Brown Butter and Maple Chewy Pumpkin Cookies

Happy Holidays! It’s the week after Thanksgiving and normally this week I share a week’s worth of cookie recipes to inspire you to bake for the holidays. Unfortunately, this year that’s not happening. Time got the best of me, and I spent the bulk of my free time crocheting. I kept thinking that I would be able to test the recipes I had written up, but I opted not to rush the process just to publish some blog posts. I believe quality over quantity is more important. I recently tried a recipe for a Brown Butter and Maple Chewy Pumpkin Cookie that was absolutely delish, so I decided to share that recipe with you this week. It would be the perfect addition to your cookie platter this holiday season.

But first, in case you are wondering what I was crocheting… Granny Hexagon Christmas Stockings, 16 to be exact (not counting the 3 I also made to sell in my Etsy shop). It was an order that needed to be completed by the end of November. And while I finished them with a week or two to spare, I was then also fulfilling custom orders for ornament ball wreaths from my Etsy shop. So, I’ve been busy. 

And now back to the cookies. While I normally don’t bake (or gravitate towards) oversized cookies I decided to try these since the flavors sounded so good. Brown butter, maple and pumpkin are the perfect combination for the season. Although with Christmas just around the corner peppermint is dominating a bit more nowadays.

If you are intimidated to make browned butter don’t be. It’s an easy process that requires a bit of patience, a watchful eye and a constant stir. Don’t be tempted to raise the heat as doing so will cause the butter to burn a lot quicker and instead of having a nutty flavor, the butter will have a burnt flavor. Once the butter has a rich amber color it’s done. Remove it from the heat and transfer it to a heat-proof container to stop the cooking process. Leaving it in the pan will continue to heat and ultimately burn the butter. While the original recipe called for placing the butter in the refrigerator to cool, I opted to cool it to room temperature on my counter for two reasons. A) I didn’t have to worry about it solidifying if I left it in the fridge for too long and B) I’m always apprehensive of putting hot items in the fridge immediately.

Once the brown butter is cool these cookies come together quickly and easily. Simply mix the dry ingredients together in one bowl, the wet ingredients in another and then fold together the two to form the dough. After refrigerating the dough for about 15 minutes – to prevent the cookies from spreading while baking – roll in a cinnamon sugar mixture and then bake. After cooling you will have the perfect cookie to enjoy with a hot cup of cocoa, tea or coffee for the cold days ahead!

Brown Butter and Maple Chewy Pumpkin Cookies

  • Servings: 11-12 large cookies
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Ingredients:

For the Cookies:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar

1 large egg yolk

3 tablespoons maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup pumpkin puree

2 1/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

For the Cinnamon Sugar Coating:

2 tablespoons light brown sugar

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

Begin by browning the butter. In a medium saucepan melt the butter over medium heat, stirring until it reaches a rich amber color. Pour the butter into glass measuring cup, you should have just shy of 1 cup. Allow to cool to room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 350 F and line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl whisk together the dry ingredients – flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon – and set aside.

In a large bowl whisk together the brown sugar and cooled brown butter. It should resemble clumpy wet sand. Next whisk in the egg yolk, maple syrup, vanilla extract and pumpkin puree until smooth. Fold in the dry ingredients. Continue folding the two mixtures together until the dough forms.

Refrigerate the dough for 15-20 minutes so it can firm up and prevent spreading while baking.

In a small bowl whisk together the ingredients for the sugar coating.

Use a large cookie scoop (i.e. ice cream scoop) or 1/4 measuring cup to scoop out the dough and then roll in the sugar coating. Place on the prepared baking sheet about 3 inches apart.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the cookies are darkened around the edges and the center are puffed and look slightly underdone.

Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container.

Recipe slightly modified from Butternut Bakery Blog

Cookie Palooza: Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip Cookies

Welcome to Cookie Palooza 2022 on Bead Yarn Spatula. I am quite excited this year because all the recipes I will be bringing you this week are original ones. To kick it off I am sharing a recipe that is perfect for all your pumpkin spice loving family and friends and for those that enjoy pumpkin even after the Fall season is long gone… A Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip Cookie.

I’ve been searching for a good pumpkin cookie recipe for a while now. Some I made tasted good, but the texture just wasn’t appealing to me. When pumpkin puree is added to any recipe it adds a lot of moisture to it. And if you add too much pumpkin puree to a dessert recipe that isn’t well balanced with other wet ingredients you end up with a very odd texture. As was the case with my first few tries of my Pumpkin Tiramisu Cake. So, how did I finally achieve a good pumpkin cookie recipe? To get these Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip cookies just right I started by using a cake mix as the base.

If you are wondering, cake mix cookies are an actual thing. It’s an easy way to make a red velvet, strawberry, lemon and /or carrot flavored cookie since those flavors are readily available in box cake mixes. While I am sure around this time of the year there are pumpkin cake mixes, I opted to use a yellow cake mix as my base and added some spices that are reminiscent to pumpkin pie spice (this is the recipe I used for the cake portion of my Bourbon Caramel Apple Upside Down Spice Cake) and to get real pumpkin flavor I added in a can of pumpkin puree. And that was it for my wet ingredients… no butter, eggs or anything else.

The result, a pumpkin cookie with just the right amount of spice and sweetness. And the perfect texture… Not too moist and nowhere near dry.

Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip Cookies

  • Servings: 30 Cookies
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Ingredients:

1 15.25oz. box of yellow cake mix

1 15oz. can pumpkin puree

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl whisk together the yellow cake mix with the spices. Add in the pumpkin puree and vanilla extract and stir to combine. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips.

