Vegan Pumpkin Pie Cookies

To make the dough, add the room temperature vegan butter, ½ cup of white sugar, and brown sugar to a mixing bowl. Then, use an electric mixer to cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy (about 2 minutes).
Next, add the flax egg and vanilla bean paste to the bowl and mix together for about 30 seconds.
Add in the all-purpose flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Make sure to add the flour first and then add the other ingredients on top. Mix everything together until a thick cookie dough forms. The dough will start off crumbly, so keep mixing it until it gets soft and holds together.
Cover the bowl of dough with plastic wrap and add the bowl to the fridge to chill for 30 minutes- 1 hour. The dough can also be refrigerated for up to 24 hours.

While the cookie dough chills, make the pumpkin pie filling.
Add the pumpkin puree, maple syrup, oat milk, cornstarch, vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice to a bowl. Whisk together until smooth and set aside for later.

About 10 minutes before removing the dough from the fridge preheat the oven to 350F and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
Remove the dough from the fridge and use a cookie scoop to scoop out 10-11 evenly sized cookies. Roll each cookie dough ball between your palms to form a round ball. Then, roll each ball in a bowl with the 2 tablespoon of sugar that was set aside so that each dough ball is coated in sugar.
Place the spiced cookie dough balls onto the baking sheet. Then, slightly press each dough ball down with your palm.
Use your thumb to make an indent in the center of each cookie and then use your fingers to spread the dough out and make the indent larger. Then, spoon about 1.5 Tablespoons of the pumpkin pie filling into the center of each cookie making sure that it does not cover the cookie edges.
Once filled, make sure the cookies are at least 2 inches apart on the baking tray as they will spread while baking. Then, add the tray to the oven and bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes until the edges are crisp and the pumpkin pie filling starts to crinkle and set.
Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. If needed use a spoon to push the edges of the cookies into a rounder shape while they are still warm. Then, move the cookies to a wire rack to continue cooling.
Once cooled, pipe a small amount of vegan whipped cream onto the center of each cookie. Sprinkle with additional pumpkin pie spice & serve!

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