What better way to celebrate the autumnal colors of Thanksgiving than by creating a fall cookie dessert for my family and friends.
Pumpkin Butter Cheesecake Cookies
and Caramel Kiss Acorns.
This called for the Williams Sonoma fall pie crust cutters.
Along with my staple......Trader Joes
(frozen) ready made pie crust.
Before rolling the pie crust, I brushed dots of food coloring concentrate directly onto the pie crust dough. Various fall colors of yellow, green, orange, and red. Then I gathered up the dough gently kneading and mixing the colors just until it produced a marbled effect.
Rolling the dough thin for a crisp cookie shell.
After
cutting out the various leaf shapes, I popped them in the oven. While
the leaves were baking I mixed the pumpkin butter, cream cheese, filling together for the cookies.
These measurements are an approximation.
The cream cheese to pumpkin butter ratio are to each individuals taste of sweetness.
1 jar of (Trader Joes) pumpkin butter.
(any pumpkin butter will work)
1-11.5oz. whipped cream cheese.
Gently whisk together a few tablespoons at a time of each ingredient until you reach the desired amount and sweetness.
Spread a teaspoon of filling on each (baked) leaf, adding a sprinkling of
Craisins and pecans.
Sandwich the matching leaf to form the cookie.
For a few of the cookies I mixed a smidgen of the cranberry sauce to the Craisins.
I thought it would provide a nice touch to include a few acorns with the Fall leaf cookies.
Acorns:
Soften 3-4 caramel squares by hand or in the microwave 10- 20 seconds.
Don't over melt, they just need to be pliable.
Flatten the caramel with a rolling pin.
Cut with a small round fluted cookie cutter to form the acorn top.
Wrap the acorn tops around a chocolate Kiss.
I used a mini chocolate morsel for the stem.
For the tag I personalized a fall leaf I gathered from my walk.
Tied it all together with a glittered dot ribbon.
If you're really feeling ambitious you can tackle this Thanksgiving turkey cake
from Hungry Happenings!
