We can do better than pie crust, right? I’d way rather eat my pumpkin pie filling with a cookie butter shortbread cookie than dry pie crust. Subbing cookie butter (like Biscoff) for some of the butter in a classic shortbread recipe results in a crunchy, crispy cookie that tastes like Biscoff. It’s the perfect vehicle for a quick and easy pumpkin pie filling that sets in the same amount of time the cookies take to bake. With a bit of whipped cream on top, these cookies are like mini individual pumpkin pies.
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Cookie Butter Pumpkin Pie Cookies
- Total Time: 4 hours (including chilling time)
- Yield: 16–18 cookies 1x
Description
A cookie butter shortbread cookie is a much better vehicle for pumpkin pie filling and whipped cream than pie filling, in my opinion.
Ingredients
Scale
For the Cookies
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup cookie butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3/4 tsp kosher salt
- 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
For the Filling
- 2/3 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 2 tbsp whole milk
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- Pinch of ground black pepper
For the Top
- 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 tbsp powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup cookie butter
Instructions
- Use a hand mixer or a stand mixer with a paddle attachment to beat the butter, cookie butter, brown sugar, and white sugar together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add the vanilla extract and salt and beat for 1 more minute.
- Add the flour and use the mixer to combine it into the wet ingredients just until it starts to clump together. Then, use your hands or a spatula to fold the mixture until everything incorporates evenly and forms a dough.
- Scoop the dough out into a log shape lengthwise down the middle of a piece of plastic wrap. Wrap the plastic around the dough, twist the ends closed, then roll the dough into a cylindrical shape (the side it rests on will flatten a bit; that’s fine).
- Chill the dough for at least 2 hours and up to 24.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, brown sugar, heavy cream, whole milk, egg, salt, and spices.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and let it sit for 5 minutes.
- Slice the dough into 1/2-inch-thick cookie rounds.
- Place the cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 3 minutes, then remove from the oven and immediately (being cautious of the hot pan), use a small circular object like a soy sauce or olive oil bottle cap to make an indent in the center of each cookie. If the dough cracks around the edges, just gently push it back together. Dip the bottle cap in flour between cookies to prevent it from sticking to the bottom and breaking the cookie.
- Fill each cookie with a spoonful of the pumpkin pie filling.
- Return the cookies to the oven for 15-18 minutes, until the pumpkin pie filling is set (doesn’t jiggle).
- Remove from the oven and let cool completely.
- In a small bowl, use hand held mixer (or stand mixer) to beat the heavy whipping cream and powdered sugar until it makes thick whipped cream (4-5 minutes). Transfer the whipped cream to a Ziploc or piping bag.
- Melt 1/4 cup cookie butter in a microwave-safe bowl in the microwave for 15 seconds.
- Transfer the cookie butter to a Ziploc or piping bag.
- Cut an opening as big as the tip of your pinky in the whipped cream bag.
- Pipe a dollop of whipped cream into the center of each cookie.
- Drizzle each cookie with cookie butter and sprinkle with more pumpkin pie spice.
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 20
Bake Notes
- For cookie butter, you can use Biscoff, Trader Joe’s, or any speculoos cookie butter you can find (I used a generic brand from Harris Teeter). Shortbread cookies are a simple ratio of 1 part sugar to 2 parts fat and 3 parts flour. The fat can be butter, but it can also be cookie butter. Here, we used half of both.
- The filling calls for 2/3 cup of pumpkin puree, which is a great way to use up an opened can of pumpkin puree you have from any other recipes. If you open a new one to use for this, you can use the leftovers to make chocolate pumpkin spice latte bread, pumpkin spice palmier cookies, pumpkin croissants, a pumpkin Dutch baby, or to use in homemade pumpkin spice lattes!
- Shortbread cookies aren’t as simple to make an indent in as traditional thumbprint cookies, which are softer. To make the indent in these, you’ll need to bake the cookies for a few minutes first to soften the dough, then remove them from the oven and make the indent (using a circular object with a flat bottom, like a soy sauce or olive oil bottle cap), and press the dough back together if it cracks too much around the edges. Then you’ll fill the cookies and bake them again. This is the same technique I use in my peppermint hot chocolate cookies and Crumbl-inspired chai cookies.
- If you only have salted butter, that will work just as well; just reduce the salt by 1/2 tsp (add 1/4 tsp only).