Mummy Pumpkin Cookies

I discovered these wonderful little Mummy Pumpkin Cookies on the Oh My God Chocolate Desserts web-site and knew that they were just the sweet treat to make for Halloween.  They are a little labor intensive but the end result is worth the time.  And the bonus is that they are delicious.  I had one break in half so of course I had to eat him for quality control purposes.  This would be a fun project to bake up with kids.  I cheated and used refrigerated pie-crusts vs. making the crust from scratch per the options below.  The time savings of not making the pie crusts from scratch did not take away from the finished cookies in any way.  If making these with kids I would use the pre-made pie crusts in a heart beat.  Happy Halloween!

Mummy Pumpkin Cookies

For the Crust :

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter cut into cubes-chilled
• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• ¼ cup ice water
• or you can use 1 package Refrigerated Pie Crust - 2 crusts

For Filling and Topping:

• ¾ cup reduced pumpkin puree (place 1 cup pumpkin puree on several layers of paper towels, wrap and press to soak up excess moisture until you get ¾ cup pumpkin puree)
• 2 oz cream cheese - slightly softened
• 2 tablespoon packed light - brown sugar
• 2 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• ¼ teaspoon of nutmeg
• ⅛ teaspoon allspice
• 1 egg yolk
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg white - lightly beaten
• ½ tablespoon water
• 2 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Decorations:

• Candy eyes

1. To make the crust pulse together in a food processor flour, salt and sugar, then add butter and pulse until look like a coarse meal (don't over-process, just pulse until butter is no longer in large pieces). Add chilled water 1-2 tablespoon at the time and pulse several times( if it doesn't come together in clumps add remaining water). If you don’t have a food processor you can make the dough using two fork or pastry blender. Gather dough onto working surface, divide into two portions, shape each into 5-inch disk, cover with plastic wrap and chill 1 hour.
2. To make the pumpkin pie filling in a bowl stir together cream cheese, granulated sugar and brown sugar to blend. Add reduced pumpkin puree to cream cheese mixture along with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice. Mix in egg yolk and vanilla extract. Cover bowl and chill until ready to assemble the cookies.
3. Preheat oven to 375 F and line large baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside.
4. To assemble the mummies roll out first disk of the dough onto a floured surface to about 13 x 11-inch rectangle . If the edges start to crack a little when rolling, seal them and continue rolling. Trim edges to get straight edges, then cut into rectangles (I made nine 4x3 rectangles, but you can make them smaller or larger, what ever you prefer). Roll out second dough disc and cut into ½ inch stripes.
5. Arrange the rectangles, spaced apart on prepared baking sheet and spread heaping 1 ½-2 tablespoons of pumpkin pie filling onto each rectangle, leaving rim on all sides uncoated. Brush uncoated edges with the mixture of lightly beaten egg white and 1 Tbsp water. Top with strips to create mummy look, then seal edges with your fingertips, and trim the excess of the stripes. Brush the stripes with egg whites and sprinkle with mixture of 2 Tbsp sugar and 1 tsp. cinnamon.
6. Bake until golden brown about 20 minutes.
7. Stick candy eyes onto cooled mummies.