Bake-Ahead Thanksgiving Cookies Recipe: Pumpkin Pie on a Cookie
This bake-ahead Thanksgiving cookies recipe puts spiced pumpkin pie filling on a wide brown sugar cookie, and the whole batch can come out of the oven a day or two before the turkey goes in.
When dessert comes around, all they need is a swirl of whipped cream and a pinch of spice.
Scroll down for the ingredients and step-by-step.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- The baking happens before Thanksgiving, which leaves the oven free for the turkey and the sides on the day.
- A batch makes 15 to 18 big cookies, so one bake covers the dessert table.
- The dough is mixed by hand with a whisk and a spatula, so there’s no mixer to pull out in an already busy week.
When and Who This Is For
Half the table wants pumpkin pie and the other half wants a cookie, and these Thanksgiving pumpkin cookies give both sides what they came for. They’re made for the year you’re hosting and the oven is booked from breakfast on, and they work for Friendsgiving too, as long as there’s a fridge or a cooler at the other end.
They’re vegetarian, provided your whipped cream has no gelatin in it, and there are no nuts in the recipe as written.
They aren’t gluten free, dairy free or vegan. For guests who skip dairy and eggs, my pumpkin snowballs are vegan as written and look right at home on the same platter (they do contain pecans).
Ingredients
For the cookies
- ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup (213 g) brown sugar, packed
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1½ teaspoons (7.5 ml) vanilla extract
- 3 cups (360 g) all-purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoons (9 g) baking soda
- ½ teaspoon (2 g) baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon (1.5 g) salt
- 2 teaspoons (5 g) pumpkin pie spice
For the pumpkin pie filling
- ⅔ cup (163 g) pumpkin puree
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup (53 g) brown sugar, packed
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) milk
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons (5 g) cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon (1 g) pumpkin pie spice
For the topping
- Whipped cream, homemade or ready-made
- Pumpkin pie spice, for dusting
Pumpkin puree. Look for a can labeled 100% pure pumpkin. Canned pumpkin pie filling, sometimes sold as pumpkin pie mix, is already sweetened and spiced, so it would double up on both here. The ⅔ cup is a little over a third of a 15 ounce can.
The filling. It’s whisked together like the inside of a pumpkin pie and sets with egg in the oven the same way, so the finished cookies belong in the fridge rather than in a tin on the counter.
How to Make These Thanksgiving Cookies
1. Mix the dough
Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment.
Melt the butter and give it a few minutes to cool, so it’s warm rather than hot. Whisk it in a large bowl with both sugars, then whisk in the eggs and vanilla until the mixture is smooth and glossy.
Spoon the flour into your measuring cup and level it off instead of scooping straight from the bag. Packed flour makes a drier dough, and a dry dough is more likely to crack when you press the wells in later. Stir the baking soda, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice through the flour with a fork, add it all to the bowl, and fold with a spatula until no dry flour is left. The dough comes out thick, soft and heavy.
2. Scoop and press the wells
Scoop the dough with a 2 inch (5 cm) cookie scoop and space the balls about 2 inches (5 cm) apart. Eight fit on a standard half sheet, so a batch fills two sheets, sometimes with a couple of cookies left for a third round.
Press a deep well into each ball with your thumb or the back of a rounded measuring spoon. Keep a wall of dough all the way around and leave enough at the bottom that you can’t see the parchment. The rims end up a little ragged, which is fine, but pinch closed any crack that runs right through a wall, since that’s the way the filling gets out.
3. Freeze the tray and whisk the filling
Slide the tray into the freezer for 10 minutes to firm up the walls. In Thanksgiving week the freezer tends to be full, so clear a flat spot the size of a baking sheet before you start.
While it chills, whisk the pumpkin puree, egg, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in a smaller bowl until smooth, then whisk in the cornstarch and pumpkin pie spice. Expect a smooth filling that pours from the spoon and looks closer to brown than orange, which is the brown sugar and spice at work.
