Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies
Servings 16 cookies
Ingredients
Cheesecake Filling
- 6 oz cream cheese cold
- 3 tablespoon granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Pumpkin Cookie Dough
- ¾ cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup light brown sugar packed
- 2 large egg yolks room temperature
- ½ cup pure pumpkin puree not pie filling
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour spooned and leveled
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
Spice Sugar
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
Instructions
Freeze the Filling
- Beat the cream cheese, granulated sugar, and vanilla until smooth.
- Scoop 16 small mounds onto a lined tray and freeze until firm, at least 1 hour.
Make and Stuff the Cookies
- Cream the butter and brown sugar until light, then beat in the egg yolks, pumpkin, and vanilla.
- Whisk the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, then stir into the wet mixture. Chill the dough 30 minutes.
- Flatten a 2-tablespoon scoop of dough, set a frozen filling disk in the center, and seal the dough completely around it into a ball.
- Stir the rolling sugar with the pumpkin pie spice and roll each stuffed ball to coat.
- Space the cookies 2 inches apart and bake at 350F for 12 to 14 minutes, until the edges are set but the centers look soft.
- Let the cookies rest on the sheet 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.
Notes
- Freeze the filling solid: A frozen center seals in and won't leak.
- Seal completely: Pinch the dough shut so no cream cheese shows.
- Use yolks only: The whites make the cookies cakey; yolks keep them chewy.