by Mary Susan
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These chewy jack-o-lantern pumpkin cookies will remind you of the Little Debbie Pumpkin Delights from your childhood. The molasses cookie filled with scratch-made pumpkin butter tastes even more delicious than the original, and they are also fun to make!
I don’t know about you, but there are a few Little Debbie treats that are so nostalgic for me. I love a good Oatmeal Cream Pie or Christmas Tree Cakes around Christmas. Honestly, though, Little Debbie Pumpkin Delights bring me back to my childhood like no other for some reason.
However, I have no idea why I’m immediately transported back to my childhood when I eat a pumpkin delight. I can only recall one memory of having them. I was in my elementary school cafeteria for lunch, and I remember there being a Little Debbie Pumpkin Delight cookie, still in it’s wrapper, on my lunch tray. Maybe I was really hungry that day, or maybe it’s because my mom never bought Little Debbie treats. Whatever it was, it left a lasting impression.
What I do know is that to this day when I see this little pumpkin cookie looking at me, it makes me smile. So that’s what I set out to do last week. I knew I could create and even more delicious tasting cookie, so I did. The molasses cookie is chewy and perfectly spiced. The homemade pumpkin butter is sweet and oh so pumpkiny. I may have enjoyed created the shape of the cookies a little too much, but I have a feeling these will become a new fall tradition in our house now. So instead of buying a box of Little Debbie Pumpkin Delights, make these Jack-O-Lantern cookies. The flavor is mind-blowingly delicious and sure to bring a smile to whomever you share one with.
F.A.Q.S and Troubleshooting for Little Debbie Pumpkin Delights
Do I have to make the pumpkin butter?
This homemade version of pumpkin butter is sure to beat any store bought pumpkin butter in flavor. However, if you are in a pinch store bought will work out just fine. I would recommend using Trader Joe’s if possible.
My cookies spread out so much and became large, what did I do wrong?
No worries, I came across this problem while recipe testing. Since we are sandwiching two cookies together with pumpkin butter inbetween, there is a lot of dough. The trick is making sure to not cut your cookies too thick. I think 1/4 inch in thickness is a great thickness to reach for.
How do you get the pumpkin shape?
You could use a variety of things to get the shape. I used an apple shaped cookie cutter and then cut off the stem to get that flat top. A pumpkin cookie cutter, biscuit cutter, or even a glass would work. Just slice a little bit of dough off the top to get that flat top. I then used an exacto knife to cut the eyes and mouth out.
What should I do with the excess pumpkin butter?
While I don’t currently have any recipes using pumpkin butter, I firmly believe it would be delicious on top of these angel biscuits, pancakes, or even on a toasted slice of my sourdough bread.
Little Debbie Pumpkin Delights (Copycat)
These chewy jack-o-lantern pumpkin cookies will remind you of the Little Debbie Pumpkin Delights from your childhood. The molasses cookie filled with scratch-made pumpkin butter tastes even more delicious than the original, and they are also fun to make!
4.64 from 22 votes
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Course Dessert
Ingredients
Pumpkin Butter
- 15 oz. can pumpkin puree not pie filling
- 1 ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tsp. cinnamon
- ½ tsp. nutmeg
- 1 tsp. ginger
- ¾ cup apple juice
- 1 tsp. cornstarch
Cookies
- 12 TBS butter melted
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup molasses
- 2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- ½ tsp. ginger
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 2 ¼ cups flour
Instructions
In a small sauce pan, combine pumpkin, sugar, and spices. Whisk together until spices are evenly distributed. In a liquid measuring cup, whisk 1 tsp. cornstarch with the apple juice. Make sure the cornstarch is fully dissolved.
Add the juice mixture to the pumpkin and whisk together. Cook over low heat and bring to a simmer. Let it simmer for 10 minutes, and then remove from the stove and let it cool.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine melted butter and sugar together until it becomes thick and pale in color. Add in the egg and molasses and continue to mix for 1 minute.
Add in your dry ingredients and mix until everything is combined. Don’t over mix in this step. Once you can’t see any more flour, stop mixing.
On a lightly floured surface, roll your cookie dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Using your desired shape (see F.A.Q.s for what I used for this step), cut out your pumpkin shape. Using a sharp knife, cut eyes and a mouth out of 1/2 of the shapes and leave the rest of the pumpkin shapes face free.
