These Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Cheesecake Cookies are everything good about fall baking in a single dessert. They are soft and chewy pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies with swirls of cinnamon roll filling, stuffed with a cheesecake filling, coated in cinnamon sugar and finally decorated with a swirl of cream cheese icing. Yes, they're a bit involved with a few different components, but the result is truly mind-blowing. They're soft, chewy and gooey with a creamy filling, and have the most unbelievable warm and delicious flavor that shines of pumpkin and cinnamon.
These cookies are inspired by 2 popular Crumbl cookie flavors: Pumpkin Roll Cookie and Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookie, and the result is SO much better than either! Even if you're not usually a pumpkin person (I wasn't either until recently), I bet these will win you over. Think cinnamon roll vibes in cookie form with a cozy, spiced pumpkin twist. Honestly, I'm about to grab another one as I type this.
And if you wanna make some more fall flavored cookies, you will also love my delicious thick and chewy Biscoff lava cookies and Crumbl churro cookies with a dulce de leche filling and frosting!
4 components of these cookies
These pumpkin cinnamon roll cheesecake cookies are made with 4 components:
- A pumpkin cookie base. Very similar to snickerdoodle cookie dough, but with pumpkin puree and spices added to it
- Cinnamon roll swirl. You will make a butter, sugar and cinnamon mixture (similar to the filling of cinnamon rolls), spread it on a sheet of parchment paper and freeze it. Then, when the cookie dough is ready, remove from the freezer, break it into ~1" chunks, and swirl through the cookie dough. This creates pockets of chewy, crispy cinnamon goodness once baked
- Cheesecake filling and frosting. You stuff each cookie with a simple cheesecake filling inside, and then pipe the same filling on top of the cookies as a cream cheese frosting
- Cinnamon sugar coating. Just like snickerdoodles, the cookie dough balls are rolled in cinnamon sugar before being baked
I hear you, I hear you - this sounds like a lot. But you can simplify these cookies by skipping either the cheesecake filling or the cream cheese frosting (reduce quantities by half). I would recommend keeping the filling and skipping the frosting, because then you can enjoy the cookies warm from the oven! And if you're really not up to the work, you could even skip both and still have delicious pumpkin cinnamon roll snickerdoodles!
3 ways to dry pumpkin puree
Like most pumpkin dessert recipes, these cookies use canned pumpkin puree, but the key here is to dry it out before adding to the cookie dough. Pumpkin puree has a lot of moisture, and moisture is good for cakes, but not for cookies. There are 3 simple ways to dry out (or reduce) pumpkin puree:
- Paper towels. Spread the pumpkin puree on a large plate, and press it with paper towels to soak water. Replace with new paper towels once wet. Keep repeating, stirring the puree along the way, until the paper towels don't seem to get wet easily. This method is the quickest, but does use up quite a few paper towels
- Stovetop. The second option is to add the pumpkin puree to a nonstick saucepan, and cook on the lowest flame for about 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it has almost halved in volume. Just keep an eye so it doesn't catch! After this, you will have to let the pumpkin puree cool down
- Oven. The third option is to spread the puree on a baking sheet lined with parchment, and bake at 250F for ~20 minutes or so, stirring and re-spreading halfway. The time will vary depending on how thin you spread the puree
Regardless of the method you use, the key is to reduce the pumpkin puree to half of its original weight and volume. This is when we know we have removed sufficient moisture!
Important tips to help you perfect these cookies
Here are a few tips you need to know before you make these pumpkin cookies:
- Bring the butter and cream cheese to room temperature. This will help ensure they mix easily
- Weigh all your ingredients with a kitchen scale. With measuring cups, it's easy to accidentally add too much flour, which will result in dry cookies
- Make sure
- If the cookie dough feels too soft or sticky, chill it for 10-15 minutes before shaping the cookies
- Make sure the cinnamon sugar mixture is fully chilled and solid before folding it through the cookie dough. This helps keep it in separate chunks instead of just mixing into the cookie dough - you want the yummy flavor and texture variation!
