My First Cookie Carnival!

This is my very FIRST Cookie Carnival recipe and it was SO much fun! The October recipe is Mini Pumpking Whoopie Pies. How fitting for Fall and Halloween right? I decided to tweak the recipe a lil (hum...who would've guessed?) and made Spiced Butter Cookies instead of Chocolate cuz I felt like they would go better with the Pumpkin filling. OMG these were SO good! The filling literally OOZES out when you bite into the lil cookies! YUM!

Ingredients: (6 Pies)

Spiced Cookies:
½ c (1 stick) butter, softened
½ c sugar
Pinch of salt
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
1 c flour

Filling:
4 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
½ c (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ c sugar
¼ c canned solid pack pumpkin
Pinch of cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg

Prep:

1. Prepare cookies: Beat butter, sugar, salt, egg, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Gradually stir in flour until well mixed. Refrigerate 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place on ungreased baking sheets. You should have 12 cookies.

Bake 15 minutes or until lightly browned around edges. Cool on baking sheets 1 minute. Remove to wire racks; cool completely.

2. Prepare filling: In the bowl of a mixer, whip together cream cheese, butter and sugar on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add pumpkin, cinnamon, and nutmeg; whip until smooth, scraping down the bowl as necessary.

3. Pipe or spoon about 2 teaspoons filling on the flat sides of half the cookies. Sandwich with remaining cookies, keeping the flat sides down.