4. Fill the wells
Spoon about 2 teaspoons of filling into each well, stopping just below the rim. A well filled to the top tends to run over in the oven and glue the cookie to the parchment.
5. Bake
Bake for 12 minutes, until the cookies have spread and the edges are golden brown. The filling spreads with the cookie and settles across the top, so it comes out darker and marbled rather than sitting in a neat circle. It should look set, not wet or wobbly.
Leave them on the sheet for 5 minutes, since they’re soft straight out of the oven, then move them to a wire rack.
6. Bake the rest
Keep the remaining dough covered in the fridge while the first tray bakes. Shape the next tray the same way and give it its own 10 minutes in the freezer before it’s filled. If you only have one baking sheet, let it cool before the next round goes on, because a warm pan starts softening the dough straight away.
7. Cool, then chill until Thanksgiving
Let the cookies cool completely on the rack. Pack them into an airtight container in a single layer, or in layers with parchment between them, and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
8. Top them right before serving
When dessert is on its way, pipe or spoon whipped cream onto each cookie and dust it with pumpkin pie spice. Use them straight from the fridge, because any warmth left in the cookie melts the cream.
Tips for Baking Cookies for Thanksgiving
Most of the planning here comes down to the fridge and the oven, which are exactly what’s in short supply when you’re baking cookies for Thanksgiving.
Work back from Thursday. For the earliest start, bake them any time in the two months before, freeze the cooled, bare cookies in a single layer until firm, then pack them into an airtight container. Move them to the fridge the night before to thaw, and the filling may come out a little softer. If you’d rather bake fresh, any day from Monday works, since they keep in the fridge for up to 3 days. The filling can also be whisked the day before you bake and kept covered in the fridge.
Bake two trays at once if they fit. Most ovens take two half sheets on separate racks. Swap their positions halfway through and go by the cues in step 5 rather than the clock, since a fuller oven can bake a little differently. Both trays need their 10 minutes in the freezer first, so this only works if you have the room.
Brown the butter. Keep it over medium heat in a light colored pan, stirring, until it foams and the solids on the bottom turn brown and smell toasty, about 5 to 8 minutes. Cool it for 10 to 15 minutes before whisking in the sugars, and expect a slightly darker dough.
Maple whipped cream. Sweeten homemade whipped cream with 1 to 2 tablespoons (15 to 30 ml) of maple syrup per cup (240 ml) of heavy cream instead of sugar.
Ways to Serve Them
- Set the cold, bare cookies on a platter with the whipped cream in a bowl and a spoon in the dish of spice, and let everyone finish their own while the coffee brews.
- With coffee after dinner, especially with a pour of pumpkin fall coffee creamer stirred in.
- The next morning, for anyone who saved one, straight from the fridge with a fresh spoonful of cream.
Questions You May Have About These Thanksgiving Cookies
Can I bring these to someone else’s Thanksgiving?
Yes, with a cooler. Pack the bare cookies cold in their container, keep them in a cooler with ice packs for the drive, and bring the whipped cream and spice separately. Ask the host for a corner of the fridge when you arrive, then top them just before dessert goes out. The filling is egg-based, the same as pumpkin pie, and the USDA’s advice for egg-rich pies is not to leave them out for more than two hours. If you’re facing a long drive with no way to keep things cold, bring a cookie that’s happy in a tin instead. My pumpkin coffee cake cookies stack without smudging once the glaze has set.
My fridge is full that week. Where do these go?
One airtight container, with parchment between the layers, holds the whole batch, so it takes a single spot on a shelf. Freezing them earlier in the month keeps them out of the fridge until the night before. If the fridge truly runs out on the day, a cooler with plenty of ice packs, swapped as they soften, will hold them. A cold porch or garage is tempting, but its temperature isn’t steady enough to count on.
Will the whipped cream hold up on the dessert table?