- Similarly, make sure the cheesecake scoops are chilled and firm when you're shaping the cookies, and make sure they are fully encased by cookie dough so the filling doesn't leak out during the bake
- DO NOT rush the chilling process! These cookies will spread too thin and lack flavor and texture depth if they're not chilled overnight. I go into more detail about the importance of chilling cookie dough in my chewy snickerdoodle cookie recipe
- Use a light colored cookie sheet to bake the cookies so they don't brown too much on the bottom
- Bake a test cookie. I cannot emphasize this enough - everyone's oven is different, and you will only know how long to bake the cookies for when you test one yourself
Crumbl Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Cheesecake Cookies Recipe
- Total Time: 70 min + overnight chilling
- Yield: 6 large cookies
Description
Better than Crumbl soft and chewy pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies with swirls of cinnamon sugar, cheesecake filling, and cream cheese icing
Ingredients
Cheesecake filling / frosting:
- 8oz cream cheese (226g); room temperature
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar (67g)
- ½ cup heavy cream, chilled (120g)
- ½ tsp vanilla
Cinnamon roll swirl:
- ½ cup brown sugar (100g)
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature (56g)
- 1 tbsp flour
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp salt
Pumpkin snickerdoodle cookie dough:
- 12 tbsp or ¾ cup unsalted butter (170g), room temperature
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar (67g)
- ⅔ cup light or dark brown sugar, packed (133g)
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 egg yolk, room temperature
- 1.5 tsp vanilla
- ⅔ cup pumpkin puree (160g), reduced to ⅓ cup (80g)
- 2 ¼ cups all purpose flour (290g)
- 1.5 tsp pumpkin spice (or mix 1 tsp cinnamon, ¼ tsp nutmeg, ⅛ tsp clove and ⅛ tsp ginger)*
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
Cinnamon sugar coating:
- ¼ cup granulated sugar (50g)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
Cheesecake filling / frosting:
- Add the cream cheese and sugar to a bowl. Whisk on medium-high speed for 1-2 minutes until the mixture is creamy, scraping the bowl along the way
- Add the cold heavy cream and vanilla. Whisk for another 1-2 minutes, or until the mixture becomes thick and fluffy and reaches the medium peak stage (i.e., starts to hold shape). Do not overmix
- Line a small tray with parchment paper. Use a cookie scoop to scoop 6 balls of the cheesecake mixture onto the tray, each weighing ~30g. Transfer this tray to the freezer to allow the cheesecake filling to firm up
- Transfer the remaining cheesecake mixture to a piping bag with a round tip. This will become your cream cheese icing. Keep in the fridge for use at the end
Cinnamon roll swirl:
- Add the brown sugar, butter, flour, cinnamon and salt to a bowl. Whisk for 1 minute until the ingredients are combined (it will be a grainy mixture, don't worry)
- Place parchment paper on a small baking sheet. Spread the cinnamon mixture on it so it is about ½ cm in thickness. Then transfer to the freezer
Pumpkin snickerdoodle cookie dough:
- Start by drying the pumpkin puree if you haven't already. Spread it thinly on a large plate, and press paper towels on top to absorb water. Once the paper towels are soaked, replace them with new ones and stir and respread the puree. Keep repeating until the paper towels don't get wet easily (about 4 times) and the puree is half of its original volume*
- Add the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar to a bowl and whisk on medium high speed for 2-3 minutes until the mixture turns fluffy and light in color. Keep scraping the bowl along the way
- Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla. Whisk for another minute until a creamy mixture forms
- Add the dried pumpkin puree, and whisk until just combined
- Now sift the flour, pumpkin spice, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl and mix to combine. Add the dry ingredients to the cookie dough in 2 additions, and use a rubber spatula to gently fold until the flour is just combined. Take care not to overmix
- If the dough feels too soft and sticky, refrigerate it for 10-15 minutes until it reaches a firmer consistency that's easier to shape
Cinnamon sugar coating:
- Mix the cinnamon and sugar in a bowl
Assembly:
- Once all components are ready, it's time to assemble the cookie balls. Remove the cinnamon roll swirl from the freezer. It should be a solid bark. Break it into chunks (roughly ~½" to 1" big). Add half of the chunks on top of the cookie dough and gently fold them in. Then add the other half and gently fold again. Try to spread them evenly in the cookie dough while still keeping them intact (i.e., you don't want them to melt and mix into the cookie dough)
- Now remove the cheesecake scoops from the freezer, too
- Divide the cookie dough into 6 5oz portions (you may have a small bit left over). Working one piece a time, gently flatten in the palm of your hand and place a cheesecake scoop on top. Then fold over the cookie dough to completely encase the cheesecake scoop, and shape into a ball
- Repeat with all 6 portions of cookie dough
- One by one, roll each cookie dough ball in the cinnamon sugar mixture to coat it on all sides
- Place the cookie dough balls on a plate or tray lined with parchment paper, and refrigerate overnight (minimum of 6 hours)
Baking & decoration:
- When you're ready to bake after chilling, pre-heat the oven to 375F (conventional / no fan) and line a large light colored baking sheet with parchment paper
- Place the chilled cookie dough balls on the baking sheet, keeping at least 3" between each
- Place in the oven and bake at 375F for 5 minutes, then drop the temperature to 340F and bake for another 14-15 minutes for a total baking time of 19-20 minutes. The cookies are done baking when they are golden in color, look set on the edges but are still soft to touch in the middle (this is because of the cheesecake filling).
- Remove from the oven and let cool at room temperature for 1 hour
- Once the cookies are cool, pipe on swirls of cream cheese frosting (reserved from the previous day)
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
- Pumpkin spice: If you're not a fan of spices, you can simply replace the pumpkin spice with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- Cheesecake filling and cream cheese icing: To simplify this recipe, you can skip either the cheesecake filling or the cream cheese icing (or both). Keep in mind, if you skip the icing, you can serve the cookies warm. But if you keep the icing, you have to let the cookies cool down before decorating them
- Drying the pumpkin puree: You can also reduce the puree on a stovetop or in the oven; see blog post above. However, make sure it is cool before adding to the cookie dough
- Storage: Store the cookies in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days
- Freezing: You can freeze the cookie dough balls in ziploc bags for up to 3 months, and bake a fresh cookie any time you want it. Bake straight form the freezer and increase baking time by 3-4 minutes
- Prep Time: 50 min
- Cook Time: 20 min
- Category: Cookies
- Cuisine: American
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