Wow, it finally feels like fall around here. Not only is it cool and pleasant, it's been raining cats and dogs! This is what it's like to have seasons. After last year's endless summer, I'd almost given up.
Anyway, I was in the mood to celebrate with an autumn themed chocolate chip cookie cake (aka "cookie pizza" ) made with fall colored M&Ms, but decided to try a pumpkin version instead. Using my old cookie cake recipe as a start, I halved it, used dark brown sugar in place of granulated, then added pumpkin pie spice and canned pumpkin. Since I didn't need a huge 14 or 16 inch cookie pizza, I used two standard 9 inch cake pans and made two medium size cookie pizzas. The medium size were great because a) I had two, so I could decorate one and leave another for Fuzz to decorate and b) they were easier to deal with. They fit on standard size plates and could be moved around easier than a 14 or 16 inch cookie pizza.
For the frosting, I used my old standby which is based on the one from the side of the Domino confectioners' sugar box. In hindsight, I really should have used cream cheese frosting and am not quite sure what I was thinking since pumpkin always goes great with cream cheese, but the butter frosting was fine and the cookie pizzas were a hit with the family. They are on the sweet side, so if you like nuts, you might want to add them to cut the sweetness of the cookies.
Recipe
Pumpkin Cookie Pizza
Ingredients
- 1 stick 4 ounces unsalted butter or margarine*
- ¾ cup lightly packed dark brown sugar
- ½ scant cup canned pumpkin puree
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ⅜ tsp salt or ¼ tsp if using salted butter or margarine*
- 1 cup plus 3 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- ½ cup toasted and chopped pecans or walnuts
- 1 cup white chips or butterscotch chips
Frosting:
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- 3 ¾ cup confectioners' sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2-4 tablespoons whole milk or more as needed
- Pinch of salt or as needed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300° F. Line 2 9 inch round metal cake pans with nonstick foil.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the butter and brown sugar until creamy. Beat in the pumpkin, egg and vanilla, beating only until mixed.
- Scrape sides of bowl and beat in the pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda, scraping sides of bowl as needed.
- By hand or with lowest speed of mixer, gradually stir in the flour.
- Stir in white chips and nuts.
- Divide the sticky dough in half and put half in the center of each pan. Using a rubber scraper, pat it into an 8 or 8 ½ inch circle so that you have about ½ inch of space between the dough and the edge of the pan -- it should spread.
- Bake on center rack for 35 to 40 minutes, however CHECK EARLIER as per the note from the commenter who said hers were too dark after 35 minutes. And remember to bake at 300, not 350 or until cookies appear set.
- Set on a cooling rack and let cool completely before frosting. When ready to frost, lift from pan by grasping foil.
- To make the frosting, beat the butter in a large mixing bowl until creamy. Gradually add the confectioners' sugar, then beat in the vanilla. Add milk 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until frosting is creamy and smooth. Add salt. Put it in a decorator's bag fitted with the tip of your choice and pipe around the edges.
Anna says
Elizabeth, I'm sorry to hear that 35 minutes was too long. Did you accidentally bake at a higher temperature? Probably not, but I need to troubleshoot. Usually 300 degrees is a pretty safe temp for a long bake time. I will add a note for people to check at 25 minutes.
Elizabeth says
Yummy flavor, but 35 min made my cookies come out much too dark. A little disappointed.
Anna says
Hi Karen,
This one's the closest I've come. The Toll House pie is not my favorite, but people love it so that's good. I'm just not a good person to ask for advice on cookie pie because I like giant cookie cake type things (like above), but not gooey deep dish cookie pies. Again, just a personal preference. What about just a good old pumpkin pie? Is that too boring?
Karen says
Anna, have you ever made or seen any good recipes for pumpkin cookie pie? We have church fundraiser meal coming up on Oct. 28 and I have to make 4 pies. I'll do a couple toll house cookie pies, but was thinking about the idea of a pumpkin cookie pie. I'm not very good at figuring how to convert recipes, well, I mean from a cookie format to a little different texture for pie.
Erin says
I love cookie cakes, and making one pumpkin flavored for the fall is great
Karen says
Libby pumpkin was on sale at Walmart yesterday for $1.74 per can. I have several cans at home already, but seeing it on sale made me start thinking about how to use some pumpkin. We might get frost tonight the weather folks are saying. I am NOT ready for that yet!
Chewthefat says
That looks fabulous! I love pumpkin, and am always on the lookout for pumpkin recipes that don't demand the level of commitment of a whole pie.
Katrina says
What a great idea for a big/pizza cookie, to add pumpkin. Perfect for fall, there is a chill in the air around here, too. Love the idea of using two cake pans so there is more than one.
CindyD says
Looking forward to seeing what you're going to do with the rest of the pumpkin!
Anna says
Cheryl, I agree 100%. Shortening really improves the texture in some cookies. I think using 2 ounces of butter and 1.7 (1/4 cup shortening) in this recipe would make it even better.
Fallon says
That looks great! I would of probably used cream cheese frosting as well but regardless the cook looks dense and very chewy.
Cheryl says
For some of these cookie recipes I like half butter and half Butter Crisco. It produces a nice texture with the butter flavor. Texture is much better than using all butter or all Crisco.
Dorothy @ Crazy for Crust says
SUPER yum! This looks SO good!!