Autumn is my favorite season of the year. The mornings are brisk, and the evenings start to cool down. While the days are filled with the warmth of the sun. This lets us know that the end of harvest season is near and the desire to fire up the oven starts to grow. Autumn’s smells are full of warmth and spices. Rich flavors that just taste cozy. Apple Cider and pumpkin spice is everywhere, from baked goods to drinks, to all of our decor. Iced Butterscotch Pumpkin Cookies encompass all of those feelings.

Have you seen that International Delight commercial where the girl is super perky and super hyper and probably had 12 cups of coffee and is so excited that Pumpkin Spice is back in season! Yes, that girl is my daughter and I. Well, I should say I love pumpkin spice, but I love all things fall, but it is for sure my daughter. She is addicted to pumpkin. It will be no surprise that when she had to go gluten-free for health purposes autumn was the worst time of the year for her. Well autumn and winter.

Why Gluten-Free?

We went years just making do during this season for her. We had other pressing priorities to conquer, like my husband kicking diabetes butt. But this year, this is the year of Gluten-Free baking. My daughter is ridiculously excited and loves being a taste tester for these projects. My goal is to help her have a recipe book filled and ready for her when she moves out. This recipe is our first to release. It is one that she helped create and it is one that satisfied all of those gluten dreams that anyone who has to be gluten free will understand. You can learn more about what gluten is and why some people can’t have it here.

With that being said I do not have to be gluten-free, and I still love these cookies, and it’s not just because of the butterscotch. When my daughter made them the first time, they came out super chalky to me, and that was something I was not willing to release. I followed the same recipe she created and got a completely different result, for 2 major reasons.

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Tags: E-book, Gluten Free, Pumpkin, Recipes

Tips for Success

First do not over handle the dough. You want your butter stay cold as long as possible. She didn’t start with cold butter, and she worked it a ton, both made the dough extra sticky and almost impossible to work with, without adding more flour. Which leads me to the second difference.

Do not add extra flour! This will make your end product taste super chalky. Less is more. Work with it a little sticky, as long as it isn’t over handled, and that butter isn’t super melted it will still roll just fine.

My third tip is to let the cookie cool completely before tasting. Which you want to do anyway to be able to ice it. But letting it cool really does make a difference for Gluten Free.

If you follow these steps, then you should have a delicious cookie that no one will know is gluten free. If you would like to follow my instructions on YouTube you can find that video here.

Sourcing Bulk Ingredients

Most of my ingredients I try to source in bulk. I do enough cooking and baking from scratch that it is more cost effective for me to purchase in bulk. If you are interested in building your pantry on a budget, I highly suggest checking out Azure Standard. I can order from them once a month if I want to, which I don’t need to do that, and meet a semi truck at a specific drop location. Everyone purchasing helps unload all the product for that drop and then we take our goods and head home. I have saved so much money this way. For example the items I have in bulk for this recipe are: molasses, sugar(used to make brown sugar), baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, salt, gluten free flour and powder sugar all of which I get from Azure Standard. The vanilla I get in bulk from a co-op and I make my own vanilla extract.

One item I will be sourcing in bulk next fall is the butterscotch chips. I did not do that this year and I felt it in my pocketbook.

Iced Butterscotch Pumpkin Cookies

Iced Butterscotch Pumpkin Cookies (Gluten Free)

Jennifer Padilla

Delicious moist cake style cookies with all the flavors of fall.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 14 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 12

Calories 267 kcal

Equipment

• 1 Pastry Blender
• 3 Bowls
• 1 Whisk
• 1 Cookie Sheet
• 1 Parchment Paper

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

Cookie

• .5 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 large egg
• 3 tbsp coconut milk
• 1 tbsp molasses
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cup 1 for 1 gluten free all purpose flour We use Bob's Red Mill
• 5 tbsp brown sugar
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• .5 tsp baking soda
• .5 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
• .5 cup cold unsalted butter, cubed 1 stick
• .5 cup butterscotch chips

Icing

• 1.5 cup powder sugar
• 3 tbsp pumpkin puree
• 1 tbsp coconut milk

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
• In a medium bowl whisk pumpkin puree, egg, coconut milk, molasses and vanilla extract until fully incorporated.
• In a large bowl mix flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice.
• Using a pastry blender cut the cold butter into the dry ingredients until only small pebbles of butter are visible.
• Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix. You may need to use hands to mix/knead 4 to 6 times. (You do not want to melt the butter so do not over work it)
• Mix in butterscotch chips.
• Put 1/2 tablespoon gluten free flour on workspace and gently knead 3-4 times. (It is important not to over knead and not to add too much flour. This will be sticky)
• Roll dough to 1/4 inch thickness and cut out cookie shapes. (you will get about 2 dozen small cookies and 1 dozen larger cookies)
• Bake for 10-14 minutes on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Cook time will depend on size of cookie. You want them to be slightly golden brown. Let Cool.
• While cookies are cooling whisk icing ingredients together in a small bowl.
• Once cookies are fully cooled, top with icing or dust with powder sugar and enjoy.

Video

Notes

All Nutritional Information is based on 12 large cookies, one per serving. 

Nutrition

Calories: 267kcalCarbohydrates: 44gProtein: 3gFat: 10gSaturated Fat: 6gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.5gMonounsaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0.3gCholesterol: 35mgSodium: 233mgPotassium: 83mgFiber: 3gSugar: 28gVitamin A: 2437IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 63mgIron: 1mg

Keyword Butterscotch, Cookie, Gluten Free, Pumpkin

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Some other gluten-free cookies that you may enjoy are: Oatmeal Christmas Cookies, Chocolate Chip Surprise Cookies, and our Pumpkin Biscotti.