Description
Pillowy comforting cookies with a dollop of cream cheese frosting and all the sweet spices of Fall. Simple to make, but better to eat!
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 stick butter (113 g), at room temperature
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar (148 g)
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 Tablespoon apple flavored whiskey or 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (292 g)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon, plus more for decoration
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon allspice (whole or ground)
- 1/8 teaspoon cloves (whole or ground)
- 1/4 cup sour cream (60 g)
- 1/4 cup canned pumpkin (61 g)
Cream Cheese Icing
- 4 ounces cream cheese, softened (108 g)
- 1 cup powdered sugar (120 g)
- 4 Tablespoons butter (57 g)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.
- Cream the butter and the brown sugar until it is light and fluffy. This will take about 2-3 minutes in a stand mixer or a hand mixer depending on how soft your butter is.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then mix in the egg and whiskey (or vanilla) until you have a smooth batter.
- If you’re using whole spices, grind them all together in an electric coffee grinder or a mortar and pestle. After you’ve ground everything to the consistency of ground cinnamon, measure any pre-ground spices you’re using into the rest of the spices.
- Whisk the flour with the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and the spices in a small bowl to distribute the spices and leavening throughout the flour.
- Alternate wet and dry ingredients.Add about one third of the flour mixture to the butter, then mix for a few seconds. It doesn’t need to be smooth. Next, add about half of the sour cream and half of the apple butter, mixing again for a few seconds. Continue alternating adding the flour and the sour cream/pumpkin, ending with the flour. Be sure not to overbeat the mixture. No more than 5 seconds of beating with each addition is about right.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix the batter a few turns by hand to make sure everything is well-incorporated.
- Scoop 2 Tablespoons of batter onto your prepared sheets. Spread out the cookies well with no more than 8 cookies to a sheet.
- Lightly dampen your hands with a few drops of water, then press down on the tops of the cookies to flatten them to about 1/2″ thick.
- Bake the cookies for 15 minutes, rotating the pans top to bottom and spinning them 180 degrees halfway through baking. The finished cookies will be lightly browned on the bottom and the centers of the cookies will spring back when you lightly touch them.
- Repeat the baking with the remaining batter.
- Cool the cookies completely.
- While the cookies are cooling, make the cream cheese icing. Beat together all of the icing ingredients until you get a smooth, fluffy icing with no lumps. Scoop the icing into a piping bag with a decorative tip you like, then pipe a half-dollar size dollop in the center of each cookie.
Sprinkle a bit of cinnamon over the top of the cream cheese frosting. - Cookies are best the day that they’re made, though you can keep them in the fridge on the same cookie sheet you decorated them on for up to 3 days.
Notes
- Fresh spices are better, but use what you have: I’ll step up on my soapbox for a second. If you can, buy your spices fresh and grind them as you need them in an electric coffee grinder or a mortar & pestle. It may seem like a pain, but you will get SO MUCH MORE flavor out of them. As a bonus, your spices will keep for much longer than pre-ground, making sure that your bakes will taste better for longer.
- Can I use pre-made pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice?: Yes, of course, though I’ll still encourage you to blend your own from the quantities listed here. If you use pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice, use 2 teaspoons.
- Perfect transport: If you’re packing up the cookies to take anywhere, refrigerate them first to set the icing. The butter and cream and cream cheese will firm up, making sure that the icing won’t smear during transport.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Additional Time: 0 hours
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Cookies
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 136
- Sugar: 11
- Sodium: 150
- Fat: 8
- Saturated Fat: 5
- Unsaturated Fat: 3
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 14
- Fiber: 0
- Protein: 1
- Cholesterol: 30