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Pumpkin Cream Cheese Thumbprint Cookies are a soft and chewy pumpkin cookie filled with tangy cream cheese and drizzled in chocolate! The perfect fall treat!
Hi, it’s Jenn, from Eat Cake For Dinner. Have you started your Fall baking yet? This is my first pumpkin recipe of the season and it’s a really really good one! These cookies are fantastic and are sure to be a huge hit. They are a unique and super pretty cookie.
The cookie is a soft and chewy, lightly spiced, cinnamon pumpkin cookie with a tangy cream cheese filling and a sweet chocolate drizzle. The flavor combo and textures are like a party in your mouth. Chewy cookie, creamy filling and then you’ve gotta love that “snap” when you bite into hardened chocolate.
The cookie only has a light pumpkin flavor, but with the help of the cinnamon and nutmeg, they still make you think of Fall when you sink your teeth into them. They are great at room temperature, but I love eating them chilled, right out of the fridge.
This recipe calls for chilling the dough before baking. I did try baking this dough when un-chilled and chilled and as far as taste and texture, they turned out the same. BUT, they do look a lot prettier when the dough has been chilled. That way, you can roll the dough into balls and they bake into pretty round cookies. If you decide to bake these without chilling the dough, you will have to spoon the dough onto the cookie sheets and they don’t end up perfectly round once baked.
Either way, these are delicious and they taste fresh for days and days.
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Pumpkin Cream Cheese Thumbprint Cookies
Ingredients
- 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup room temperature unsalted butter
- ½ cup shortening, I used butter-flavored shortening
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¾ cup pumpkin puree
Cream Cheese Filling
- 4 ounces room temperature cream cheese
- 3 tablespoons room temperature unsalted butter
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 pinch of salt
Garnish
- ⅓ cup milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ⅓ cup white chocolate chips
- 1 teaspoon shortening, divided
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour, 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder, 1 ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg, and ½ teaspoon salt.
- Add ½ cup room temperature unsalted butter and ½ cup shortening, to a large bowl and use a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment to beat them until combined. Add 1 cup granulated sugar and ½ cup packed light brown sugar and beat again until creamy.
- Beat in 1 large egg, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, and ¾ cup pumpkin puree. Gradually add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and mix until just combined, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
- Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or overnight.
- Once the dough has been chilled and you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Scoop the dough into 2-tablespoon portions and roll them into uniform balls. Place them on the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2 inches between them.
- Bake for 11-13 minutes, until the cookies have puffed up and are light golden brown around the edges. As soon as they come out of the oven, use the back of a teaspoon measuring spoon to press down in the center of the cookie to make an indentation.
- Let the cookies cook on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack to finish cooling completely. While the cookies cool, prepare the cream cheese filling.
- In a medium bowl, use a hand mixer to beat 4 ounces room temperature cream cheese and 3 tablespoons room temperature unsalted butter until smooth. Add 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 1 pinch of salt and mix until combined.
- To prepare the chocolate drizzle, add ⅓ cup milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips to one small bowl and ⅓ cup white chocolate chips to a separate small bowl. Split 1 teaspoon shortening, in half, adding half to each bowl of chocolate.
- Microwave each bowl of chocolate in 30-second increments, stirring between each increment until completely melted.
- When the cookies are completely cool, fill the indentation of each cookie with cream cheese filling and drizzle the top with the melted chocolate. Allow the chocolate to set before serving.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
wow, These cookies are awesome!!
These Cookies Are So yummy!!!!
These cookies look so yummy!
I made these except I added some ground ginger and ground cloves to the dry ingredients since pumpkin spice just doesn’t taste right without it!!!
These cookies look fabulous!