High Altitude Jack-O'-Lantern Cookies
The cutest Jack-O'-Lantern Cookies for Halloween, made with spiced pumpkin sugar cookies sandwiched together with creamy chocolate ganache.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Food Processor
Ingredients
Cookies
- ½ cup canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp ground allspice
- ⅛ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¾ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp milk
Ganache
- 4 oz semi sweet chocolate, finely chopped
- 4 oz heavy whipping cream
Instructions
Make the Cookie Dough
- On a plate, blot the pumpkin dry with paper towels. You may need to change the paper towels 6-7 times to remove enough moisture from the pumpkin. When the pumpkin is dry enough, barely any moisture should transfer to the paper towels, and the pumpkin will be reduced from 1/2 cup to 1/4 cup.
- In a food processor, pulse the flour, powdered sugar, salt and spices to combine. With the food processor running, drop the butter pieces in one at a time, pulsing until evenly dispersed.
- Add the vanilla, milk and the dried pumpkin puree, then process the dough until it comes together into a ball.
- Dump the dough out, knead in any excess bits of flour, and wrap the dough in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Cut the Cookies
- Line several baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Flour a clean work surface, and flour the dough lightly as well. Roll the dough out evenly to nearly 1/8 inch thick. Cut as many cookies as you can, and set the cut cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet, spacing them 2 inches apart. Gather up the scraps of dough, re-roll the dough, and continue cutting cookies. Using a 3-inch pumpkin shaped cutter, you should be able to cut around 34 cookies (for 17 sandwich cookies).
- Now take your jack-o'-lantern cookie cutters, and use them to cut out the mouths and eyes from half of the cookies. These will be the top cookies for the cookie sandwich.
- Note that if your pumpkin shaped cookie cutter is not perfectly symmetrical, you need to turn over all the bottom cookies on the baking sheet. This way, when you make your cookie sandwiches, the bottom and top cookies will match up.
- Refrigerate the cut cookies for 30 minutes. Chilling the cut cookies helps to keep the cookies from spreading while they bake, so they maintain their shape.
Bake the Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Bake the chilled cookies for about 12 minutes. The baked cookies will not spread, but should have tiny flaky layers around the edges, and if you gently turn one over, there should be no appearance of raw or wet dough on the bottom. If steam inside the dough has caused any of the cookies to slightly puff up, just gently press it flat again with the back of a spatula.
- Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for several minutes, and then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before filling and assembling.
Make the Ganache
- Finely chop the chocolate and set it aside.
- In a small saucepan, warm the cream over medium low heat just until hot and beginning to simmer around the edges. Remove from the heat and stir in the chopped chocolate until smooth.
- Let the ganache cool for 15-20 minutes in the refrigerator, stirring it every 5 minutes. It should still be spreadable, but thickened enough that it won't run off the cookies.
- Turn the bottom cookies over, so the bottom side is facing up. Spoon the ganache onto the cookies, gently spreading it close to the edges, but not so close that it will run off. Wait 2 minutes, then gently place the other half of the cookies on top of the ganache. Chill the cookies in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to quickly set the ganache.
- Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 days, or in the freezer for up to 3-6 months.
Notes
- These cookies freeze beautifully, so you can bake them in advance and then freeze until you're ready to decorate them.
- You can also make the dough in advance, wrap it well, and freeze for 3-6 months. Thaw it overnight in the refrigerator, then let it warm up at room temperature until you can roll it out.
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