Pumpkin Butterscotch Cookies

Prepared with real pumpkin puree and lots of pumpkin spice flavour, these delectably moist and sweet Pumpkin Butterscotch Cookies are everything a really good cookie should be – soothing, comforting, and flavourful! Plus, everyone loves a cookie made with molasses!

Butterscotch is sweet and indulgent, it’s a flavour combination that combines that of browned butter, molasses, and caramelized sugar. Now, pair that with smooth pumpkin and it’s a flavour combination that is out of this world! Pumpkin Butterscotch Cookies are prepared with simplified versions of those ingredients, but also with lots of butterscotch baking chips!

Butterscotch is not something I have often, but there was a time when butterscotch was a flavour that I would crave constantly.  Do you remember butterscotch pudding?  It was my favourite type of store-bought pudding cup when I was a kid. Long before the days of those plastic cups with the foil-lined peel-back lid, pudding cups came in cans. The cans were short and round and had a metal peel-back lid with a little pull tab attached to it.  The condensed milk cans today are very similar to what the pudding cans used to look like.

In my opinion, pudding really doesn’t taste the same since they switched the packaging.  Or maybe that’s just in my head and I’m holding on to memories of a simpler time.  It’s hard sometimes to enjoy certain foods like we did when we were kids.  For instance, you would never catch me eating one of those Astro pops anymore, but as a kid, I ate my fair share and I never once worried about the havoc those pops were playing on my teeth. When all is said and done, butterscotch triggers a sense of nostalgia in me, and that’s probably why these Pumpkin Butterscotch Cookies are one of my favourite fall recipes.  

COOKIE DISCLAIMER!

Now, Dear Reader, I need you to understand something before you whip out your flour and pumpkin spice.  These cookies are very sweet and are most certainly an indulgence.  That’s probably why it’s best to make them only once per year and keep the guilt at a low minimum.  The butterscotch chips, the sugar, and the molasses all add to the sweetness of this cookie.  But, they’re so delicious and worth the calories at least once.

My daughter loves these cookies!  In fact, I used to make them when she was in high school and pack them in her school lunch bag.  One morning when I went to the kitchen to make my coffee and noticed a visible decline in the amount of cookies left in the cookie jar.  She was very quick to admit that she had a “snack” after we had gone to bed.  What can I say, she was a teenager!

Most of us think that anything pumpkin-flavoured is aimed at the cooler, fall months, like October and November. But, I think pumpkin-flavoured foods are great during the holidays too. Nothing can soothe and warm from the inside like a hot cup of coffee and a freshly baked Pumpkin Butterscotch Cookie!

I’m going to tell you all about this cookie recipe and how you can make it in your home this holiday season, but first, I want to tell you about what you can expect from Lord Byron’s Kitchen this Christmas. I know we’re just kicking off the holiday season, but I have a lot of Christmas-themed recipes to share with you this year, so I’ve had to get started early.

Back in October, I kicked off the holiday season with a holiday recipe series called Lord Byron’s 12 Christmas Donuts and followed that up with a second series called Lord Byron’s 12 Christmas Appetizers. And now, I’m starting out on this new series, which is the sixth annual instalment! I cannot believe that this is the sixth year in a row that I’ve shared Lord Byron’s 24 Cookies of Christmas! But, before we get to a list of ingredients and instructions for today’s recipe, let me tell you about this series and more!

LORD BYRON’S 24 COOKIES OF CHRISTMAS SERIES

Another holiday series, Lord Byron? Yes – why not!? Welcome, Dear Reader, to the fourth of my annual holiday recipe series for this season! This one is called Lord Byron’s 24 Cookies of Christmas – Volume 6! I will try to keep the recipes in this series quick and easy, just like in previous years. Even if a recipe looks complex, I promise you that it is not! My goal, as always, is to share recipes with you that are not too complex to whip up as a holiday treat for your family. 

Like every other holiday series I’ve shared over the years, this series will share a new recipe every day for the next 24 days – even on Saturday and Sunday! You might be asking yourself, how many Christmas recipes could one possibly have or need? Well, I say you can never have too much of a good thing. And, I love having lots of choices. Who wants to prepare the same holiday recipes year after year?

SUBSCRIBE NOW SO THAT YOU NEVER MISS OUT ON NEW RECIPES!

So, welcome, Dear Reader, to Lord Byron’s 24 Cookies of Christmas series! Even though this is the fourth series for this holiday season, you can always look back at previous years if you just cannot wait until the next recipe is published. Also, some of my favourite recipe collections from previous years are my 75 Homemade Gifts from Your Kitchen, my 50 Make Ahead Freezer Friendly Christmas Recipes, and my 30 No-Bake Christmas Recipes post.

You really don’t want to miss one of these recipes, so if you have not yet subscribed to Lord Byron’s Kitchen, I encourage you to do so. That way, a new recipe will be emailed to you every day. You won’t have to bother to come looking for it! Like in previous holiday recipe countdowns, I like to mix up the recipes in the series so that there is something for everyone. Are you ready!!??

INGREDIENTS NEEDED TO PREPARE THIS RECIPE

The following is a list of the ingredients needed to prepare this recipe. For exact amounts and measurements, refer to the printable recipe card located near the bottom of this post.

