These slightly soft pumpkin cookies with apple butter thumbprint and maple drizzle will melt in your mouth. They make it so easy to get a little bit of that pumpkin-pie-spice flavor.
These are gluten free in the way that doesn't make you feel you are missing anything - just a great variation on an almond flour cookie! And -- vegan!
And you only need to look a few posts ago to find this apple butter recipe.
Are apple butter thumbprint cookies healthy?
It seems a little silly to say a cookie is healthy when it contains sugar. But the almond and coconut flours are relatively low on the glycemic index. The coconut sugar is called an unrefined sugar, though strictly speaking, any sugar that is removed from its natural state is at least somewhat refined.
But these do taste more like the spices than the sweeteners! And they smell like Fall.
Plus, they are mixed up in the food processor for really quick prep. The order that works best is: 1) dry ingredients 2) coconut oil 3) wet ingredients, salt and spices 4) pulse until the dough gathers in the food processor.
You can also mix these cookies up by hand. If your coconut oil is softened, you can follow the same order of mixing of the ingredients. If you find the oil a bit hard to mix in, heating it in the microwave for 30 seconds or so will soften it enough.
Once all the ingredients are mixed, it's just a matter of rolling the dough into similar-sized balls and making a depression in each one.
Bake for about 15 minutes and allow to cool. Once they are cool, spoon some apple butter into each thumbprint. You could stop there and they would be simple and delicious!
What toppings are good on apple butter thumbprint cookies?
Once each cookie has some apple butter, you can leave them as-is or continue to decorate: with the maple-sugar drizzle, or with pecan halves, or with Halloween decorations - all go well with this cookie, though maybe not all at once!
And, as the amount of coconut sugar in the cookies is fairly low, I don't feel so guilty about adding a little powdered sugar from the drizzle.
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Other recipes you may enjoy
Almond Flour Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies
How to Make Apple Butter (Vegan, Paleo)
Apple-Apricot Fruit-Sweetened Muffins
As always, if you make this recipe, please leave me a comment to let me know how it went!
Enjoy,
Beth
Pumpkin Cookies with Apple Butter Thumbprint - Paleo, Vegan
Ingredients
For the cookie dough:
- 1 ⅔ cups packed fine almond flour not almond meal
- ¼ cup organic coconut sugar
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice or 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon, ½ teaspoon nutmeg, ½ teaspoon ground ginger, ¼ teaspoon allspice or ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup coconut oil room temperature
- 1 flax egg 1 tablespoon ground flax seed + 2 ½ tablespoons water (for a crisper cookie, or at high altitude, use 1 tablespoon water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup pumpkin puree
- ⅓ cup apple butter for thumbprints (recipe here)
Maple-vanilla drizzle:
- ¼ cup powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons pure maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract or for more maple flavor, another teaspoon maple
- Other toppings to consider: 12 pecan halves candy corn, a sprinkle of cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Measure almond flour, coconut flour, sugar, baking soda, spices and salt into your food processor. Process until well mixed, just a few pulses.
- Drop in the coconut oil and process until mixed in, about 30 seconds.
- Add the pumpkin puree, flax egg and vanilla extract. Process until well combined and the dough gathers up in one area of the food processor bowl.
- Allow dough to sit for 5 minutes for coconut flour to hydrate. The dough should be workable and not too sticky.
- Next divide and roll the dough into 12 balls of about 1 ½-inch across.
- Flatten each dough ball between your hands, keeping the cookies round. Place them on the prepared cookie sheet. To make a thumbprint, press gently with your thumb in the center until the cookies are about ¼ inch thick in the center and about ½ inch thick on the edges.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes (at high altitude, bake for 15 minutes).
- Remove from oven, transfer to a wire rack and allow cookies to cool completely before spooning a little apple butter into each well. Makes about 12 cookies.
- For the drizzle: In a small bowl, mix together the powdered sugar, pure maple syrup and vanilla. If frosting is too thick to drizzle, you can add a teaspoon or two more maple syrup to make it drizzle-able from a spoon. Frost each cookie, then enjoy! Sprinkle top of frosting with a little cinnamon for a gorgeous look.
Notes
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Brenda West
Wow, Beth! I cannot wait to try this recipe. I love everything "Peanut Butter". I'm sure that this will be a hit at my house during the holidays!
Beth
Brenda, thank you so much! They are really popular and the good thing is they don't take very long to make. I hope everyone at your house likes them as much as we do!
Raquel
I'm pretty sure I could smell these pictures! I love how you incorporated so many fall flavors into one cookie
Beth
Raquel, thank you! We love them and yes, you are right about all those aromas and flavors, the whole house smells like Fall.
Mandee
Ooh! Those sound amazing. I’ll have to try them. I wonder if they would turn out without the coconut oil since they have the pumpkin purée in them... I may have to try that and see. Great post!
Beth
Mandee, I think you could reduce the coconut oil and they'd still turn out, but you might add something like applesauce to hold them together. I would be so interested to see how they turn out for you! Or you could use butter (unless it's reducing the fat that you are after.)
Kirsten
Oh my gosh, these look delicious!! I can’t wait to try them!!
Beth
Kirsten, thank you! They are very popular with my family, and I hope you enjoy them when you have a chance to try them out.
Ryn
These look wonderful!!! Just in time for Fall and holiday cooking. I love that they are gluten free, too. I'm going to have to make a double batch -- I'm sure these will go fast!
Beth
Ryn, thank you - they are wonderful and easy. I would be very interested to hear how the recipe goes for you, and how you decide to top them.
Michele
Oh Beth! Your recipes never fail to make my mouth water! And this one is no exception! It sounds scrumptious and I can't wait to give it a try!
Beth
Michele, that is high praise indeed! That's my goal, of course. I hope you will enjoy these cookies as much as we do!