This cookie recipe sounds, and tastes, much fancier and complicated than they are to make. The cookies themselves come together very easy (they are almost cake like in consistency), and the brown butter frosting is delicious and once you know what to look for in browning butter- so simple.

To make the brown butter for the frosting, allow your butter (cut into smaller slices) to come to room temperature for at least 30 minutes. Then melt over medium-low heat in a saucepan. Stir the butter, or swirl the pan, pretty frequently as it melts. Once it melts it will begin to foam and sizzle some. Then keep stirring, and in a few more minutes it will turn golden brown. The foam will go down and the milk solids will fall the bottom on the pan, and it will have a rich nutty smell.

The frosting is too thick to apply with a spatula (at least I’ve never had luck) and is best piped on. I used an open star tip, but if you don’t have pastry piping materials you can just use a ziplock bag and cut off the tip.

Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Frosting

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Ingredients

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For The Cookies:

2 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (12 tablespoons or 170 grams) salted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups packed light-brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin puree

For The Browned Butter Icing:

4 cups powdered sugar
10 tablespoons salted butter, diced into 1 inch pieces
1/3 cup half and half

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Instructions

For The Cookies:

Preheat oven to 375°F.
In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt, set aside.
In the bowl an electric stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment and set on medium speed, whip together butter, light-brown sugar and granulated sugar until pale and fluffy, about 3 – 4 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition until combine. Mix in sour cream and vanilla extract, then mix in pumpkin puree.
With mixer set on low speed, slowly add dry ingredients and mix until combine.
Transfer 1 ½ cups of the cookie dough to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain tip and pipe 2 inch rounds onto a Silpat or parchment paper lined cookie sheet, spacing cookies at least 2 inches apart.
Bake in preheated oven about 10 minutes until tops spring back when touched.
Allow to cool several minutes on baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack.
Cool completely then prepare icing and spread icing over cookies.

For The Frosting:

Measure 4 cups of powdered sugar into a mixing bowl, set aside.
Brown butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, swirling pan occasionally (butter will melt, after a few minutes it will splatter, then it will foam, then golden brown flecks will begin to appear in the center of the foamy bubbles. This is when you remove it from heat.
Carefully pour browned butter over powdered sugar in mixing bowl, use a rubber spatula to scrape any excess butter and browned bits from pan. Add half and half and stir mixture until smooth.
Frost the cookies. While frosting, add additional half and half, about 1 – 2 teaspoon at a time, to icing mixture to thin as it will thicken as it sits.