• Butter – Make sure your butter is at room temperature and quite soft.
• Sugar
• Pumpkin Puree – Most of us buy this in a can, but you can make it yourself.  It is peeled and cooked pumpkin that has been pureed without the addition of any other ingredients.
• Molasses – When baking, the best molasses to fancy molasses.  Stay away from dark or blackstrap molasses unless instructed otherwise.  Fancy molasses is light molasses. 
• Flour – No need for anything special. Just use regular all-purpose flour. I have not tried this recipe with any other type of flour.
• Pumpkin Spice Blend – You can buy this or, if you have a spice rack at home, you can make it very easily. Here’s a very easy recipe that I use every year.
• Salt
• Baking Soda
• Butterscotch Chips – Butterscotch chips are warming and sweet, which makes them great in baked goods.
• Sanding Sugar

HOW TO MAKE PUMPKIN BUTTERSCOTCH COOKIES

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper or a Silpat liner. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter, sugar, pumpkin puree and molasses together. Add the flour, pumpkin spice, salt, and baking soda. Blend into the wet mixture.

Next, fold in the butterscotch chips. Using a 2-tablespoon scoop, scoop the cookie dough into your hand and roll it into a ball. Place the balls onto the prepared baking sheet and use a drinking glass (preferably one with a pattern or design on the bottom) to gently flatten the cookie dough to about 1/2 inch. Next, top each cookie with a sprinkling of the coarse white sanding sugar.

Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool on the baking sheet for two minutes. Transfer the cookies to a wire cooling rack to continue cooling.

LET’S TALK ABOUT MOLASSES!

There are basically three types of molasses – light, dark, and blackstrap. If you boil cane sugar once, you will get light molasses. If you boil it twice, you’ll get dark molasses. So, boiling it three times must mean that you’ll get blackstrap molasses. Remember, the darker the molasses (blackstrap) the less sweet and more bitter it is.

Never use blackstrap molasses in a recipe unless instructed to do so by the author of the recipe. You can use light or dark without changing the taste drastically. There are also sulphured and unsulphured molasses. The difference between the two is that the sulphured molasses has been chemically treated with preservatives.

If you buy molasses to make these cookies and have lots left over, there’s plenty you can do with it. One of my favourite sources of recipe inspiration is Taste of Home. Here’s a list of 33 Amazing Molasses Recipes!

CAN I USE TREACLE INSTEAD?

Yes. In essence, treacle is the British version of molasses. It comes in two forms: light treacle or golden syrup, which is very similar to light molasses. Black treacle is similar to blackstrap molasses but is lighter in colour and not as bitter. I use unsulphured fancy molasses and black treacle interchangeably.

SANDING VS GRANULATED SUGAR

I use coarse sanding sugar quite often in my recipes, and I hope it hasn’t been too difficult for you to find. Sanding sugar is sometimes referred to as baking sugar, and there are some substitutes. You can use other sugars – which are basically the same, but named something differently – there’s pearl sugar and coarse sugar. You cannot, however, use granulated sugar. Let me explain why.

Whereas an individual granule of sanding sugar is large and hard, a single granule of granulated sugar is quite small. Sanding sugar will hold up to the heat in your oven without melting; granulated sugar will not. If you cannot find sanding sugar, then I’m afraid this recipe is not for you.

You can find sanding sugar online, but it’s expensive in comparison to what you can find at a baking supply store. I buy most of my sanding sugar at Bulk Barn. They have just about every colour you will need!

STORING, PACKAGING, & FREEZING

When it comes to most cookies, they taste best at room temperature, but they don’t hold up well to being left out on your countertop for long periods of time. Cookies will stay fresh in a cookie jar or food-safe container with a lid for 3-5 days if left to sit on your kitchen countertop. You can store them in a food-safe container in your fridge. When you want one, two, or half a dozen, take them out of the container and place them in a single layer on a plate. Let them sit at room temperature for 5 minutes and they’re ready!

If you plan to freeze your Pumpkin Butterscotch Cookies, you certainly can! Once the chocolate has hardened, pile them into a clean, food-safe container. The container must be freezer friendly! You’ll want to ensure a very tight-fitting lid too. I use these quite often when freezing baked goods. I like to place a sheet of plastic wrap over the top of the container before pushing the lid on. This helps to create a better seal. The goal is to keep all of that freshness locked in!  

You can freeze these cookies for up to three months. If you plan to give previously frozen cookies as a gift, I would lay them out on a wire cooling rack to thaw completely. If packaging, wait until the condensation has evaporated. Once thawed, pile into cellophane bags and tie with a ribbon, or stack in a cookie tin/box.

QUESTIONS?

If I have not answered all of your questions in the text above, don’t hesitate to reach out to me! You can contact me by sending me a message in the comments section further down the page. I will try my best to answer as soon as possible! You might reach me even faster by following me on Facebook and sending me a private message. Scroll down below the recipe card to find my Follow Me on Social Media box and never miss another recipe!

Finally, as I stated previously, every day I will be posting a new recipe. If you miss one, don’t fret. You can find my entire collection of Christmas Recipes right here! There are over 200 Christmas recipes and counting. There’s something for everyone! Cheers!