everyday food made simple

I think I have a problem, guys. Now that I’ve caved in and made my first pumpkin dessert of the year, I can’t seem to stop. I have a bunch of pumpkin recipes lined up on my “make before the end of October” list already!  I made these a few days ago, and today I’ve already made my 3rd pumpkin dessert in 2 weeks. Don’t worry, that recipe will also be on Simple Everyday Food here soon too.

I present to you today: pumpkin n’ spice cream cheese truffles

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Yep, you heard that right. Pumpkin + gingersnap cookie crumbs + pumpkin spices + cream cheese + almond bark. These little balls of deliciousness are bursting with plenty of pumpkin flavor! Smooth, velvety pumpkin n’ spice mixture encased in a thin, crunchy white chocolate-y almond bark.

‘Tis the season, right?

The whole process of making these can take a good 3-4 hours, but the result is totally worth it! You first mix all the filling ingredients in a bowl. I chose to use an electric mixer to make sure everything was thoroughly incorporated. Then you freeze the filling for at least an hour. Then you take the filling out, roll them into balls, freeze them for at least two more hours. If they don’t seem hard enough, freeze them longer. Then you melt your almond bark and coat the truffle balls in them and throw them in the fridge until ready to serve. Waiting for everything to set will be the hardest part! It’s truly a test of patience, but I promise it’ll totally be worth it :)

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pumpkin n' spice cream cheese truffles
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Ingredients
  1. 1/3 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
  2. 1 and 1/2 cups gingersnap cookie crumbs, finely pulsed, plus an extra 1-2 tablespoons for garnish
  3. 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
  4. 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  5. 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  6. 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
  7. 1/8 teaspoon salt
  8. 4 oz reduced fat cream cheese
  9. 1 cup white chocolate chips
  10. 12 oz vanilla almond bark
  11. 1 tablespoon shortening
Instructions
  1. Using an electric mixture, combine the pumpkin puree, cookie crumbs, powdered sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt, and cream cheese together.
  2. Melt the white chocolate chips using a double boiler. Add the white chocolate in with the rest of the filling, combine until smooth.
  3. Transfer the mixture into a small bowl and freeze for an hour or until filling is fairly hardened.
  4. Using your hands, roll the filling into 1" balls, and set them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Freeze until hardened, about 2 hours.
  5. Once the balls are frozen, melt the almond bark and shortening using a double boiler, stirring occasionally until smooth. Using a spoon and a fork, dunk a filling ball into the almond bark until it's completely covered. Remove the ball from the almond bark using the fork, and remove the ball from the fork using the spoon onto the parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat for all filling balls. Top each ball with a pinch of gingersnap crumbs before the coating hardens.
  6. Place the coated balls in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
  7. Store in airtight container for up to a week.
  8. Makes about 20 truffles
Adapted from Gimme Some Oven
Adapted from Gimme Some Oven
Simple Everyday Food https://www.simpleeverydayfood.com/
The magic ingredient in these truffles are the gingersnap cookie crumbs. They share a lot of similar spices as those found in the traditional “pumpkin spice”, so not only does the cookie crumbs give the extra “umph” to the pumpkin spice, it also serve as a binding agent to bind all the wetter ingredients together.

Because the filling balls are made up of ingredients that don’t hold their shape up well under heat, you’ll have to work quickly when you’re ready to coat them with almond bark. Since I melt my almond bark over a double boiler, I found out that my filling balls tend to start to slowly fall apart if I leave them in the coating mixture too long.

They’re not as cake-y as the traditional truffles I’m used to making due to the amount of wet ingredients required (i.e. pumpkin puree), but the soft velvety texture sort of reminds me of pumpkin pie. Everyone that was lucky enough to try them raved about how good they were!

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Poor Bentley wanted to be my taste tester… it was pure torture.

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Bring on the fall baking season!

Recipe adapted from Gimme Some Oven

© Simple Everyday Food. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use any of my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or kindly link back to this post for the recipe.

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First of all, is that even how you spell “ooey“? Initially I started typing it as “ooy” but that didn’t look right. “Oo-y” would’ve worked too, but I don’t think that’s how people spell it either. Ooey will just have to suffice for now.

