Today’s sweet recipe: pumpkin shortbread cookies.
It’s autumn and one of the vegetables I love to use the most is definitely pumpkin, especially the Delica pumpkin because it lends itself well to various preparations ranging from sweet to savory. In fact, this variety of pumpkin is excellent for making pumpkin gnocchi, ravioli fillings, pasta sauces, focaccia doughs, and also many desserts like panna cottas, brioches, or simple cookies like today’s.
Pumpkin shortbread cookies are easy and quick to prepare. The longest part will be the pumpkin puree, in fact, to obtain it we will have to bake the pumpkin in the oven for 30/35 minutes. But don’t worry because while it’s baking nicely in the oven, you can relax on the couch with a nice cup of hot chocolate!
The Delica pumpkin has a dark yellow flesh, firm and compact, with less water than other varieties. Its taste is slightly sweeter; when eaten baked or air-fried, this sweet taste is a bit more pronounced, but in doughs, it tends to be covered.
Moreover, I like this type of pumpkin because all its parts are edible. In fact, its skin can be eaten after cooking and even the seeds can be used to make fun snacks to munch on.
Now let’s see together, step by step, how to make this recipe.
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Very Cheap
- Preparation time: 5 Minutes
- Portions: About 20 cookies
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Autumn, Winter
Ingredients for Pumpkin Cookies
Below you will find the links to the ingredients used
- 2 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
- 7 oz oz Delica pumpkin (raw)
- 3/4 cups powdered sugar
- 7 tbsp butter
- 1 egg (medium)
Tools
Below you will find links to some of the tools used to make the recipe
- 1 Scale
- 1 Stand Mixer
- 1 Pastry Board
- 1 Rolling Pin
- 1 Cookie Cutter
Let’s Get Started
To make the pumpkin shortbread cookies, we will need pumpkin puree. Obtaining it is very easy. Wash the pumpkin thoroughly, cut it in half, and use a spoon to remove the inner strands and seeds (remember not to throw them away). Then take the amount of pumpkin you need and wrap it in aluminum foil (keep in mind that you need twice the amount of raw pumpkin compared to the cooked pumpkin you need). Bake in a preheated oven at a temperature of 392°F for 30/35 minutes. After this time, remove from the oven and separate the flesh from the skin (you can eat the skin, don’t throw it away).
In the bowl of the stand mixer with the K beater, add the flour and the cold chopped butter and quickly mix these two ingredients to obtain a mixture similar to Parmesan. Once this is done, add the other ingredients: the pumpkin mashed with a fork or blended with an immersion blender, the egg, and the powdered sugar. Then mix quickly until you get a soft yet workable and compact dough. Transfer the dough to a work surface and form a smooth ball.
With a rolling pin, roll out one part of the dough at a time to a thickness of about 1/5 inch and cut out the cookies with the cutter you’ve chosen. Continue until the dough is used up. As you make the cookies, place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake in a preheated oven at a temperature of 356°F for 15 minutes, remove from the oven, and let cool. While you’re waiting to eat them, take a photo of your cookies, post it on social media tagging me (unaricciachepasticcia), and let me know which shape you chose but especially what you did while waiting for the pumpkin to bake! 🤣
A Curly Head’s Advice
The most indulgent can add chocolate chips to the dough while the most greedy can spread a layer of hazelnut spread over the cookies.
Normally, shortbread dough made with butter is left to rest in the fridge for at least half an hour, but I always use this one with pumpkin right away and I’ve never had any problems.
