Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies

Get your pumpkin and cheesecake fix in one with these pumpkin-spiced cookies stuffed with a little surprise: cream cheese filling! The warming pumpkin spice cookies complement the creamy, tangy flavors of cheesecake, creating the most decadent cookie you'll have all season long. Although the pumpkin spice flavor screams fall, these cookies are truly enjoyable any time of the year.

Making a stuffed cookie might seem intimidating (how do you get the cream cheese filling in the center AND make sure it doesn’t seep out??), but it’s actually fairly easy. Start with our chewy pumpkin spiced cookie batter, which bakes up like a snickerdoodle cookie with pumpkin spice flavor to boot. Pumpkin puree in the batter adds moisture, so this dough is a softer one, which can get a bit sticky. We highly recommend chilling the batter until it’s nice and cold before rolling the cookies to combat stickiness. You can chill it right in the bowl you mixed it in, then scoop when you're ready to roll. Or, even easier, pre-scoop the dough onto baking sheets and refrigerate it.

While the dough chills, make and chill the cream cheese filling. When both the dough and cream cheese filling are nice and cold, form the cookie dough into disks. Scoop the cream cheese filling into a piping bag and pipe it onto half of the disks or scoop 2 teaspoon-sized mounds. Close the sandwich on the cream cheese-topped disks with the remaining disks, then use your fingers to pinch around the edges to seal the cookie. Gently roll into a ball, then roll in cinnamon sugar and bake! If the dough is really sticking when you're trying to roll the cookies, slightly dampen your hands.

Since these cookies have a cream cheese center, they should be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Made this? Let us know how it went in the comments below!