Trader Joe’s Recipes: Easy Pumpkin Cookies with Cookie Butter

Last year, I discovered the awesomeness that is Trader Joe’s pumpkin bread mix. It’s back in stores now and if you enjoy it, I do recommend stocking up now! I went later in the season last year to buy more and found they’d stopped carrying it. It’s definitely a seasonal item!

I knew I wanted to feature the pumpkin bread mix for my new Trader Joe’s Recipes series that I launched last week. (In case you missed the announcement, each Friday through the end of the year I’ll be creating a recipe that highlights a fun Trader Joe’s food item!)

But…what to do with it?

And then I had a light bulb go off: COOKIES! I wondered if there was a way I could use the mix to make more of a cookie consistency and less of a bread one. My idea turned out to work like a charm and I’m happy to say it was every bit as easy to make and every bit as delicious to eat!

Ingredients:

• 1 box Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Bread & Muffin Mix
• 2 large eggs
• 1 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 jar Speculoos Cookie Butter (my store carried Crunchy)

Start by pre-heating your oven to 375°.

Mix the eggs into the butter until you’ve got a nice, even consistency. Next, add the pumpkin bread mix. I like to start with just a little bit first to introduce the dry ingredients to the wet. I am happy to report that it’s nice you can use an entire box of the mix – no measuring or having leftovers. The entire box resulted in the perfect soft-baked cookies!

For this recipe, I knew I wanted small cookies – about the size of an Oreo. So I made small balls and then just flattened them slightly with the backside of a fork.

Um, hello? How perfect did these turn out? I cooked them for about 8-10 minutes, but your oven may vary. I’d check them after about 7 minutes or so to see how they’re coming along.

Now…you could eat them as is and they’d be delicious. But I thought they were missing something…

Filling!

When the cookies were completely cooled, I spread a little bit of Trader Joe’s Speculoos Cookie Butter, forming a sandwich. Have you ever tried this cookie butter? It’s insane. I am going to warn you right now – this isn’t such a good food choice for those on a diet! I counted FOUR different instances of sugar in the ingredient list. But that would also explain why it’s so crazy good.

Alternately, you could check Trader Joe’s for other filling options – I think the fig or pumpkin butter would be good to try, too.

These were quite tasty and my kids loved them. In fact my daughter declared me a “genius” for coming up with this recipe! If you try this recipe, I’d love to know what you think!

If you missed last week’s recipe? GO BACK AND CHECK IT OUT. It’s crazy good, too: Black Bean Fritters with Trader Joe’s Corn & Chile Salsa.

Join me next week for another deliciously inspired Trader Joe’s recipe!