Spoon a little more than 1/2 of a tablespoon of the pumpkin butter onto each face free cookie, right in the center. Then place a jack-o-lantern cookie shape directly on top. The butter will spread a little. Seal the side of the cookie together by lightly pressing it together. This doesn’t have to be hard or smashed together tightly. Just a light press will do.
Bake at 350 for 8-9 minutes. Let cookies cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes before placing on a cookie rack to cool completely. Store in the fridge and bring to room temperature before serving.
Related
Comments
Is it a 1/4 cup of molasses? You just have a 1/4
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Yes! 1/4 cup.
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12 tablespoons of butter?
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They smell delicious, and the recipe took me some time with making the butter and everything.. but in your pictures the cookies seem small, a reasonable sized cookie. With your instructions, or maybe user error, my cookies are HUMONGOUS.. Like palm sized. I even used a ruler to make sure the dough was the right size and I am shook by how big these things are.
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Maybe your cookie cutter is bigger than mine? I had a total of 10 cookies, so 20 cut-outs. Hopefully, you still enjoy the recipe! Just make it a shareable cookie.
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The cookie cutter I have is standard size I believe. And I had the same amount of cut-outs as well. I’m not really sure what happened but I’m definitely going to try again since I do still have pumpkin butter leftover. Regardless, they were still very good, I just thought the size of my cookies were comical. They came out huge and the size of my entire hand.. but thank you for the recipe 🙂
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Well I’m glad they at least tasted delicious!
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You should try chilling your cookie dough. You should also not put the cut out cookies on a hot pan. Either action can cause the cookies to spread more than is optimal.Good luck with your cookies!
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I wonder if it could be an altitude or humidity issue? I have had problems like that before when baking.
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That definitely plays a role.
These came out so nicely. I used a different pumpkin butter recipe, since I had no apple juice but these are fantastic.
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So glad you enjoyed this recipe ❤️
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Can these cookies be frozen and then taken out at a later time?
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I’ve never frozen this specific recipe, but I always have great success freezing cookies.
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Followed the instructions for the dough and it did not come out like a rollable dough. It’s like drop cookie dough. I did everything exactly like it said but it’s like there’s not enough flour?
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Maybe try chilling the dough next time or adding a bit extra flour.
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I had to chill the dough for 30 minutes before rolling it out. It made all the difference!
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Great!
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Hello! So Pinterest told me I needed your recipe and it just so happens I made a different copycat recipe for these that were good. I had a ton of pumpkin butter filling left so I wanted to try your cookie recipe. While it’s absolutely delish, do you have any tips on the dough? It was so very sticky and difficult to work with. I added a ton of flour when rolling it out and finally tried sticking the dough in the fridge when that didn’t work. Any tips are appreciated!
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Try chilling the dough or adding a little extra flour. If you live in a more humid area, I always find my recipes need a little extra flour.
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perhaps this isnt for people who dont always make cookies? (I like to make roll cakes) I made the cookies, reading comments first, really thin. 1/4 in, but it still spread out more than I’d hoped. cookie flavor is good, pumpkin butter sooo sweet imo.the recipe is a little vague, I imagine there are specifics necessary to make it just as the creator did.
the dough didnt roll well for me. (I prefer weight vs cups for flour especially to mimic others’ recipes.. are they packed, sifted or loose cups?) when I melted the butter, (microwave..) it still had plenty of softness not all liquid, and i didnt overmix. but it was pretty sticky and I had to reflour the rolling pin alot.
I thought the pumpkin butter was extremely sweet… I added a pinch of salt and tiny bit of lemon juice to counter it. it was very wet… I might recook it for 2 or 3x called for. maybe brand differences?
the cookie flavor does taste very good, (I ate it raw) I just wish the directions had more info on butter since butter is probably the reason they spread so much for me and were kinda oozing butter on my fingers after baking. I even chilled the dough and they were coming out the same. I only used a little more than 1/2 the dough and made 18 cookie sandwiches so far.. I’ll try again tomorrow with the leftovers.
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What great suggestions! If the dough is too sticky adding a little extra flour is a great thing to do.
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