Your favorite fall pumpkin pie, meets a slice of New York cheesecake, all baked into delicious cookie form. These Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies are a mashup of desserts that you’re going to want to make all fall long.
Table of Contents
About these Cookies
I love a hybrid dessert. Whether it’s a brookie (brownie + cookie), S’mores Brownie, Key Lime Pie Milkshake, or Nutter Butter Pie. It’s like a two for one deal in tasty treat form.
Well actually, with this Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookie recipe it’s actually a three for one deal. Soft cookies, cheesecake, and pumpkin pie vibes all mashed together.
Fall is probably my favorite time of year to bake (yes, even over Christmas!) with the complexity of the seasonal flavors that you can incorporated into recipes. And these fluffy pumpkin cookies scream fall and are perfect for pumpkin season. Their texture is light and cakey, with a rich and creamy cheesecake center you’ll want all season long.
Looking for more pumpkin? Also try this Low Sugar Pumpkin Bread or these Butterscotch Pumpkin Muffins for all of the fall vibes!
Recipe Ingredients
- All Purpose Flour - The base of our cookies. I have not tried any subs.
- Pumpkin Pie Spice - Usually a combination of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves. I buy the pre-mixed pumpkin spice, but homemade works too.
- Pumpkin Puree - You can use your own pumpkin puree from baked and mashed pumpkin, or use canned. This is not canned pumpkin pie filling!! Pie filling will make the pumpkin cookie dough much too sweet.
- Cane Sugar - To sweeten our cookies. You can also use coconut sugar for a richer, more caramel-y flavor.
- Cream Cheese - A dollop of cream cheese in the center of these cookies creates the perfect cheesecake texture. A flavored cream cheese could also work (a pumpkin cream cheese?! 👀)
See the recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
How to Make This Recipe
1. In a mixing bowl, combine together softened cream cheese and sugar. Beat it together with an electric mixer for 3-5 minutes or until the sugar is completely creamed. Refrigerate while you prep the rest of the cookie (or overnight). Failure in doing so will result in runny cookies and we don’t want that.
2. In another large mixing bowl, combine softened butter and sugar. Use a hand mixer to beat until creamed together. Ensure no clumps of butter are left.
3. Add canned pumpkin, vanilla extract, and the egg to the creamed butter. Beat together again until a luscious, smooth orange mixture forms.
4. Then, pour all of the dry ingredients into the bowl and mix together again. Use a hand mixer to ensure all of the flour is mixed in, but do not over beat. Refrigerate batter for 2 hours (or overnight). Then, preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a cookie sheet with butter or cooking spray.
5. Using a greased spoon (I just spray with cooking spray), drop 12 equal dollops of cookie dough onto the cookie sheet. You will need to use your fingers to shape them into an even circle after dropping them (note: don’t pick up the batter and try to make balls out of these cookies). Create small, circular “wells” in each of the cookie dough balls. You can do this using your fingers or a small spoon for the cream cheese mixture to sit in (this is like the “thumbprint” of a thumbprint cookie, although the pumpkin batter is much wetter so it won’t be as perfect). Then use a small cookie scoop or spoon to scoop even amounts of creamy cheesecake filling on the top of each cookie.
6. Bake for cookies for 15-18 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are lightly brown, and each cookie is a fluffy, pillow texture. Slide the baked cookies onto a wire rack (if you don't have a cooling rack, slide onto a piece of parchment paper), dust with powdered sugar and a bit of cinnamon sugar if desired and enjoy this perfect fall treat!
Recipe FAQs
Store your chewy pumpkin cookies in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. I advise against storing on the counter due to the perishable nature of the cream cheese.
Freeze these delicious cookies for up to three months in a ziploc bag or airtight container after completely cooled. You can also freeze just the dough if you wish and bake at a later date.
Attempt to use two spoons or your fingers to create a well in the cookie dough for the cheesecake balls to be placed into, but don’t sweat there being a perfect place for it.
The dough to these Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies is fairly wet and isn’t super easy to manipulate. When the cookies bake the batter will spread and somewhat form around the cheesecake filling so if it looks like it’s just “on top” before baking that is okay.
I made these Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies similar to thumbprint cookies, with the cheesecake as a dollop in the center.
You could also try enclosing the cheesecake filling with cookie dough (put a little batter on your baking sheet, followed by a spoonful of the cream cheese mixture, followed by a little more cookie dough to cover the cheesecake filling).
Now you’ve got a cheesecake stuffed cookie. The filling, however, will be slightly more gooey since it’s not directly exposed to the heat of the oven.
you don’t have store bought pumpkin pie spice, a quick and easy mixture can come together with the following ingredients:
5 parts ground cinnamon
2 parts ground ginger
2 parts ground nutmeg
1 part all spice
1 part cloves
I usually use a teaspoon to measure each, but scale up or down as you choose. Also, if you’re missing any one of the ingredients, it will be fine without (just not the cinnamon).
More Recipes You'll Love
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Recipe
Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies
Equipment
- 2 Mixing bowls
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Hand Mixer
- Baking sheet
- spoons
Ingredients
Pumpkin Cookie
- 1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¾ cup cane sugar
- ¼ cup butter, softened
- ¾ cup canned pumpkin
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Filling
- 4 oz cream cheese
- ¼ cup sugar
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, combine together softened cream cheese and sugar. Beat it together with an electric mixer for 3-5 minutes or until the sugar is completely creamed.
- Refrigerate cream cheese mixture for at least 2 hours.
- In another mixing bowl, combine softened butter and sugar. Use a hand mixer to beat until creamed together. Ensure no clumps of butter are left.
- Add canned pumpkin, vanilla extract, and the egg to the creamed butter. Beat together again until a luscious, smooth orange mixture forms.
- Then, pour all of the dry ingredients into the bowl and mix together again. Use the hand mixer to ensure all of the flour is mixed in, but do not over beat.
- Refrigerate cookie batter for 2 hours (or overnight).
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a cookie sheet with butter or cooking spray.
- Using a greased spoon (I just spray with cooking spray), drop 12 equal dollops of cookie dough onto the cookie sheet. You will need to use your fingers to shape them into an even circle after dropping them.
- Create small, circular “wells” in each dollop of cookie dough. You can do this using your fingers or a small spoon for the cream cheese mixture to sit in (this is like the “thumbprint” of a thumbprint cookie, although the pumpkin batter is much wetter so it won’t be as perfect).
- Then use a small spoon to scoop even amounts of cheesecake filling into the well and on the top of each cookie.
- Bake for cookies for 15-18 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are lightly brown, and each cookie is a fluffy, pillow texture. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Notes
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I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. It’s my passion to create dishes that can be shared with others. Tell me something you loved or just say hi!
Courtney Paige says
these are bakery level GOOD!! There, I said it! Add these to your baking list.
Sydney Van Acker says
I had so much fun baking these with court! Don't get discouraged when adding the cream cheese to your raw dough. It'll seem messy, but they bake into the perfect cookie.
Karla says
Fluffy, sweet, and rich. These cookies remind me of the fall version of peanut butter blossoms with the cheesecake filling in the center instead of the hershey kiss.