Pumpkin Butter Filled Jack O’Lantern Sandwich Cookies

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Getting spooky today with these Pumpkin Butter Filled Jack O’Lantern Sandwich Cookies! A terrifyingly easy to make pumpkin sugar cookie that’s not too sweet, a little crunchy, and requires NO refrigeration time, filled with the best-ever spiced pumpkin butter that’s made in one pot. Oh, yes. There is no trick here, just treats! Every bite is perfectly sweet, a little messy, but oh so delicious. It’s the perfect cookie to bake for ghostly gatherings, spooky parties, or just a fun evening in on Halloween!

About The Recipe

Halloween is right around the corner and I am so excited!! It’s truly one of our favorite holiday’s and we knew we needed to do something fun to celebrate.

Well, luckily for us, we had some pumpkin leftover from our Pumpkin Sourdough Bread and needed to do something with it…which is how we came up with these delicious cookies!

Though, figuring out how to exactly make the cut-outs was a bit of a challenge. My mom and I searched all over town for some sort of cutter…no such one existed anywhere near here. We almost called it quits on the idea, but when I was digging around in our cookie cutter box, I found a mini bat (as in, the animal) cutter.

If you look closely, you can see each mouth on the pumpkin cookies are actually mini bats, just turned upside down! The noses and eyes I cut out by hand with a knife. It’s fairly simple and a lot of fun!

What to fill these cookies with was actually not something we thought about until AFTER we baked our test batch. We were so caught up in getting the faces right that we forgot about the filling!

That’s actually something that we discussed for quite a while. We thought about cream fillings, marshmallow, jams, jellies…everything you would typically find in a sandwich cookie.

Nothing we came up with gave us the flavor or texture that we wanted. That is, until we found a batch of our pumpkin butter that we had made about a week ago!

That’s when it clicked! We piled a few cookies with the pumpkin butter and it was love at first bite. The cookies are a little crunchy, since they are pretty thin, but it all works SO well together.

The cookie itself is not too sweet, lightly pumpkin-y, and subtlety spiced. The pumpkin butter just amplifies every flavor and makes these cookies truly irresistible!

Reasons You Will Love These Jack O’Lantern Sandwich Cookies

• Super fun and simple to make!
• Perfect for Fall or Halloween parties.
• Sweet, warming spices, and perfectly pumpkin-y.
• The faces can be cut by hand or with specialty cutters.

Equipment Needed

• Medium Saucepan
• Wooden Spoon
• Stand Mixer
• Parchment Paper
• Rolling Pin
• Jack O’Lantern Cookie Cutter Set (or simply a Pumpkin Cookie Cutter and sharp knife!)
• Sheet Pans

Ingredients

(Full ingredient amounts and instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the post)

For The Pumpkin Butter:

• Pumpkin Purée
• Granulated Sugar
• Brown Sugar
• Fresh Apple Cider
• Boiled Cider
• Pumpkin Pie Spice

For The Pumpkin Coookies:

• All-Purpose Flour
• Salt
• Pumpkin Pie Spice
• Baking Powder
• Unsalted Butter
• Granulated Sugar
• Large Egg
• Egg Yolk
• Maple Syrup
• Pumpkin Purée

How To Make Pumpkin Butter Filled Jack O’Lantern Sandwich Cookies

Step 1: Make pumpkin butter

Combine all the ingredients for the pumpkin butter into a saucepan and cook over medium-low heat for about 20-25 minutes, stirring constantly.

Step 2: Make cookie dough

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, pumpkin spice, and baking powder. Set aside.

With an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until smooth, about 1-2 minutes.

Add egg, egg yolk, and maple syrup. Beat until blended.

Add the pumpkin and mix well.

Add the flour mixture. Stir just until combined.

Step 3: Divide and roll out

Divide the dough in half. Wrap one half in plastic wrap. Set aside.

Roll the other half of dough between two sheets of parchment paper to 1/16 inch.

Step 4: Cut

Using a pumpkin cutter to cut out as many cookies as you can. Remove excess dough away from cut cookies. Set the scraps aside and repeat the process with the other half of the dough. Re-roll scraps until all dough is used.

Place cookies on prepared pans. With a sharp knife, cut out faces on half the cookies.

Bake 14-17 minutes, until just starting to brown.

Step 5: Fill

Spread each solid cookie with 1½ Tablespoons pumpkin butter. Top with cutout cookie.

How To Store

After assembly, these cookies need to be kept in an airtight container. You can leave them out at room temperature for about a day, or keep in the fridge for about 2-4 days. The cookies will soften.

You can also freeze these cookies for up to 2 months.

Substitutions

• You can use store-bought pumpkin butter to fill these cookies.
• If you aren’t a big fan of pumpkin, you can fill these cookies with homemade or store-bought apple butter!

Looking for more recipes like this? Here are a few you may like: Apple Butter Linzer Cookies, Hocus Pocus Spellbook Brownies, Mini Apple Pies, Homemade Chocolate Mousse, Pumpkin Pie Bars

Expert Tips

• For the pumpkin butter, you will need boiled cider (which you can find a recipe for by Clicking Here) and fresh apple cider.
• 2 cups of pumpkin purée is equal to a 15-ounce can.
• Make sure you have pumpkin purée and not pumpkin pie filling.
• You will need Grade B (or, Grade A Dark Robust or Grade A Very Dark/Strong) Maple Syrup for this recipe. You can find what grade it is by checking the label.
• Remember to scrape down the bowl periodically when making the cookie dough..
• This dough doesn’t need to be refrigerated, but if you need to, you can wrap it tightly in plastic wrap (be sure to flatten it into a disc!) and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.
• The pumpkin butter can also be made in advance.
• Depending on the size of your cookie cutter will determine the amount of cookies you get from this recipe. We used a 4 inch cutter.
• You can use a sharp knife to cut the faces out of the cookies or, if you have it, use a jack o’lantern cookie cutter set.
• Be careful when baking these cookies! Since each oven bakes differently, you don’t want them to burn. They are thin and you will need to keep an eye on them after about 10-14 minutes have passed.

When you make these Pumpkin Butter Filled Jack O’Lantern Sandwich Cookies, leave a comment down below! We love hearing from you and answering any questions you might have! Also, be sure to tag us on social media and hashtag it #BakersTable.

– Still Hungry? –

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