Have you heard about Pepperidge Farms’ new pumpkin cheesecake cookies? Well, my husband got a word of it and asked if I wanted to buy some during our next trip to the grocery store. I agreed, but of course I was curious and wanted to make my own version.
When I told my husband that I would make him my version of pumpkin cheesecake cookies, he was ecstatic. I found a recipe on Sweet Treats and More and was excited to try it out. Since the Pepperidge Farm version looked like it had white chocolate chips in them, I added some into mine as well.
Holy cow – these were out of this world! I already love pumpkin, and the cream cheese base in the cookie made it taste like a pumpkin cheesecake. The white chocolate chips added another layer of sweetness, and the maple cream cheese glaze added another layer of flavor. Fall is definitely well represented in these cookies.
I am happy to add another pumpkin cookie recipe to my fall lineup and know that I’ll be making these again! Unfortunately, we went to two different grocery store chains and neither carried the cookies, so this homemade version will have to do for now until I can make a comparison.
Pumpkin cheesecake cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 8-ounce package cream cheese softened
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter at room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup pumpkin
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup cake flour I used another cup of all-purpose flour and replaced 2 TBSP of it with 2 TBSP of corn starch
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1-2 cups of white chocolate chips optional
Maple Cream Cheese Glaze
- 4 ounces cream cheese softened
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 Tablespoons real maple syrup
- 3-4 Tablespoons milk I only used 1 Tablespoon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Make the cookies
- In a large bowl, cream together cream cheese and butter until it is smooth and no lumps remain. Slowly add sugar, pumpkin, vanilla extract and egg.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the combine flours, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice.
- Gradually add the dry ingredients into wet ingredients and combine thoroughly. Allow the dough to cool in refrigerator for 20 minutes.
- Scoops the dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (I used my imitation Silpat). If you don't use a medium cookie scoop like I did, measure about two spoonfuls of batter and place onto the cookie sheet.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes and let cool for 2-3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Cool completely before frosting with glaze.
Make the glaze
- In a mixer, or using a hand-held mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla, maple syrup and milk. Continue to add milk until you get the desired consistency for glaze. Drizzle onto the pumpkin cookies.
These look delicious, Eva! Anything with pumpkin makes me happy.
I tried the Pepperidge Farm version recently and while it's a good concept, I thought they were too sweet and somehow artificial tasting. I bet this homemade version rocks!
Pumpkin with cheesecake? Sign me up! I'm so glad it's finally fall so we can break out the pumpkin! These look amazing, Eva!
I'm gonna make this on Saturday for my guitar class 🙂 Sounds delicious
Made these a few weeks back,and they were an amazing hit!! Making them again tomorrow for our annual family cookie exchange! Thanks!
I made these cookies twice. I was unimpressed with the texture of them. Very doughy. The second time I used all purpose flour, no cake flour. I also did not refrigerate the dough and I ended up flattening the cookies a bit half way through cooking them. Am I missing something here? Perhaps I am doing something wrong?? I really want them to turn out more like the Pepperidge Farm cookies we had. Help! Any thoughts?? Flavor is great. I tweeked it a little and added a tiny bit of a few other spices.
Hi Lisa! The pumpkin and cream cheese in the recipe add a lot of moisture to the dough. That's why it's important to refrigerate (or freeze) the mixture before you bake. Otherwise, the dough will be too soft, and when baked up, it could turn out mushy or underdone. I recommend you chill the dough and try scaling back on the pumpkin and/or cream cheese to your liking. You may also want to check the temperature of your oven to make sure you're not underbaking the cookies. The Pepperidge Farm cookies will be more stable because they use preservatives. Also, they use a lot less pumpkin (it's near the middle of the ingredient list) so their cookies will be a lot more firm than these. Good luck – I hope your next batch turns out better!