Pumpkin Pie Spice Cookie Butter Cocoa Swirls

Look: I know this name is a mouthful. I tried to edit it down, but nothing felt right. I considered “Pumpkin Cookie Butter Swirls” and “Pumpkin Cocoa Swirls,” among many others. Thing is, those shorter names shortchange the delightful flavor combo you get when you bite into one of these cookies. The ginger notes of cookie butter, the distinct taste of pumpkin pie spice, the richness of dark cocoa. These cookies deserve every last descriptive word in their title.

I discovered Pumpkin Pie Spice Cookie Butter at Trader Joe’s last year, and knew I had to bake with it. I took a favorite cookie butter recipe, and swapped the Pumpkin Pie Spice flavor in for standard cookie butter. Pumpkin Pie Spice Cookie Butter Blondies were born! Soon I regretted buying only one jar of the limited edition flavor. When I went back to Trader Joe’s to buy more, the jars were sold out! I learned my lesson: this year, I snagged multiple jars the minute I saw them on shelf.

First experiment of 2016: these delicious, swirly, multi-flavored cookies. I used the same “swap-in” method as last year, and looked for interesting cookie butter recipes. I love that these Chocolate Biscoff Swirl Cookies from Inside Bru Cru Life combine two types of dough. It’s actually a really easy recipe, because you simply add cocoa to a portion of the dough to get your chocolate swirls. The cookie butter adds such a lovely flavor to the base dough, with an extra hint of spice beyond the usual cookie butter. Since you use the base dough for the chocolate swirls, that part has cookie butter in it too. So the chocolate swirls are actually more like a cocoa/pumpkin/cookie butter situation.

Now do you see why these cookies deserve all the words in their name?!

I still have a bunch of cookie butter left, so you’ll definitely see more recipes in the coming weeks. I highly encourage you to experiment with the stuff on your own, too. Let me know if you discover any winning recipes or flavor combos!

Original recipe: Inside Bru Cru Life. I swapped the cookie butter flavor but otherwise it’s the same recipe. I’ve rewritten things a bit and added commentary. 

Yield: 16-20 cookies 

Suggested equipment: Mixer

Total Time: 1 hour 

Cook Time: ~8 minutes 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup Pumpkin Pie Spice Cookie Butter. I’ve only seen this at Trader Joe’s but if you find another brand, go for it!
• A pinch of salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 and 1/4 cups flour, divided (that means you will use 1 cup at one point in the recipe, then 1/4 cup later on) 
• 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/4 cup dark cocoa powder (definitely get dark cocoa because it amps up the flavor!)
• 1 tsp milk (I always use whole milk in baking) 
• 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Step by Step Directions

Prep your dough 

1. Use your mixer to cream together the butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla
2. Add your egg and cookie butter, then beat the whole mixture together
3. In a separate bowl, sift together the salt, baking soda, 1 cup of the flour and cornstarch in a separate bowl
4. With your mixer on low, add your dry ingredients to the creamed mixture
5. Scoop out 1 cup of cookie dough and set it aside. This is now your “cocoa dough”
6. Add your extra 1/4 cup flour to the dough remaining in your mixer bowl. This is now your “base dough”
7. Roll the base dough into even-sized balls. The original recipe says to make 20 balls. I only got 16, but it all depends on the size you make! Place the balls on a cookie sheet or plate and stick it in the fridge to chill
8. Go back to your cocoa dough. Add in the cocoa and milk, and stir it together
9. Mix your chocolate chips into the cocoa dough
10. Now, roll the cocoa dough into balls and set them in the fridge, too. You’ll want to count out the same number of dough balls for both the base and cocoa doughs since you’ll end up smushing them together
11. Let the dough balls chill for at least 30 minutes so the dough doesn’t spread

Bake your cookies 

1. Preheat your oven to 375F
2. Take one ball of base dough and one ball of cocoa dough, then smush them together (see the pics for reference!). Roll the dough back into a ball and place it on your prepared cookie sheet
3. Bake the cookies for 8-9 minutes. They should look set around the edges, but slightly undone in the middle
4. Let them sit on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, then move the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely
5. Store these in an airtight container. Mine only made it 24 hours but they tasted great the next day!

Creaming the first set of ingredients

Adding in an egg and vanilla

Mixing the dry ingredients together

Mixing the dry and wet ingredients

Cocoa dough is ready to go!

Ready to chill!

Ready to bake!

Letting the cookies cool

Cookies in the wild (aka at my office)