Pumpkin spice and halva don’t usually share a plate, but they absolutely should. These soft-baked pumpkin cookies are made with naturally gluten-free almond flour and sweetened with maple syrup. Each one holds a pool of salted tahini caramel (the halva vibe is legit!) and a toasted pecan. Thanksgiving meets the shuk…and everyone wins.
Ingredient Notes
- Tahini: When I tested these cookies, the tahini worked perfectly as a substitute for the job butter usually does in baked goods. I’ll always see if tahini can work rather than processed vegan butter or oil in recipes. My post with more vegan recipes with tahini will help you use the rest of the jar.
- Pumpkin Puree: NOT pumpkin pie filling! Also, if your can of pumpkin puree is watery when you open it, mix the entire can well before measuring out the ½ cup needed in this recipe. Some recipes call for blotting that liquid with a paper towel, but I think that’s a lot of work, so I purposely have enough arrowroot and ground flax to absorb the excess liquid, yet these cookies still have a fudgy like texture in the center.
- Pumpkin Pie Spice: no worries if you don’t have any, it’s easy to make my substitute for pumpkin pie spice from pantry staples.
Step by Step
Preheat oven to 375 and line a large rimmed baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper.
Combine dry ingredients: almond flour, arrowroot powder, ground flax, date sugar, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice.
Combine wet ingredients in a small bowl or measuring cup: tahini, pumpkin puree, maple syrup.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix well.
Continue to mix, pulling up from the bottom, until there are no streaks of flour.
I use a small cookie scoop to make it easier to drop 1 tablespoon of batter at a time onto prepared baking sheet. You should have enough batter to make 24 cookies.
Use the back of a measuring cup or your hands to flatten the dough balls. Then, take a ¼ teaspoon measuring spoon or your thumb to make a small indent into each cookie. Put the tray in the preheated oven for 8 minutes.
While the cookies bake, make the caramel with maple syrup, tahini, date sugar and vanilla paste.
Mix well and let it thicken in the fridge until the timer goes off.
Use two spoons to drop a teaspoon of caramel into the center well of each cookie. If the cookies puffed up and the indent has disappeared, go back and press that in again. Sprinkle flaky salt and top of the caramel and then add a pecan half.
Return baking sheet to the oven for an additional 6 minutes of baking until cookies are golden and the salted caramel has firmed up.
Let the cookies cool on the pan for about 10 minutes while the caramel hardens and they’re cool enough to handle. Carefully transfer to a wire rack.
Once cookies have completely cooled, transfer to an airtight container.
Debra’s Pro Tips
- DO NOT SKIP the part when you go back to make sure there’s an indent for your filling….you can see where I didn’t do that in some of the photos….the tahini caramel spilled over without a proper place to land. The cookies will still taste divine, they’ll just be a bit messier.
- The caramel will harden as the cookies cool, but I still like to store them with a sheet of parchment between layers to avoid any mess.
- That flaky sea salt is “optional” but hey, who doesn’t like a salted caramel treat? The extra salt really does it for me.
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📖 Recipe
Vegan Pumpkin Pecan Thumbprint Cookies with Tahini Caramel
Equipment
Ingredients
Pumpkin Cookies
- ½ cup canned pumpkin puree not pumpkin pie filling
- ⅓ cup tahini
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 1 ½ cups almond flour
- ⅓ cup ground flax
- ⅓ cup arrowroot powder
- 2 tablespoon date sugar
- 2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
Tahini Caramel
- ¼ cup tahini
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon date sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla paste
- 24 pecan halves
- 1 pinch flaky sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 and line a large rimmed baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper.
Pumpkin Cookies
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, mix dry ingredients together. Include the almond flour, flax, arrowroot, date sugar, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt.
- Use a liquid measuring cup or small bowl to thoroughly mix the pumpkin puree, tahini and maple syrup.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix with a silicone spatula, pulling up any dry ingredients that are clinging to the bottom of the bowl and get them integrated into the rest of the cookie dough.
- Use a small cookie scoop, or two spoons to drop about 1 tablespoon cookie batter onto prepared pan. You should have enough for 24 cookies.
- Use the back of a dry measuring cup to flatten the cookies, then use the back of a ¼ teaspoon measuring spoon to make a round indent in the center of each cookie.
- Place baking sheet into preheated oven for 8 minutes.
Tahini Caramel Paste
- While the cookies bake in the oven, whisk tahini, maple syrup, vanilla and date sugar together until a thick paste forms.
Fill Cookies
- Get your flaky salt and pecans ready so you can fill the divots in the cooke centers when the oven timer goes off.
- If the wells in the cookie dough puffed back up at the first bake,, gently press them back down with the ¼ teaspoon so you have a spot to put the filling.
- Use two spoons to fill each cookie cavity with about 1 teaspoon of the caramel paste. Add a pinch of flaky salt and one pecan half to each cookie.
- Return to the oven for an additional 6 minutes of bake time. The edges will be set and they'll be slightly golden.
- The centers of the cookies will still be a bit soft and the caramel will be hot when they first come out of the oven, so let the cookies cool for about 10 minutes on the pan before transferring to a wire rack. Let cookies cool completely before storing in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 days, in the fridge for 2 weeks or freeze for 3 months.
Notes
Nutrition
Note
The nutrition calculations were done using online tools. To obtain the most accurate representation of the nutritional information in any given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients you used. You are ultimately responsible for ensuring that any nutritional information is accurate, complete and useful.
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