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I’ve been boycotting posting anything pumpkin-related on here ever since I found out my local Caribou coffee decided to start promoting their pumpkin drinks at the end of August (that obviously changed today).

August – really?  Can’t we just enjoy one season at a time? It’s like a competition between chain coffee stores nowadays to see who can come out with fall drinks the earliest. Why are these stores rushing the months away? I want to enjoy my summer to the fullest, then I’ll savor the fall scents and flavors when the time comes. It only makes sense – that way there’s something to look forward to every month, right? Am I the only one who feels this way? I mean, summer’s not even over yet in August, for cryin’ out loud. The days are still (relatively) long, it’s still hot out, and if it’s still warm enough for me to be out in shorts and a t-shirt, it’s sure not the right time to be sipping pumpkin-anything just yet.

In my world, pumpkins are synonymous with Halloween, which occurs in October, therefore pumpkin drinks and desserts should be saved for the month of October only.

Hooooweveeerrr… I caved in. Yes, that’s right, I caved in and made these cookies before the month of October even arrived. Well, I guess it’s technically fall now, and October is just a few days away… so I’ll forgive myself for jumping the gun a little bit earlier this year.

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I’m not as big of a fan of pumpkin as many of my other food blogger friends, but I don’t mind it I guess. I won’t go out and eat a whole slice of pumpkin pie, but an occasional bite or two of it is okay with me. I think I associate pumpkin desserts with pumpkin pie and pumpkin puree, and I’m not a fan of the texture of either of those. They’re mushy. I don’t like mushy. It’s also the reason why I don’t eat hummus or guacamole… yeah, I don’t like guacamole. I’m weird.

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This recipe is simple and straight forward. You don’t even need an electric mixer for it! The cookies turn out to be super soft and bursts with plenty of pumpkin flavor and pumpkin spices. I think the cookies would’ve been delicious enough by itself, but then you add in chocolate chips and guess what – it becomes even more amazing. Bites of soft pumpkin cookie with chocolate chips… because chocolate chips always make cookies taste better!

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These cookies don’t spread much when they’re in the oven, so you can either 1) bake them in the oven for 8 minutes, take them out, flatten them with the back of a spoon and bake for another minute; or 2) flatten them first and then bake them for 8-10 minutes. I chose the do the former simply because I loved the little cracks and crinkles that are created once you flatten out a semi-cooked cookie :)

ooey gooey pumpkin chocolate chip cookies
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Ingredients
  1. 1/2 cup unsalted butter
  2. 1/4 cup light brown sugar
  3. 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  4. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  5. 6 tablespoons pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling) - use a little bit more if you want more pumpkin flavor
  6. 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  7. 1/4 teaspoon salt
  8. 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  9. 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  10. 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  11. 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  12. 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  13. 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, if desired
  14. 1/2 cup (90 grams) semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. In a medium bowl, combine the melted butter and the two sugars together, whisk until thoroughly combined. Whisk in the vanilla and pumpkin until smooth and set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, add in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Slightly mix with a spatula. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well. Fold in 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips and mix some more. Cover the dough and chill for 30-60 minutes.
  3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats and set aside.
  4. Roll about 1.5 tablespoons of cookie dough into balls. Bake for ~8 minutes. Take the baking sheet out and slightly flatten the dough balls with the back of a spoon until they're about 1/2" thick. Bake for another 1-2 minutes. Remove from oven and let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. If the cookie dough still doesn't seem flattened enough, flatten them out a little bit more after you take them out to cool. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.
  5. Makes about 20 cookies
Adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction
Simple Everyday Food https://www.simpleeverydayfood.com/
The only complaint I have about these cookies is that they don’t make enough! I had to debate long and hard on how many to bring to school to share, and how many to keep at home for ourselves. Next time I’m totally making a double batch of these!

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Now that I’ve gotten my first pumpkin dessert of the way, stay tuned for more yummy pumpkin-related desserts in the next few months!

I’m sure a certain someone would love to see more pumpkin puree used around the house!

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I’m just glad I haven’t seen any Christmas decorations out on the shelves in September…. yet.

Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction

© Simple Everyday Food. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use any of my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or kindly link back to this post for the recipe.

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