Fresh Fridays: Pumpkin!

10.28.16

How could I not do pumpkins on the Friday before Halloween?? I was one pumpkin cookie cutter away from total holiday commitment (sans costume, just dessert commitment).  I knew the cake supply store down town would have one to complete my mission, because they have everything, cookie cutters related to every holiday, along with every shape and size you can imagine. It’s endless.  So once I left the shop with the final piece to my Halloween puzzle, I knew I could make pumpkin cookies with some sweet maple and cinnamon filling in between. This is the treat everyone will be talking about…..if you decide to share.  

It’s been more than gloomy this week in New York.  As I write this, it’s currently pouring outside, I’ve made myself a drink, and my husband has traveled to the wonderful land of Canada for a little over 24 hours for work, leaving me to probably fall asleep before 11pm.  Because I’m wild like that. I wish I had more of these cookies to mindlessly snack on while I catch up on This is Us and Bob’s Burgers, cause they are gooooood. A delicate pumpkin flavor with some spices thrown in, you open up a box of them and the smell makes you want to eat the whole batch.

This will by no means be the last pumpkin recipe this fall, but I’m excited for it to be the first.  I made some great pumpkin mousse last year that was delish.  And now for Fresh Fridays I’m jumping back in to the obvious seasonal flavor.  

I decided to use brown butter instead of usual softened unsalted butter.  The brown butter adds that nuttiness which works great with the spices and pumpkin puree.  It was a wise choice, I urge you to do the same. But of course if you don’t have to time to wait for it to solidify, or feel uneasy about making brown butter, I’m sure it’ll be fine with the usual.

I love making tiny versions of cookies with the scraps of dough that aren’t enough to make one more full cookie.  It’s a good way to sample the goods without eating all of them, especially if they’re a gift for someone else. I ended up giving these to a friend as a thank you for a favor. Basically she hauled some of my baked goods across town to help me out, it was so helpful that I couldn’t let it go unrewarded.

I actually recommend (if your kitchen gets hot) putting these cookies in the fridge to let the frosting harden a bit.  If you bring them back to room temperature before eating them they taste great and the middle isn’t all melty and squishes out when you eat them. After I chilled them once, I left them at room temperature for two days and they were perfect!!!

I love the natural light orange tint to these cookies because of the pumpkin puree.  And if time is limited, forget the frosting center, just make the cookies and throw them on a plate, voila, you nailed it. Have a fun, spooky, candy-filled Halloween weekend!

Pumpkin Sandwich Cookies

Ingredients

For the Cookies

• 1 cup butter, browned, allowed to solidify so it’s soft again
• 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 Tbsp pumpkin puree
• 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

For the Filling

• 4 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2-3 cup confectioners sugar
• 1 1/2 Tbsp maple syrup
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Instructions

For the Cookies

• Preheat the oven to 350 and line two baking sheets with parchment paper
• In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt and pumpkin pie spice, set aside
• Add softened brown butter to the bowl of a stand up mixer on medium speed and cream until soft and a little lighter in color
• Switch to low speed and add in pumpkin puree
• Allow to just combine and then add in confectioner sugar
• Add in flour mixture about 1/2 cup at a time, allowing it to just combine before adding more
• The dough is ready when it basically forms a ball in the bowl and has come together, and completely orange
• On a clean floured surface, carefully roll out the dough until it’s about 1/4 inch thick. This dough is a little sticky and delicate, flour as necessary so it doesn’t stick to your rolling pin
• Using a pumpkin cookie cutter (or any shape you’d like) cut out cookies and place on lined baking sheet, re roll the dough once you run out of room and repeat rolling and cutting until all dough is used
• Bake for 13-15 minutes, cookies should barely begin to brown and will look a little underbaked when taken out of the oven, they will set as they cool
• Allow to cool on sheet about 10 minutes before moving to a rack

For the Filling

• In another bowl for a stand up mixer cream together cream cheese and butter until combined
• Add in maple syrup, then confectioners sugar, about 1 cup at a time to allow it to combine and bring to desired consistency
• Flip over half your cookies, put frosting in dessert piping bag and pipe frosting onto half of cookies
• Place other half of cookies on top of frosted half and lightly press down
• If the frosting feels a little too soft place in fridge for a few hours, but allow to come to room temperature to enjoy

P.S.

*I recommend making the brown butter the night before, putting it in the fridge overnight and letting it soften as you normally would with regular butter. Waiting for it to harden after I made it the morning of took forever.