Pumpkin Muffin + Snickerdoodle Cookie Crown
The Mookie got a fall makeover. A soft, warmly spiced pumpkin muffin gets baked underneath an actual snickerdoodle-style cookie, giving you fluffy pumpkin cake underneath and a buttery, cinnamon-sugar cookie on top.
I tested both a 3-inch and 4-inch cookie crown, and 3 inches was the winner for me—the cookie still gets its moment without completely taking over the muffin.
THE PUMPKIN MOOKIE
Makes: 6 jumbo Mookies
Prep: 30 minutes + chilling/freezing
Bake: about 24–28 minutes
Pan: Jumbo 6-cavity muffin pan
Pumpkin Muffin
300 g all-purpose flour
12 g baking powder
3 g baking soda
6 g Diamond Crystal kosher salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
150 g light brown sugar
50 g granulated sugar
3 large eggs
115 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
225 g pumpkin purée
150 g sour cream
60 g whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Snickerdoodle Cookie Crown
115 g unsalted butter
75 g light brown sugar
30 g granulated sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
170 g all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
For the cinnamon sugar
30 g granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Make the cookie crowns
Cream the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until smooth and combined. Mix in the egg yolk and vanilla.
Add the flour, baking soda and salt and mix just until a dough forms.
Roll the dough approximately 10 mm thick. Cut six 3-inch rounds. Combine the sugar and cinnamon and generously coat the tops of the cookie rounds.
Place the rounds on a parchment-lined tray and freeze until firm.
Make the pumpkin muffin batter
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.
In a separate large bowl, whisk the brown sugar, granulated sugar and eggs until well combined. Whisk in the melted butter, pumpkin purée, sour cream, milk and vanilla.
Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients just until combined. Don’t overmix.
Cover and refrigerate the batter for 45–60 minutes.
Assemble & bake
Heat the oven to 425°F.
Generously grease a jumbo muffin pan. Don’t use liners—we want the muffin to be able to rise outward and create that signature Mookie shape.
Divide approximately 135–140 g of cold muffin batter into each cavity.
Place one frozen 3-inch cookie crown centered on top of each muffin. Don’t press it down into the batter.
Bake at 425°F for 8 minutes.
Without opening the oven door, reduce the temperature to 350°F and continue baking for approximately 16–20 minutes, until the muffins are risen and a tester inserted into the muffin portion comes out with a few moist crumbs.
If the cookies are getting darker than you’d like before the muffins are finished, loosely tent the pan with foil.
Cool in the pan for 8–10 minutes before carefully removing.
Mackenzie’s Notes
Use pumpkin purée, not pumpkin pie filling. They’re not interchangeable.
Keep the batter cold and the cookie crowns frozen. The temperature contrast helps the muffin rise while the cookie holds its own on top.
Don’t open the oven when you lower the temperature. Just turn the oven from 425°F to 350°F and let it keep going.
About the cookie size: I tested both 3-inch and 4-inch crowns. Both worked, but I preferred the 3-inch crown because I got a better balance of cookie and pumpkin muffin.
And because this is a Mookie: don’t panic if the top looks a little wild. A cracked, imperfect cookie crown and a big muffin top are part of the charm.
A Little Island Bakes Note 🌺
Pumpkin feels quintessentially fall, but it isn’t limited to cool-weather places. Pumpkin is grown in Samoa, too. Samoa’s 2019 Agriculture Census recorded thousands of crop-growing households cultivating pumpkin.
So this very autumnal Pumpkin Mookie has a little island connection after all. 🎃🌺
Make it. Share it. Pass it on.