This is the start of my favorite time of year. From October through Christmas, I’m that giddy, goofy annoyingly cheerful person everyone hates (I guess I should apologize upfront for all the merriment and good cheer that will be unleashed…mostly to the Boy since he has to live with me). While I enjoy Spring too (especially after having suffered the slim pickings of the farmers markets during the lean Winter months), this time of year is pretty much the cat’s pajamas in my book. And with more space in my new apartment, this year I can crank out the cookies and treats like nobody’s business. My first stop? Pumpkin shortbread cookies!
It all started when I was trying some of the new gelatos at the Dolcezza stand at the Penn Quarter Farmers Market last Thursday. One of their newest flavors was a Georgia Butter Pecan and it was heaven. I immediately thought a great shortbread would be the perfect dipping utensil for the gelato. Since I still had some pumpkin puree from the pumpkin walnut bread, I thought I’d add it to my go-to shortbread cookie recipe. The added pumpkin puree meant I had to tweak the dry ingredients a little (to compensate for the added moisture to the recipe). But the end result was an ode to pumpkin pie set amongst the all too familiar snappiness of a shortbread cookie. This was pretty much Fall wrapped in a cookie package…woohoo!
Recipe: Pumpkin Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 sticks (or one cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup pumpkin puree (see this post on how to get pumpkin puree from a real pumpkin)
- 1/2 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Using a stand (or hand) mixer, beat the butter until creamy. Add the powdered sugar and continue beating until the mixture is fluffy. Add the flour and beat until incorporated. Add the pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice and vanilla extract and beat until a sticky dough is formed.
- Place the dough ball on a piece of parchment paper and with lightly floured hands, roll it out into a thick log. Wrap the log in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour (but no more than 2).
- Take out the dough log and using a non-serrated knife, slice the dough into 1/4 inch thick discs. Place the cookies on the parchment paper and bake them for 15-20 minutes, or until they are lightly brown. Place the cookies on a wire rack to cool completely before serving. Makes 20 cookies.
Meal type: dessert
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Yum! And I love the new site!
This recipe sounds great, I was reading in and when do you add the 2 cups of flour?
Thanks!
@ Marlena – So sorry! I forgot to add the flour step. The recipe has now been corrected!
Very yummy! Not too sweet- just right! Perhaps the oven should be started after the cookies have been in the fridge…
Would these pumpkin cookies work with cookie cutters?
@ Tami – Yes! Just flatten the dough into a disc before chilling it in the refrigerator. Then once it’s chilled, roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4 inches thick. Then use cookie cutters to make the shapes! You still bake for the same amount of time and at the same temperature!
Wow, these cookies have not worked at all for me. Even with copious amounts of flour, the dough is too goopy and sticky to be worked into a log and refrigerated.
@ Ashley – Hmmmmm, that’s odd. I have made these countless amounts of time and haven’t encountered that problem. Can you email me and let me know how you made them? I’ll try to help figure out the problem. adventuresinshaw@gmail.com.
Ashley:
When I first started making shortbread, I tried margarine, no good! It makes the dough super soft and not manageable. Also, make sure your butter is soft, not melted, I’ve made that mistake as well! Just a fellow shortbread lover sharing what she knows! Love pumpkin addition, can’t beat the taste of fresh pumpkin in ANYTHING!
@ Ruskie Baker – Thanks for the tips! Ashely, hopefully those suggestions will help. If not, let me know!
When you say 2 sticks of butter, how much is that? Is each stick 250 g or a cup? Can you please clarify?
Thanks so much!
@ Julie – 2 sticks of butter equals one cup. Happy baking!
Ashley,
I had a similar problem. In my case, I think it was because my pumpkin puree was still warm when I added it to the dough. However, I dealt with it by just spooning the dough into a long piece of plastic wrap, spreading it into a line with a butter knife, and folding the plastic wrap around it to form a log. (Picture rolling a cigarette.) I had to chill the dough for longer than the recipe said, but after 2-3 hours it was ready and the cookies came out fine in the end.
These look delicious! Because it isn’t pumpkin season, I think I’m going to try these with banana puree. But the second the fall season hits, I almost guarantee I will be making these at least once a week.
Great idea I specifically looked for ‘pumpkin shortbread’ I had a can of pumpkin puree and mixed in a few pumpkin seeds and candied ginger BUT
This recipe turned out terrible. I noticed it has half the sugar of most shortbread recipes. Undersalted, under spiced and very under – ‘shortbread’. My cookies are discs of goopy undertasted flour circles. (and I added 6 minutes bake time and added 2 tbsp sugar + more flour still bad). Gooey dough took 4 hours to freeze for cutting.
I’d hate to see this recipe fail, perhaps try this?
Cornstarch with flour to fix.
Way more salt (almost 1 tsp) the pumpkin is very watery bland.
Double the spice couldn’t detect.
Double if not more the sugar…. and more butter. A shortbread recipe needs to crisp and brown the butter inside the dough to bring out that ‘shortbread flavor’.
If you post a fixed recipe hopefully you can put it up.
These cookies did not work for me at all!
The dough was incredibly sticky and thin and the centers of my first batch were still completely uncooked after 25 minutes and tasted nothing like shortbread! I eventually just had to put them back in the mixer and add more flour and sugar as well as an egg to make it so they would cook all the way and taste better.
There are alot of comments about how these didn’t turn out or the dough was too runny, but mine turned out awesome. I am not sure what happened with the others, but I just followed the instructions exactly and they came out great. And they don’t need as much sugar because pumpkin adds sweetness.