It only needs to last as long as the cookies are out, which is two hours at most. Whipped cream from a can starts to deflate soonest. Homemade holds its shape longer, though it begins to weep after a few hours. A tub of whipped topping such as Cool Whip keeps its shape best of the three, and a homemade cream stabilized with a little gelatin or cream cheese does too (the gelatin version isn’t vegetarian). The simplest fix is the top-your-own platter, so the cream goes on as each cookie is picked up and never has to wait.
Related Recipes
- 12 Easy Thanksgiving Desserts That Aren’t Pie. Cakes, fridge desserts and more cookies, for when one dessert isn’t going to cover it.
- Fall Bundt Cake with Carrots and Cream Cheese Frosting. Twelve slices from one pan, baked the day before and frosted on the day, for whoever wants cake.
- Bubbly Thanksgiving Mimosas with Apple Cider and Prosecco. Cold cider topped with Brut Prosecco, poured while the turkey roasts.
- Easy Thanksgiving Salad with Pears, Walnuts and Blue Cheese. A side that never goes near the oven, with an orange vinaigrette you can whisk a few days early.
Room for One More
Dessert after a Thanksgiving dinner is a lot to ask of anyone, and a cookie is an easier yes than a slice. These give everyone the pumpkin, the spice and the cream of the pie in something they can hold in one hand while the conversation keeps going. Save this to your Thanksgiving board on Pinterest so it’s waiting when the shopping list starts. 🥧
Bake-Ahead Thanksgiving Cookies Recipe: Pumpkin Pie on a Cookie
Ingredients
Cookies
- ½ cup unsalted butter 113 g, melted
- 1 cup brown sugar 213 g, packed
- ½ cup granulated sugar 100 g
- 2 large eggs
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract 7.5 ml
- 3 cups all-purpose flour 360 g
- 1½ teaspoons baking soda 9 g
- ½ teaspoon baking powder 2 g
- ¼ teaspoon teaspoon salt 1.5 g
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice 5 g
Pumpkin pie filling
- ⅔ cup pumpkin puree 163 g, plain, not canned pumpkin pie filling
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup brown sugar 53 g, packed
- 2 tablespoons milk 30 ml
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 5 ml
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch 5 g
- ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice 1 g
Topping
- Whipped cream homemade or ready-made
- Pumpkin pie spice for dusting
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment.
- Melt the butter and let it cool for a few minutes. Whisk it in a large bowl with both sugars, then whisk in the eggs and vanilla until smooth.
- Stir the baking soda, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice into the flour. Add to the bowl and fold with a spatula until no dry flour remains.
- Scoop with a 2 inch (5 cm) cookie scoop onto the sheet, 2 inches (5 cm) apart, about 8 per sheet.
- Press a deep well into each ball without pressing through the bottom. Pinch closed any cracks in the walls.
- Freeze the tray for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, whisk the pumpkin puree, egg, brown sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth, then whisk in the cornstarch and pumpkin pie spice.
- Fill each well to just below the rim, about 2 teaspoons each.
- Bake 12 minutes, until the cookies have spread, the edges are golden brown and the filling looks set.
- Cool on the sheet for 5 minutes, then on a wire rack until completely cool.
- Repeat with the remaining dough, keeping it in the fridge between trays and freezing each tray for 10 minutes before filling.
- Refrigerate the cooled cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
- Just before serving, top each cold cookie with whipped cream and a dusting of pumpkin pie spice.
Notes
- Bake ahead: keep the bare cookies in the fridge in a single layer or with parchment between layers for up to 3 days, or freeze them for up to 2 months and thaw in the fridge overnight. Don’t leave them out for more than 2 hours. The filling can be whisked a day before baking.
- Trays: two trays can bake at once if they fit, swapped halfway through. Each tray needs its 10 minutes in the freezer before filling.
- Topping: add the whipped cream only once the cookies are cold, right before serving.
