These walnut pumpkin cookies topped with cream cheese frosting are rich, soft, and absolutely delicious!
These are traditionally made for the holidays in our family, and it’s just not Thanksgiving or Christmas without them! Little tweaks are made based on who makes them; I love adding a ton of walnuts, I just feel like it adds a great contrast to the softness of the cookie. Other times they are made with raisins in them instead.
Let’s get started, I hope you enjoy them as much as we do 🙂
Some Tips/Tricks:
When you drain the pumpkin puree, you are just pouring it out onto a plate lined with paper towels. Do not squish it or wring it or anything like that. Just spread it out a little and it will drain on its own. Let sit for 5-10 minutes. The difference is shown below:
When you first mix the butter/sugar/eggs/pumpkin, it will look a little grainy or like it’s separated, this is totally normal. It will look like this:
Once you add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients, it should look thick and soft like this:
For the walnuts, you want to make sure that when grinding or crushing them you don’t make them too small. You can use a processor or my kids’ favorite option: put them in a ziplock and use a meat tenderizer to smash them. If you process the walnuts too much you will basically end up with a grainy nut flour instead of small bites of walnut throughout the cookies. The size doesn’t have to be uniform, just don’t put whole walnuts in there. Unless you want to, I’m not judging! I’m putting an example below of before crushed and after:
When portioning out the dough I use a 1 inch cookie scoop ROUNDED. If you level it off your cookies will be too small and overcook. Below is an example of the scoop and finished cookies:
Details
32-36 Cookies
10 Minutes
15 Minutes
350 F
Print
Ingredients
1 Can Pumpkin Puree
12 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, Softened
1 Egg, Room Temp
1 Cup (Packed) Brown Sugar, Light
3/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
2 tsp Maple Syrup
1 & 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
3 Cups of All-Purpose Flour
1 & 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Kosher Salt
2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 & 1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Ground Ginger
2 Cups Walnuts, Processed to Small/Medium Crumb
1 Can Cream Cheese Frosting (I use Duncan Hines)
Directions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 F and line baking sheets with parchment paper. I ended up needing to do two batches on two large baking sheets.
- Drain your pumpkin puree on a plate lined with paper towels. Let sit for 5-10 minutes.
- Grab a large bowl and use a hand-mixer on medium speed to cream your softened butter and the sugars until light, fluffy, and smooth. This shouldn’t take more than a minute or two. Add the egg and beat on high until just mixed in. Add the vanilla, maple syrup, and pumpkin and mix at high speed until well incorporated. At this point it will look like it is separating; it is not, this is normal.
- Mix all of your dry ingredients in a medium bowl (excluding the walnuts), using a whisk to make sure they are well distributed. On low speed, blend the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until fully mixed. Dough will be soft.
- Pour your walnuts into the dough, and use a wooden spoon to mix.
- Bake in your pre-heated oven for 15 minutes. The edges will be light brown and the center will still seem soft, but it will firm up. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. When cooled, top with cream cheese frosting and extra crushed walnuts if desired.
**These will keep on the counter in an airtight container for 3-4 days, if stored in the fridge they can be kept for 6 days.**