Brown Butter Pumpkin Shortbread Cookies

Add some pumpkin spice to your next shortbread cookies. Delicious for fall. Moisture is the enemy of good shortbread so you’ll brown the butter and squeeze out some the liquid in the pumpkin.

1⁄4 c pumpkin puree
1⁄2 c (4 oz) best quality unsalted butter (or if using salted, omit salt in recipe)
1 c all-purpose flour
1⁄3 c confectioner’s sugar
1⁄8 t ground cloves
1 1⁄4 t pumpkin pie spice
1⁄4 t kosher salt
Sparkling sugar
Flakey sea salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment or Silpat.

Squeeze some moisture out of the pumpkin: Spoon pumpkin onto several layers of paper towels, fold paper towel over the puree and squeeze, pressing out juice. Repeat until most of the liquid has been removed and you can roll the puree into a ball. Set aside.

Brown butter by placing it in a medium saucepan. Simmer until butter stops noisily popping and sizzling and milk solids have browned. The butter should be golden brown and nutty smelling. Remove from the heat. Add the pumpkin to the butter and whisk vigorously until smooth.

In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Add the pumpkin mixture to the dry ingredients and stir with a spatula to combine. Roll dough to about a 1⁄2” thickness between two sheets of parchment paper. Place dough on a sheet pan and transfer to the refrigerator for 15 minutes, up to an hour.

Remove dough from fridge and cut into 11⁄2” circles using a biscuit cutter, cookie cutter, or a small glass. Transfer to prepared sheet pan. Using a fork, poke holes over the surface of the cookies. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned around the edges. Sprinkle with flaky salt and sparkling sugar while still warm and let cool on the sheet pan for 10 minutes before moving.