Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies Recipe
These Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies are soft and chewy with a crunchy pumpkin spiced sugar coating. They're made from chilled pumpkin cookie dough stuffed with cheesecake and crushed graham crackers. Think of these pumpkin snickerdoodle inspired cookies as a fun alternative to the classic cream cheese pumpkin cookie!
Equipment
- 1 stand mixer with paddle attachment or electric hand mixer with beaters
- 1 small cookie scoop (tablespoon sized)
- 1 large cookie scop (3 tablespoon sized)
- 1-2 baking sheets
Ingredients
Pumpkin Cookie
- 2½ cups (300 g) all purpose flour
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, cold and evenly cubed
- 1 cup (200 g) light brown sugar
- ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (120 g) canned pumpkin
- 1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla extract
- ¼ cup (25 g) crushed graham crackers about 2 full "sheets" of grahamn crackers
Cheesecake Filling
- 8 oz (226 g) cream cheese, room temperature
- ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- 1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ cup (50 g) crushed graham crackers about 4 full "sheets" of graham crackers
Spiced Sugar Topping
- ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- 2 tsp (6 g) ground cinnamon or pumpkin spice
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, baking soda, ground cinnamon, pumpkin spice and salt together until well combined.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugars together until smooth and well combined. This takes about 2-3 minutes on medium speed.
- Beat in the canned pumpkin and vanilla extract on low speed until well combined. Don’t worry if the mixture looks a little curdled. Once the dry ingredients are mixed in, the cookie dough will look perfect.
- On low, add the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined. Fold in the crushed graham crackers. Chill the cookie dough in the fridge for 2 hours. While the cookie dough chills, make the cheesecake filling.
- Make the spiced cheesecake filling my mixing the cream cheese in a bowl until smooth. Add the sugar, vanilla extract and ground cinnamon. Mix well to combine.
- Scoop 16 tablespoon sized scoops onto a parchment or wax paper lined plate or baking sheet. Top the cheesecake scoops with the crushed graham crackers. Place the cheesecake filling in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (177 C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Make the spiced sugar by mixing the granulated sugar together with the ground cinnamon in a wide bowl until well combined.
- Scoop about 3 tablespoons (45 ml) of chilled pumpkin cookie dough into the palm of your hand. Using your thumb, press a well into the center of the ball. Press a frozen cheesecake filling ball into the center of the dough. Cover the cheesecake filling with the cookie dough. Roll the cookie dough into a ball. Roll in the spiced sugar.
- Place about 5- 6 pumpkin cheesecake cookie dough balls onto a baking sheet about 3 inches apart. Place the rest of the cookie dough in the fridge to chill while the first batch of cookies bake. Place the cheesecake filling back into the freezer.
- Bake the pumpkin cheesecake snickerdoodle cookies for 14 -16 minutes. The edges will be set and the centers will look slightly puffed. There may even be some fine cracks running across the top of the cookie. Remove the cookies from the oven. After 10 minutes, transfer the cookies off the hot baking sheet and onto the cooling rack to cool to room temperature and enjoy!
Notes
Use cookie scoops: To get uniform and evenly sized drops of spiced cheesecake filling, use a small 1 tablespoon cookie scoop. For perfectly portioned pumpkin cookies, use a large 3 tablespoon cookie scoop.
To store baked cookies: These cheesecake stuffed pumpkin cookies need be stored in an airtight container in the fridge. This is necessary because of the cheesecake filling. These chewy pumpkin cream cheese cookies store well in the fridge for up to 5-7 days.
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