Orange Pumpkin Cookies Recipe

If you’re looking for something fun to bake with the kids over Halloween, then this Orange Pumpkin Cookie recipe is not only really easy to make but super yummy as well!

Ingredients for Cookie

280g soft unsalted butter
350g plain flour
100g icing sugar
2 finely grated orange zests

Ingredients for Cookie Filling

200g mascarpone
2 tsp icing sugar
50g of melted dark chocolate (best if one with around 70% cocoa solids)

Ingredients for Cookie Glaze

100g icing sugar
4tbsp of orange juice

Method

Put the softened unsalted butter in a bowl and beat it with a spoon until its really smooth, then add the plain flour, icing sugar and orange zest and keep mixing together until it’s a soft dough consistency. Then knead it into a ball and warp it in cling film before placing it in the fridge for an hour. This mixture should make at least 12 Cookies.
After an hour take the dough out the fridge and roll it our on a lightly floured surface and cut out 24 circles, we used a plain circle cutter that was 7.5cm then put them on a baking tray that is lined with a baking sheet.
Take a small amount of dough and join it onto the top of 12 of the cookies for the stem of the pumpkin, just rub your finger over the joint and it will stick ok together no problem as the dough is a little wet anyway
Then you need to use a sharp knife to cut out a pumpkin face on each one, we also found a cocktail stick was quite handy to get into the corners of the eyes and don’t forget to score lines down the pumpkin
Put these cookies in a pre-heated over at 160 °C / Gas Mark 4 to bake for 15 minutes
When you take the cookies out you might need to use a cocktail stick or sharp knife to just sharpen the eyes and nose on the pumpkin face as it might have spread a little while baking. The cookie is quite crumbly so be careful when you doing this. Then carefully move onto a wire rack totally cool
Whilst the cookies are cooling you can make the glaze, simply mix the icing and juice together to make a smooth runny icing, if not runny enough you can add more orange juice. Use a brush to apply the glaze to the cookie, just add a light layer then put aside to dry
Mix together the mascarpone and icing sugar really well, we used an electric whisk but you could use a manual one no problem, then melt the chocolate and make sure its cooled down before mixing that into the mascarpone and icing sugar. If you have a sweet tooth and want it to taste more chocolatey you can add more than 50g of chocolate its up to you.
Once the filling mix is a consistent chocolatey colour then spread a layer on the base of the cookie again be careful as they are crumbly. Then place the top o the cookie with the face on it on top.

These cookies are best if ate on the same day, however we made so many that we couldn’t possibly, so when storing we placed them in a tub in the fridge and they were fine the next day.