Pumpkin Cheesecake Snickerdoodles

Before kids, I never envisioned just how many times a year I'd be asked to produce something edible for fundraising or to simply feed the masses at an event.  Birthday treats have fallen out of fashion in the classrooms here thanks to nut allergies and healthy eating initiatives, but this does not mean there is no place for traybakes.

We had the nursery ceilidh last night, and as I faced the task of figuring out what to make, two voices were fighting for attention.  One my "baking ideas" board on Pinterest, and the other was a lingering bowl of jack-o-lantern remains in the fridge.  I eventually decided to satisfy both by trialling a recipe for cream cheese filled pumpkin snickerdoodles.

In a way, I wish I hadn't.  For cookies, these are really quite time consuming.  

First I put the spices, baking powder, salt, and flour into a bowl.

Then in a separate bowl went the butter, caster sugar, and brown sugar.

The recipe said to use a stand mixer, so I glowered at the instructions as I put my wooden spoon to use creaming the butter and sugars together.

In went the pumpkin.  No, it's not Libby's.

After mixing in the pumpkin, it looked kind of curdled and gross, and it didn't improve when I added an egg.

It said to add the flour mix gradually, but I just dumped it all on and hoped for the best.

It improved dramatically, but still had tiny lumps of my imperfect pumpkin puree.  The mix then went into the fridge.

In a separate bowl, I put some sugar, cream cheese, and vanilla for the filling.

There was a lot more filling than I needed in the end, but getting rid of it was not a problem.  It also went into the fridge, and I went out to get my daughter from nursery.

After lunch, she helped stir up the coating of sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and allspice.

Then it was time for assembly.  No quick spooning of dough onto the prepped trays, nooooo...I had to create two little discs, spoon some filling into the middle of one...

Then put the other one on top, pinching the sides together...

Then I made it into a ball and rolled it in some sugar.  Yes, that spoon is from a bottle of children's medicine.  They are handy teaspoon measures, I tell you.

Then it went onto the tray and my daughter got to mash it down with the bottom of a glass.  Very, very time consuming.

We managed one batch before school pick-up time, and then did the second batch in the oven when we got back.

Naturally I had to do a bit of quality control.  They were good for snickerdoodles, but not enough of a spicy, pumpkin flavour for me.

I brought them along to the ceilidh and they all went, but so did everything else, so it just means they were edible.  One teacher did come along to compliment me on them, which was nice of her.  Here's the recipe as I had it off Pinterest - I'd recommend boosting the spices, but then it will be less of a snickerdoodle and more of just a pumpkin spice cookie.  The choice is yours...

Pumpkin Cheesecake Snickerdoodles

Ingredients

3¾ cups all­purpose flour

1½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. ground cinnamon

¼ tsp. freshly ­ground ground nutmeg

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

½ cup light brown sugar

¾ cup pumpkin puree

1 large egg

2 tsp. vanilla extract

Filling Ingredients:

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Cinnamon ­sugar coating:

½ cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

½ tsp. ground ginger

Dash of allspice

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together. Set aside.

2. In a kitchenaid mixer with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugars on medium high speed until

fluffy about 2­3 minutes.

3. Blend in pumpkin puree, beat in egg and then add vanilla. Slowly add dry ingredients on low speed just until

combined. Cover and chill dough for an hour.

4. To make the cream cheese filling, blend cream cheese, sugar and vanilla together. Chill for an hour.

5. Preheat oven to 350 and line your baking sheets with parchment paper. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and

spices for the coating and set aside.

6. To make the cookies, take a tablespoon of the cookie batter. Flatten it like a pancake and place a teaspoon of the

cream cheese in center. Form another tablespoon of the cookie batter into a flat pancake shape and place on top of

the cream cheese. Pinch the edges together sealing in the cream cheese and roll into a ball. Roll in the cinnamon

sugar coating and place on the prepared baking sheet 2 inches apart.

7. Repeat until the dough is gone and flatten the cookie dough balls with a heavy bottomed glass or measuring cup.

8. Bake the cookies for 10­-15 minutes or until the tops start to crack. Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and

transfer to a wire rack. Enjoy!

Notes

Recipe Source Bakeaholic Mama