Recipe Of The Week: Pumpkin Spice Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

By: Sam Liegner

        This cookie recipe is by far my favorite fall recipe (courtesy to Pinterest).  It’s simple, delicious and leaves everyone wanting more. These cookies are soft and sweet and give you all the fall vibes in just one bite. They’re great to give to friends, family and teachers. The recipe yields up to 3 dozen (depending on the size of your cookies  (I got 2 dozen because mine were bigger). If you want an amazing new fall sweet, I suggest for you this one.

The Ingredients:

Cookie dough
½ cup of Butter (preferably sweet cream,, salted but any butter can work)
1 cup Sugar
2 Eggs
1 cup of Canned Pumpkin (15 oz)
2 cups Flour
4 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
2½ teaspoon Cinnamon
½ teaspoon Nutmeg
¼ teaspoon Ginger (dry or fresh, both work)

Cream cheese frosting
½ cup Butter (Sweet Cream, Salted)
8 oz. block of Cream Cheese
3 teaspoons Vanilla
4 cups Powdered Sugar
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
½ teaspoon Nutmeg
½ cup Chopped Walnuts or Pecans (optional)

Preparation:

Cookies 

1. Beat butter and sugar until fluffy texture. (electric beater makes process much easier, but if you don’t have one, a whisk can work just as well; it will just take longer).
2. Add pumpkin and eggs and mix well. 
3. Mix all dry ingredients together in separate bowl.
4. Add the dry ingredients into the wet mixture by folding in (this is simply “folding” the wet over the dry and slowly mixing it in so you don’t lose the fluffiness).
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
6. Scoop cookie dough with tablespoons and put onto baking sheet (spray sheet with oil so they don’t stick) .
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes (varies on size of cookie). When you poke the cookie, it should be stiff and not collapse. 
8. Allow cookies to cool while making frosting.

Frosting 

1. In stand mixer, beat butter, cream cheese and vanilla until smooth.
2. Add in sugar, one cup at a time, on a low speed (or else you’ll have a big cloud of sugar and that’s not fun to clean up).  
3. Finish up the frosting with the cinnamon and nutmeg.

When the cookies are done, decorate them however you like. I frosted them and placed walnuts on top and sprinkled a bit of cinnamon. By the time you bite into one of these you’ll love them, trust me.