Pumpkin Apple Butter Sandwich Cookies
Hi everyone. I don’t know about you, but this autumn has been absolute pandemonium for me. I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t been a struggle to balance the blog with all the other real life concerns and responsibilities. But now that the autumn has wound down and we’ve begun to transition into the holiday season, I’m hoping that things/life will slow down some and allow me to breathe and devote more time to my posting schedule.
Autumn is one of my favorite times of year, not least because I get to cook/bake my favorite types of foods; warm, spiced comfort foods that stick to your ribs and calm your senses. Certain ingredients when used in specific ways will never fail to do that for me. Pumpkin and apple are two of them.
I mentioned a visit I took to an apple orchard a while ago in previous posts where I came home with quite a few apples to use up. The last few posts on the blog have been the product of that orchard visit, and today’s is no different. One of the recipes was a Pumpkin Apple Butter that is perfectly delicious all on its own, or used as a spread on top of biscuits or scones or as a dip for cookies.
But as it turns out, there are still other yummy uses for it.
I don’t often make sandwich cookies, but whenever I do I’m always reminded of why I like them so much. They’re a a real complete ‘layered’ dessert, both literally and figuratively, and in order to be successful, there are multiple elements that have to be gotten right.
A good sandwich cookie starts with a good cookie dough. It has to be sturdy enough to hold the filling, but it also can’t be too crisp/crunchy, or else the filling will come oozing out once you bite into it. You also want to make sure that the flavors of the cookie can stand up against the flavors of the filling.
The filling itself also matters; you need it to be robust and firm enough to not ooze out of the cookie and make a mess, and it also shouldn’t be too sweet or cloying or else you won’t want to take more than a bite or two of the sandwich itself.
Today’s recipe ticks all of those boxes. The cookie dough turns out the best kind of spice cookie that’s crisp at the edges and chewy in the center. Rolling the cookie dough balls in sugar before baking gives them a perfectly crackly crust. Honestly, they’re delicious enough all on their own.
The filling or these is a buttercream that I’ve mixed a generous portion of my Pumpkin Apple Butter into. The flavor of the pumpkin apple butter rounds out the sweetness of the buttercream and it’s a perfect complement to the spiciness of the cookies.
Sandwich cookies require one or two extra steps, but they truly are worth the effort. These sandwich cookies were the perfect autumn dessert, and they keep very well. I’m thrilled to be able to share and add them to the collection of other sandwich cookie recipes on the blog (see below).
More Sandwich Cookies: Browned Butter Sandwich Cookies, Vanilla and Mocha Cookie Sandwiches, PB Sandwich Cookies with Honey, S’mores Sandwich Cookies, Alfajores, Raspberry Linzer Cookies.
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Pumpkin Apple Butter Sandwich Cookies
Recipe Adapted from Taste of Home
Ingredients
For Cookies:
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup white granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, room temp
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons apple pie spice
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
- Turbinado sugar for rolling
For Pumpkin Apple Butter Buttercream
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 1/2 cups powdered confectioner’s sugar
- 1/3 cup pumpkin apple butter (I used this one)
Directions
For Cookies:
In a medium bowl, combine the flour , salt, apple pie spice, cinnamon baking soda and cream of tartar. Stir together with a fork and set aside.
In the bowl of a standing mixer, or a large mixing bowl using a handheld mixer, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white granulated sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Pause to scrape down the sides f the bowl with a spatula to ensure even mixing.
Beat in the egg and the vanilla extract.
With mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in about 2 batches, beating just until combined and scraping down the sides f the bowl t ensure even mixing.
Use a 1 1/2 tablespoon scoop (or measure about 1 1/2 tablespoons manually) to scoop out equal portions of cookie dough. Roll each dough ball into a small bowl you’ve filled about halfway with the turbinado sugar.
Place dough balls in a plastic container you’ve lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil and refrigerate for at least one hour, but preferably overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 degreed Fahrenheit.
Place dough balls about 1 to 2 inches apart on sheet pans you’ve lined with parchment paper, and slightly flatten with your palm.
Bake until edges are set and center is still slightly soft, about 13-16 minutes.*(See Note Below)
Allow to cool on the pans for about 10 minutes before removing from pans and allowing to completely cool on wire racks.
For Pumpkin Apple Buttercream:
In the bowl of a standing mixer, or a large mixing bowl using a handheld mixer, cream together the butter, vanilla, and salt at medium speed until smooth,. With mixer on low speed, add the powdered/confectioner’s sugar, beating until combined.
Increase the mixer speed to medium high and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in the apple butter. Use immediately.
To Finish Sandwich Cookies: Pipe/spread about 1 tablespoon of the buttercream onto the flat side of about half of the cookies. Top with remaining cookies, flat side down.
Store cookies in a resealable plastic bag or container with a half slice of sandwich bread (this will keep them soft).
*Note: no one oven is the same, & different baking sheets bake cookies differently. Keeping this in mind, I will ALWAYS test bake one cookie before baking entire sheets of the whole batch, just to get a good idea of how long they should be in the oven and if I need to adjust the way I’ve cut, rolled them out, etc. I highly recommend that you do the same.)
Sharing at Fiesta Friday #564.
A medley of great flavors for sure!
Thank you Dorothy!
Sounds like the cookie part would taste great on its own, too. Thanks for the recipe.
The cookies do taste great on their own–the filling makes them even better! Thank you 🙂