Using a cookie scoop, scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets and bake in the preheated oven for 13-15 minutes. Cool the cookies 5 minutes on the baking sheets before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store cookies in an airtight container.

Some notes:

-The dough will be soft, but there is no need to refrigerate it prior to baking. The cookies won’t spread much while baking.

-If you want a flatter cookie, after scooping the dough onto the baking sheets press them down slightly with a glass bottom sprayed with cooking spray.

Recipe first appeared on Bead Yarn Spatula.

Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

While I was hoping to bring you pumpkin recipes right up until Thanksgiving, sadly I think this may be my last pumpkin recipe for the season. I’ve unfortunately tired out all of the people in quarantine circle with pumpkin treats. Today’s cookies and the Butterscotch Pumpkin Fudge from last week I actually sent to a friend out of state for her birthday and my friends near me didn’t want any part in trying some of the extras. Oh well! It was a good run and who knows maybe I’ll sneak in one more. So, for my possible last pumpkin recipe of 2020 I bring you Pumpkin Sugar Cookies. A nice twist on the traditional sugar cookie.

I was a bit skeptical about these cookies when I saw the recipe. Mainly because they seemed to easy to be good, but I was wrong. They came together super quick and only required a short time in the refrigerator to chill the dough before scooping it and rolling it in sugar before baking. And yes, they are slightly orange thanks to the addition of pumpkin puree in the dough, but you know you are getting authentic pumpkin flavor here and not just pumpkin pie spice.

Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups sugar, plus more for rolling

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

14 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 egg yolk

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

 

Directions:

In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a large bowl combine the butter and sugar and beat with a hand mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add in the yolk, then vanilla extract and finally pumpkin. Continue mixing until the ingredients are well combined.

With the mixer on low, slowly add the flour to the butter mixture and continue mixing until the two mixtures are well combined. Refrigerate the dough for 20* minutes.

While the dough is in the refrigerator preheat the oven to 350 F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Add sugar to a small bowl.

Once the dough has chilled, use a cookie scoop to scoop the dough. Roll into a smooth ball and then roll in the sugar before placing on the prepared cookies sheets. Place the cookies 2-inches apart and flatten slightly before placing in the oven for 15 minutes.

Let the cookies cool on the pan for two minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container.

Recipe from Wine and Glue

Pumpkin Spice Molasses Cookies

Here it is… Another pumpkin recipe! I have a dear friend who loves pumpkin flavored items as much – or maybe more – than I do. We actually text each other pictures of the different pumpkin items we purchase during our grocery or Target runs. Imagine if we lived closer to one another; we would probably have pumpkin flavored taste testing get-togethers for all the different things that have hit the shelves over the past couple of years. She let me know about Pumpkin Spice Milanos – if you haven’t tried them, they are a must – and I told her about Chobani’s Pumpkin Harvest Crisp flip yogurt – once again a must try for anyone who is a fan of pumpkin. So, with all this love of pumpkin it should be of no surprise that when I saw Nestle Toll House’s Pumpkin Spice Morsels in a supermarket circular I knew I had to have them. I got ahead of myself before even trying them and bought a package or two (okay, it was three.) Luckily though, those three bags will be put to good use as the morsels are good enough to eat as candy but are even better when baked into a cookie. Specifically the cookie recipe that was included right on the bag. So, in actuality I am now down to two bags. I have had these morsels for a few weeks now but waited until now to use them as I planned (and did) to send some of them to said friend.

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To make the batter for the cookies I began by creaming together butter and sugar in the bowl of my stand mixer. I then added in pumpkin, molasses, an egg and vanilla extract and continued mixing until the ingredients were blended together. In another bowl I combined flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger. Once the pumpkin mixture was well blended I gradually added in the flour mixture and finally stirred in the pumpkin chocolate chips. I then covered the dough and refrigerated it for at least an hour.

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Next I used a cookie scoop to scoop out the dough. I shaped the dough into a ball and then rolled it in sugar and then placed it on a parchment lined baking sheet.

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After baking them in a 350 F oven for eleven minutes, until the tops began to crack and the edges were set, I let them cool on the baking sheets and then transferred them to a wire rack so they could cool completely.

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I then packed some up to send to my pumpkin-loving friend as part of her birthday gift and of course kept a few for myself. And how do they taste? Delicious! They sort of reminded me of a gingerbread cookie, I am sure that’s due to the addition of molasses. And in case you are wondering, rolling the cookie dough in sugar prior to baking them doesn’t make them overly sweet. I was a little concerned about that while making them.

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Pumpkin Spice Molasses Cookies

  • Servings: 36 cookies
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Ingredients:

2 1/3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1 1/3 cups sugar, divided

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup pure pumpkin puree

1/4 cup molasses

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 10oz. bag Nestle Toll House Pumpkin Spice Morsels

Directions:

Combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger in a medium bowl and set aside. Beat 1 cup of the sugar with the butter until creamy. Add in the pumpkin, molasses, egg and vanilla extract, continue beating until well combined. Gradually add in the flour mixture and then stir in the morsels. Cover and refrigerate the dough for at least one hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 F and line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper or lightly grease.

Use a cookie scoop (or scoop tablespoonfuls of dough) to scoop out of the dough and then shape them in a ball and roll in the remaining 1/3 cup of sugar. Place 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets and bake 11 to 13 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool on the cookie sheets for 3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Nestle