Sourdough Discard Pumpkin Spice Cookies
This is the cookie recipe that fills your kitchen with spice, sweetness, and the cozy feeling of fall. The best sourdough discard pumpkin spice cookies are made with warm spices and have the perfect chewy texture. These pumpkin spice cookies are topped with a delicious, easy to make cream cheese frosting. They're the coziest cookie you'll bake this fall.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer
- Large pan - to melt the butter
- Silicone spatula
- Mixing bowl
- Whisk
- Cookie scoop - TIP: You can use an ice cream scoop to make bigger cookies!
- Parchment paper
- Cookie sheet
- Ziploc bags - To create a budget friendly piping bag
- Offset spatula or a spoon
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 1¼ cups (173g) Bread flour - You can sub with all-purpose if needed
- ½ tsp (5g) Baking soda
- 1 tsp (10g) Salt
- 1 tsp each (10g) Cinnamon & Pumpkin Pie Spice
Wet Ingredients (& Sugars)
- ½ cup (130g) Sourdough discard
- ½ cup (136g) Melted butter
- 1 cup (164g) Brown sugar
- ⅓ cup (65g) Granulated sugar
- 1 Egg
- 1 tsp (10g) Vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 3¾ cup (450g) Powdered sugar
- ½ cup (136g) Softened butter
- 8 oz Cream cheese
- 1 tsp (10g) Vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Line your cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Take your large pan and melt butter on low heat until the milk solids from the butter are toasted. Immediately remove from the heat and add to your stand mixer.
- To bring the brown butter back to room temp. Place the stand mixer bowl into another large bowl filled with ice water. Once the butter is no longer hot to the touch, it's ready to be mixed.
- Mix the brown and granulated sugar with the butter in your stand mixer on a low setting. Slowly add the sourdough discard, egg, and vanilla extract while the mixer is on low.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until the dough forms.
- Take your cookie scoop or ice cream scoop and add the dough balls to your cookie sheet.
- Bake the sourdough discard pumpkin spice cookies at 400 degrees for 12 minutes or until golden brown.
- Let the cookies cool while you make the cream cheese frosting.
- After you make the cream cheese frosting and the cookies have cooled, place the frosting into a ziploc bag and cut a hole in one of the corners of the bag. This will create a piping bag to make frosting the cookies easier. If you don't have ziploc bags, adding a dollop of frosting with a spoon should also work.
- Add the frosting to the center of the cookie and take an offset spatula or the back of a spoon and spread the frosting to the edges of the cookies.
- Finish with adding pumpkin pie spice to the top and enjoy!
How to Make the Cream Cheese Frosting
- Whisk together softened butter and cream cheese on medium speed in your stand mixer.
- Gradually add the vanilla extract, then the powdered sugar until you get your desired consistency.
- TIP: If the frosting is too runny add more powdered sugar. If it's too thick, add a little bit of milk.
Notes
Tips:
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- When you brown the butter, the milk solids will start to turn brown. Once they're brown that's how you know you should take it off the heat. Melt at a low temp to avoid burning.
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- If you need to bring the butter to room temp quickly, pop it in your mixing bowl and set that bowl inside a bigger one filled with ice water. Once the butter doesn't feel warm to the touch anymore, it's good to go.
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- If your cream cheese frosting is too runny add more powdered sugar. If it's too thick add a little bit of milk.
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- Wait for the cookies to cool completely before adding the cream cheese frosting. Otherwise the icing will melt right off the cookies.