Pumpkin Thumbprint Cookies

Ingredients 

Cookie:

 1 cup canned pumpkin

 3/4 cups brown sugar

 1/2 cup white sugar

 1/2 cup apple sauce

 1 teaspoon vanilla

 2 1/4 cup oatmeal

 2 1/4 cup flour

 1 teaspoon baking soda

 1/2 teaspoon salt

 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

 1/2 teaspoon ginger

 1/2 teaspoon cloves

 1 tablespoon cinnamon

 optional 1/2 - 1 cup butterscotch chips (if you add chips omit the 1/2 cups white sugar)

Frosting:

 1 - 8 ounce package of cream cheese, softened

 1/4 cup butter, softened

 4 cup powdered sugar

 1 teaspoon cinnamon

 1 teaspoon vanilla

 optional - if you want to make pumpkins, enough orange food coloring to make a deep orange

 optional - butterscotch chips for stems

Directions

 Mix pumpkin, sugars, vanilla and applesauce. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients together. Add dry ingredients to applesauce mixture. If adding butterscotch chips, mix them in now. 

Drop tablespoon of dough on cookie sheet, leaving 2" between cookies. (I love to use cookie scoops!) Depress your thumb into the middle of the cookie. If you thumb is sticking to the cookie dough, dip it in flour first.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minute (until brown). Allow the cookies to cool completely before frosting. 

To make frosting, cream all ingredients, except butterscotch chips. For regular cookies, spoon frosting into your thumb's indentation. If making the pumpkins, use a cookie scoop, and mound the frosting on each cookie. Top with a butterscotch chip for a stem.  

Recipe makes 5 dozen cookies. If you are making pumpkins on top of the cookies, you will only have enough frosting for 3 1/2 dozen cookies.

Note: Since there is cream cheese in the frosting, I would refrigerate until time to serve. 

I used a recipe found at http://www.grouprecipes.com/24254/pumpkin-oatmeal-thumbprint-cookies.html as the starting point. Check out her original version.

http://weefolkart.com/content/pumpkin-thumbprint-cookies