Cinnamon Birdsnest Cookies with Pumpkin Pie Filling

A last minute invitation to a friend to come over on Monday for a make-shift Thanksgiving dinner meant I had to whip up something for dessert.  I kind of wanted something fun for dessert since it was only the two of us and not a full banquet, I also wanted to send her home with the dessert leftovers and, let's face it, a pie isn't the easiest thing to travel with.  So I decided to make cookies with pie filling.

I made a half recipe of my pumpkin pie filling since this cookie recipe said it makes 36 cookies and I remember that it did indeed make a lot of cookies, but when it came time for the shaping I realized that the cookie size in the recipe was considerably smaller than I'd need to fill with pie.  I ended up with 14 cookies and far too much filling leftover so I made a pie as well.  The cinnamon cookie dough compliments the pie filling really well and makes it less rich than a full slice of pie but still gives you that emotional warmth that you can only get from pumpkin pie.

The bad estimate for combining recipes wasn't the only baking disaster on the day, I also dropped half the egg shell into the cookie batter where it promptly got bashed up by the paddle of the mixer.  I stopped the mixer immediately and started pawing through the batter with a spoon realizing the futility of my attempt to dig out all the bits of shell.  I stared at it for a while wondering what my options were when I decided to scrape the lot out of the mixing bowl and push it all through my sieve, I was floored at the sight of all the tiny shards of eggshell that were caught by the sieve, I wouldn't hesitate to say I got all of it - batter rescued.

Cinnamon Birdsnest Cookies

Pre-heat the oven to 350^F (180^C)

Sift together in a bowl
90g self-raising flour
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp rice flour

In the bowl of a stand mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream together
70g unsalted butter - room temperature soft
4 tbsp sugar

Beat in until fluffy
1 egg

Fold the sifted dry ingredients into the wet until just mixed.

I used an icecream scoop with a 25ml bowl on the scoop to dollop out the cookies onto the baking tray then with a damp finger I made a large well in the middle of each scoop.

Spoon in your pumpkin pie filling into the well, filling right to the top.

If you use my pumpkin pie filling, I would probably suggest multiplying the cookie recipe by 5 times the above amount for a half-recipe, otherwise have a small (7 - 8 inch) pie shell at the ready for the remaining filling.

Bake for 10 minutes.