The fall season is the perfect time to gather with friends—and Halloween means trick-or-treating and costume parties! Dressing up is fun for everyone, but why limit the costumes to just people? We’re not necessarily talking about your pets (although that would be amazing too). We mean you can dress up your food, and these mummy pumpkin cookies, inspired by Oh My Goodness Chocolate Desserts, are a great way to do just that.
The perfect blend of fall-favorite pumpkin and spooky mummy carefully crafted into a cookie will get rave reviews at your next Halloween shindig. You can take a shortcut if you’re pressed for time (refrigerated pie crust can substitute for made-from-scratch crust), but the whole recipe is so enjoyable that you may want to find the time to do it all from scratch.
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One ingredient in the recipe may be a little new to you: reduced pumpkin puree. But it isn’t a big deal to reduce pumpkin puree! Take a regular can of pumpkin puree and place the puree in several layers of paper towels. Wrap and press the pumpkin to soak up excess moisture, and what’s left is your reduced pumpkin puree.
You’ll also use some of your fall favorite spices and ingredients with these delicious (and creepy) cookies, reminding you of another fall favorite: pumpkin pie. Use brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and vanilla to fashion the filling (along with your reduced pumpkin), and when it’s time to “wrap” your mummies, it’ll feel like putting a topping on a pie (but way more ghoulish, of course).
Toss on a final sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar and your mummy pumpkin cookies will be ready for the oven. When they finally make an appearance on your party table—to the “oohs” and “ahhhs” of your guests and kids—you’ll know you have a hit on your hands.
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Begin dough
In food processor, combine flour, salt, and sugar. Pulse a couple of times to mix well.
Bring dough together with butter and water
Add butter and pulse until it looks like a coarse meal. Be careful not to overmix. Add chilled water 1-2 tablespoons at a time and pulse several times.
Dough should begin to form
If it doesn’t come together in clumps, add remaining water.
Form two disks of dough for mummy pumpkin cookies
Gather dough on a working surface, divide into 2 portions, shape each into 5-inch disks, cover with plastic wrap, and chill 1 hour.
Begin pumpkin filling
In a bowl, stir together cream cheese, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until blended.
Add remaining ingredients
Add reduced pumpkin puree to cream cheese mixture along with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice. Then, mix in egg yolk and vanilla extract.
Set filling aside
Cover bowl and chill until ready to assemble cookies.
Create sugar topping
Combine melted butter, cinnamon, and two teaspoons sugar, and mix well. Set aside.
Roll out first disk of dough to about a 13×11-inch rectangle
Cut into 9 4×3-inch rectangles. You can make them smaller or larger according to your preference.
Begin assembling cookies on baking sheet
Arrange the rectangles with ample spacing on a prepared baking sheet. Then scoop pumpkin filling onto center of each rectangle.
Spread filling out
Spread filling out, leaving a rim on all sides uncoated. Next, coat edges with egg wash. This will help the mummy strips adhere over the top.
Prepare mummy strips
Roll out second dough disc and cut into 1/2-inch strips.
Continue assembling mummy pumpkin cookies
Top with strips to create mummy look, then seal edges with your fingertips, and trim the excess of the strips.
Prepare cookies for the oven
Brush strips with egg wash and then coat with butter and sugar mixture. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.
Place final decoration on Mummy pumpkin cookies
Stick candy eyes onto cooled mummies.
So cute—you may not even want to eat them!
So much personality for a tasty cookie!
Delicious cinnamon and sugar baked right into the crust
Mummy pumpkin cookies
Yield 9 cookies
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter cut into cubes and chilled
- 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 4 tablespoons ice water
Alternately, you can use one package refrigerated pie crust (two crusts)
Filling
- 1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree
- 2 ounces cream cheese, slightly softened
- 2 tablespoons packed light-brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon allspice
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 stick butter, melted
- 4 tablespoons sugar, divided
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
Egg wash
- 1 egg white-lightly beaten, mixed with 1/2 teaspoon water
Instructions
- In a food processor, combine flour, salt and sugar. Pulse a couple of times to mix well.
- Add butter and pulse until look like a coarse meal. Be careful not to over mix.
- Add chilled water 1-2 tablespoon at the time and pulse several times. If it doesn’t come together in clumps add remaining water.
- Gather dough onto working surface, divide into two portions, shape each into 5-inch disk, cover with plastic wrap and chill one hour.
- Place pumpkin puree on several layers of paper towel, wrap and press to soak to reduce moisture. Use remaining pumpkin as the puree.
- In a bowl, stir together cream cheese, granulated sugar and brown sugar until blended.
- Add reduced pumpkin puree to cream cheese mixture along with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice.
- Mix in egg yolk and vanilla extract.
- Cover bowl and chill until ready to assemble the cookies.
- Combine melted butter, cinnamon and two teaspoons sugar and mix well. Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 375F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside.
- Roll out first disk of the dough onto a floured surface to about 13 x 11-inch rectangle. If the edges start to crack a little when rolling, seal them and continue rolling. Trim edges to get straight edges, then cut into nine 4×3-inch rectangles. You can make them smaller or larger according to your preference.
- Roll out second dough disc and cut into 1/2 inch stripes.
- Arrange the rectangles with ample spacing on prepared baking sheet and spread heaping 1-1/2 to 2 tablespoons of pumpkin pie filling onto each rectangle, leaving rim on all sides uncoated.
- Brush uncoated edges with the egg wash.
- Top with strips to create mummy look, then seal edges with your fingertips, and trim the excess of the strips.
- Brush the stripes with egg wash and sprinkle with mixture of two tablespoons sugar and one teaspoon cinnamon.
- Bake until golden brown about 20 minutes.
- Stick candy eyes onto cooled mummies.
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