These chewy jack-o-lantern pumpkin cookies will remind you of the Little Debbie Pumpkin Delights from your childhood. The molasses cookie filled with scratch-made pumpkin butter tastes even more delicious than the original, and they are also fun to make!
Recipe by Mary Susan on October 19, 2021
Rating
4.6 stars (42 reviews)
Ingredients
15 oz. can pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
1 ½ cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. ginger
¾ cup apple juice
1 tsp. cornstarch
12 TBS butter (melted)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
¼ cup molasses
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. ginger
¼ tsp. salt
2 ¼ cups flour
Categories
Dessert
Steps
In a small sauce pan, combine pumpkin, sugar, and spices. Whisk together until spices are evenly distributed. In a liquid measuring cup, whisk 1 tsp. cornstarch with the apple juice. Make sure the cornstarch is fully dissolved.
Add the juice mixture to the pumpkin and whisk together. Cook over low heat and bring to a simmer. Let it simmer for 10 minutes, and then remove from the stove and let it cool.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine melted butter and sugar together until it becomes thick and pale in color. Add in the egg and molasses and continue to mix for 1 minute.
Add in your dry ingredients and mix until everything is combined. Don’t over mix in this step. Once you can’t see any more flour, stop mixing.
On a lightly floured surface, roll your cookie dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Using your desired shape (see F.A.Q.s for what I used for this step), cut out your pumpkin shape. Using a sharp knife, cut eyes and a mouth out of 1/2 of the shapes and leave the rest of the pumpkin shapes face free.
Spoon a little more than 1/2 of a tablespoon of the pumpkin butter onto each face free cookie, right in the center. Then place a jack-o-lantern cookie shape directly on top. The butter will spread a little. Seal the side of the cookie together by lightly pressing it together. This doesn’t have to be hard or smashed together tightly. Just a light press will do.
Bake at 350 for 8-9 minutes. Let cookies cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes before placing on a cookie rack to cool completely. Store in the fridge and bring to room temperature before serving.
Reviews
Deidre Eltzroth (Tracy) on 2024-11-27 (3 stars): I know this is a me problem. I destroyed my cookies by moving them around when they were too soft. Now I just have a delicious pile of gooey scraps. Any thoughts on what I can do with these to give them a second life??
Sky on 2024-08-31 (3 stars): Tip if you try this; do NOT melt the butter. Just slightly soften it
shara on 2023-10-25 (2 stars): perhaps this isnt for people who dont always make cookies? (I like to make roll cakes) I made the cookies, reading comments first, really thin. 1/4 in, but it still spread out more than I'd hoped. cookie flavor is good, pumpkin butter sooo sweet imo.
the recipe is a little vague, I imagine there are specifics necessary to make it just as the creator did.
the dough didnt roll well for me. (I prefer weight vs cups for flour especially to mimic others' recipes.. are they packed, sifted or loose cups?) when I melted the butter, (microwave..) it still had plenty of softness not all liquid, and i didnt overmix. but it was pretty sticky and I had to reflour the rolling pin alot.
I thought the pumpkin butter was extremely sweet... I added a pinch of salt and tiny bit of lemon juice to counter it. it was very wet... I might recook it for 2 or 3x called for. maybe brand differences?
the cookie flavor does taste very good, (I ate it raw) I just wish the directions had more info on butter since butter is probably the reason they spread so much for me and were kinda oozing butter on my fingers after baking. I even chilled the dough and they were coming out the same. I only used a little more than 1/2 the dough and made 18 cookie sandwiches so far.. I'll try again tomorrow with the leftovers.
