Vegan chocolate chip pumpkin spice cookie sandwiches with chocolate buttercream

It’s that time of year again.

The days of colorful leaves and impending untimely snowfalls and annoyingly cold weather, the days of pumpkin spice lattes and butternut squash soup and apple pie, the days of homecoming and the ever-unexpected deluge of homework and, of course, cookies to be brought to class in a desperate grab at cookie-induced popularity. Because we all know that bitches love cookies. And do they love cookies in fall?

Yes. Especially in fall. Cookies definitely help with that homework deluge thing.


I personally, am a fan of autumn not so much because of its newfound availability of winter squash and all of its derivatives, but because of the holidays. Halloween, the patron celebration of cheap makeup and cheaper candy; Thanksgiving, our good ol’ ‘Murican day for freedom! and gluttony! and fuck yeah!; and, of course, the drawn-out anticipation of Christmas and all of the seasonal food-eating that goes along with it. Great season; 8/10 would live though again.

So you must understand. The pumpkin is just a part of the whole cycle, as vital as candy to Halloween and chocolate hearts to Valentine’s Day. Don’t resist it. Let yourself fall into the flow. Pick up a pumpkin spice latte along the way. Bathe yourself in orange squash and warm spices. Be not afraid.

Okay, maybe we should be a little bit afraid. source

But to be fair, that pumpkin spice Kahlua is awesome. Or *cough* so says my mother.

In the coming week (weeks?), you shall see many desserts akin to this one. Blame it on the CSA—we’ve already gotten a decent-sized sugar pumpkin along with our spaghetti, butternut, and acorn squashes, leading us to believe that the only manageable solution is to bake the pumpkin and puree it for all of our baking needs. Which we did. Which is why there are several cups of light-orange squashy mush sitting in the refrigerator. Which is why I decided to make not one, not two, but three desserts in a row using this seasonal ingredient.

I’m afraid pumpkin is about to become the zucchini of the cooler seasons. For that, I apologize in advance.

Or not. Because cookies.

Today’s recipe is not all too groundbreaking, but it is delicious enough to merit a separate post. I simply took my favorite vegan cookie recipe and swapped out the applesauce for pumpkin puree, added some warm spices, and filled it with chocolate buttercream. Easy enough. But the results are far from ordinary, I assure you, as my schoolmates were sure to gobble up ever last sandwich, crying with pleasure in between bites and sobbing quietly from the pure ecstasy of the experience. It was near-religious, I tell you.

Kind of.

Here’s the recipe.

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Vegan chocolate chip pumpkin spice cookie sandwiches with chocolate buttercream

Ingredients

Cookies (adapted from wicked easy vegan chocolate chip cookies)

280 grams • dark brown sugar • 1 ¼ cups

108 grams • vegetable oil • ½ cup

90 grams • nondairy milk • ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons

50 grams • granulated sugar • ¼ cup

60 grams • pumpkin puree • ¼ cup

8 grams • vanilla extract • 2 teaspoons

280 grams • all-purpose flour • 2 ¼ cups

4 grams • baking soda • 1 teaspoon

4 grams • salt • ¾ teaspoon

4 grams • cinnamon • 1 ½ teaspoons

2 grams • nutmeg • ½ teaspoon

1 gram • cloves • ¼ teaspoon

1 gram • allspice • ¼ teaspoon

160 grams • nondairy chocolate chips • 1 cup

Chocolate frosting (adapted from this cake)

113 grams • vegan buttery spread, softened • ½

27 grams • cocoa powder • 1/3 cup

300 grams • powdered sugar • 2 ½ cups

45 grams • nondairy milk • 3 tablespoons

8 grams • vanilla extract • 2 teaspoons

2 grams • espresso powder • ½ teaspoon

Instructions

In a large bowl, whisk together dark brown sugar, vegetable oil, nondairy milk, granulated sugar, applesauce, and vanilla. Gently stir in all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice just until combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Drop 1 tablespoon-sized blobs of batter on sheets, keeping them at least 1 ½ inches apart, and smooth them out. You want the cookies to be round but flat on the tops. Chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour (preferred) or freeze for at least 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Bake cookies for about 10 minutes, or until the edges are browned and the tops are dry. Let cool completely on baking sheets.

To make frosting, place vegan buttery spread in the bowl of a stand mixer and whip until light and fluffy. Add cocoa powder and mix well. On low speed, gradually add powdered sugar. Pour in milk, vanilla, and espresso powder and whip until light and fluffy.

Make cookie sandwiches by spreading buttercream on the bottom of one cookie, then gently pressing another cookie on top of it. Munch.

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Again, nighttime photography. Sorry.

You might hate me for this. Maybe you’re already groaning in frustration with my redundant and unoriginal uses for pumpkin.

But just give it a chance. You never know what you might taste if you do.