puree

1 ¼ tbsp. sugar

pinch of salt

1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp. ground numeg

dash ground cloves

½ tbsp. beaten egg

½ tbsp. milk

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Add the flour mixture to the creamed butter and sugar. Beat until no dry spots remain. The dough will be crumbly, but it will come together when you form it into balls.

Take 1 tbsp. worth of dough and roll it into a ball. Place the ball on the prepared baking sheet and gently press down with the palm of your hand. With the back of a teaspoon, make an indentation in the center of the flattened dough. Place the tray in the fridge to chill for 15 minutes while you make the filling.

To make the filling, just whisk all of the filling ingredients until nice and smooth. Remove the chilled dough from the fridge. Scoop a heaping ½ tsp. worth of filling into each indentation.

Bake cookies for 11-13 minutes or until the edges have just started to turn brown. Cool on the tray for about 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.