Bryan’s Pumpkin Butterscotch Cookies

My friend Bryan lives in New Mexico, and while I haven’t seen him in person in several years, I’m grateful that social media can keep us in touch. The other evening, he posted that he was baking pumpkin butterscotch cookies, and I simply had to get the recipe.

While pumpkin and butterscotch aren’t flavors that I had ever thought to pair before, their combination is absolutely delicious. Bryan’s recipe is adapted from one on All Recipes; he substituted butter for the shortening in the original, and pumpkin pie spice for the cinnamon alone (which was brilliant, by the way). I make my own pumpkin pie spice, so I’ve included the individual spices that go into it here. You could certainly just use the original if you have it, though.

Thank you for this recipe, Bryan! I miss you!

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 8 tablespoons butter, slightly softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups butterscotch chips

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and nutmeg; set aside.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add pumpkin puree and vanilla extract and beat until combined. Batter will be clumpy, but this is normal.

Add flour mixture in two batches and beat until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl a few times. Stir in butterscotch chips.

Using a one-inch cookie scoop, drop scoops of dough onto prepared baking sheets.

Bake 8-10 minutes; cookies may look slightly underdone, but they will continue baking as they cool. Remove from oven and cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 3 dozen.