Soft pumpkin cookies filled with rum-soaked raisins, pecans, white chocolate morsels, and Buttershots-spiked cream cheese will keep you warm and cozy this fall. They’re even brushed with a thin boozy glaze hot out of the oven, and then again once the cookies have cooled. It’s hard to get enough alcohol in cookie dough without compromising the texture, so it took a variety of approaches to pull it off.
Buy the kids some Oreos; these babies are for you!
| Drunken Punkin Cookies | Print |
- COOKIE DOUGH:
- 1 cup raisins
- ½ cup strong rum
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg + 1 yolk (the extra white will be used in the cream cheese swirl)
- ½ cup solid pack pumpkin
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chopped pecans (toast them for the best flavor)
- CREAM CHEESE SWIRL:
- 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 egg white
- 3 tablespoons Butterscotch liqueur (like Buttershots)
- 3 tablespoons flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- GLAZE:
- 4 tablespoons alcohol (I used a mixture of rum and Buttershots)
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- Place raisins and ½ cup rum in a small pan. Bring to a simmer over med-low heat. Cover, reduce to low, and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let raisins sit for at least 30 minutes, or until lukewarm. They should be plump and rum should be reduced.
- Heat oven to 350 F. Cover baking sheets with parchment.
- COOKIE DOUGH: In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and egg yolk. Beat well.
- Add raisins (with the reduced rum), pumpkin, flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, salt, pecans, and white chips. Mix until incorporated.
- CREAM CHEESE SWIRL: In a small bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, egg white, butterscotch liqueur, flour, and baking powder until smooth.
- Add the cream cheese mixture to the dough and fold it in just 6-7 times, leaving big white streaks. Then pull your cookie scoop or spoon through, aiming for a mixture with more dough than swirl. I like to gather a little cream cheese first, then scoop through dough, which puts the pretty swirl on top of the cookie as it bakes.
- Bake for approximately 12 minutes, or until the top springs back when pressed. While cookies are baking, make glaze:
- GLAZE: Whisk together the alcohol and powdered sugar until smooth. Brush it over hot cookies, then give them another light glaze once they've cooled.
Beat eggs into creamed butter and sugar, then dump in everything except cream cheese mixture
Beautiful dough! Great even without the cream cheese, but you’d be giving up the butterscotch liquor, which would be SO sad.
Fold in the cream cheese mixture. Go easy – you want to see big streaks of white!
Try to get both the cream cheese mixture and the pumpkin dough in one scoop.
Scoop and drop!
Bake on parchment covered baking sheets
Brush hot cookies with glaze, then give them another coat once they’ve cooled.
Cheers!
Lorinda