Published September 9, 2019

This season, I had the most delicious pumpkin-drink — Dunkin’s cinnamon pumpkin latte.

I treated myself to one of these drinks on a busy afternoon in the middle of conference season. My small latte was rich and delicious, kicking off my pumpkin-obsession.

Which is why — when scrolling through Pinterest, I found the Two Sisters Crafting Pumpkin Spice Cookie Recipe, I knew I had to bake some myself.

So this week, I’m sharing my adapted recipe for Pumpkin Spice Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Pumpkin Spice Cookie Ingredients

My favorite recipes require everyday ingredients. If you’re a baker, you’ll have most of the spices for these pumpkin spice cookies already.

The only items I had to buy for this recipe was a large can of pumpkin puree. I didn’t buy the pumpkin pie puree, as I worried the cinnamon/nutmeg spices from the puree (and what the recipe calls for) would be too strong.

I already had walnuts leftover from my snowball cookies, so I didn’t need to buy those. I always have an unopened cream cheese in the fridge, specifically for baking.

The recipe was faster to prepare, as I already had my ingredients. The only item to remember is to take everything out to soften before you plan to bake!

Instructions for Pumpkin Spice Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

As I mentioned above, it’ll be easier for you to combine the ingredients if they’re soft. Mine were still a bit chilled, but luckily I have my grandmother’s hand-mixer which is a dream.

This recipe is a breeze if you use a KitchenAid mixer. I didn’t want to take mine out of storage just for this video — so I used two bowls, a sifter, a hand-mixer, and rubber spoon. I don’t mind mixing by hand, and I still found the recipe to be easy.

The Final Product

Overall Thoughts

Pumpkin Cookie Texture

I am thrilled with how these pumpkin cookies turned out. I don’t feel as naturally skilled at baking as I am at cooking — so I was a bit nervous about how these cookies would turn out.

The final texture of these cookies is like cake. They’re fluffy and moist, despite their oatmeal-cookie appearance.

Flavor

I prefer rich, bold flavors to sickeningly sweet, so this recipe is perfect. The use of nutmeg and ginger keeps this from being a flat cinnamon cookie.

I would’ve preferred more pumpkin flavor (since they’re pumpkin cookies). In the future I’m going to add another 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree and see if that adds more of an orange color to the cookies.

When I shared these cookies with my neighbors and family, they thought they were gingerbread cookies, based on the color and hint of ginger. This isn’t a bad thing, as I think the pumpkin spice flavors are balanced and not artificial.

I adjusted the sugar in the frosting to match my taste. I prefer the tangy flavor of the cream cheese to make these cookies savory. If you rather have a very sweet frosting, feel free to add more than the 1 cup of powdered sugar. But I recommend you add a little bit at a time and taste it as you go.

Storage

I iced the first six cookies, since I knew they’d be eaten right away. After the rest of the cookies cooled, I stacked them on a dinner plate and kept them in the microwave for after dinner.

If anyone wanted a cookie before then, I iced them on the spot, so that the icing didn’t sit out on the counter. The butter in the icing tends to harden which I don’t enjoy, so I prefer the smooth, chilled icing from the fridge.

I plastic-wrapped the plate of cookies and kept them on the kitchen island. They’re just as fresh and soft as they were right out of the oven. I’m impressed!

Portion

The original Two Sisters Crafting recipe said that there would be 36 cookies in total. My recipe made 18 very large cookies.

I scooped my cookies using a half-filled ice cream scoop. I imagine if you used a tablespoon or something smaller, you would have a higher yield. Either way, I like the larger cookies and there were enough for my family to have them for dessert over the weekend, and to share with the neighbors.

Recipe Score

I would give these pumpkin spice cookies with cream cheese frosting a 9/10 for the following:

• Recipe Level

  • Beginner: This pumpkin spice cookie recipe requires hardly any preparation. Depending on your tools, these cookies can be a one-bowl recipe which requires little work and clean up.

• Ingredients

  • If you cook or bake often, you’ll have most of these ingredients on-hand. If you need to buy the pumpkin or spices, these additions to your pantry should last you through to next season (depending on your cooking preferences and tastes). I hardly ever use ginger, so this ingredient should last for the next few years!

• Prep

  • Besides purchasing your ingredients and letting them sit at room temperature to soften, there is no prep required to make these pumpkin cookies.

• Flavor

  • 9/10: I preferred the blend of Autumn seasonings in these pumpkin spice cookies, but I would like to have more pumpkin notes.

K. Martinelli Makes Pumpkin Spice Cookies

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