We are just a few days away from Thanksgiving and although I’ve been putting pumpkin in my oatmeal since the end of August (I have no shame), I’m not even close to sick of it.  It is actually a miracle that my skin isn’t orange given the fact that I go through the cans of Libby’s (no other brand can compete) like it is going out of style.  I used to think the big cans were too much to open up, but now those puny 15-ounce cans are like a tease.

Hopefully you are also still on the pumpkin bandwagon, unlike my husband who seems to have missed the memo on winter squash (Which, lucky for me, means I get to eat an entire pan of roasted Costco butternut squash by myself.  Seriously, how am I not orange?).

Although Matt doesn’t hate pumpkin like he does peanut butter (nope, eight years together and I’m still not over that), he just isn’t a huge fan.  So when I gave him one of these Pumpkin Pie Cookie Dough Truffle Pops to taste and said, “just pretend it isn’t pumpkin,” he said, “these are amazing!”  Don’t worry, I did enough cookie dough sampling yesterday to tell you these are seriously good shit delicious.  The pumpkin flavor in the creamy cookie dough plus the hard chocolate shell and crunchy spicy gingersnap crumbs is an incredible combination.

Oh and worried that you can’t make these after Thanksgiving?  I, for one, will be consuming pumpkin desserts for the next few months.  But for the normal people out there, who don’t have to worry about their skin turning a strange color because they only eat pumpkin in the fall, these can completely pass for a special holiday dessert thanks to the gingersnaps.

So if you can make these and keep from eating them yourself, serve them at a party.  No utensils necessary.

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Pumpkin Pie Cookie Dough Truffle Pops

Makes 30 pops

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
• 1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup canned pumpkin
• ¼ cup milk (any type)
• 1 1/4 pound chocolate (I used white and dark chocolates)
• 3/4 cup gingersnap crumbs (about 12 cookies)

Directions:

Prepare cookie dough filling
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, pumpkin pie spice and salt; set aside
Beat butter and sugars on high speed until light and fluffy
Add pumpkin and milk and mix on medium speed until well combined
Stir in flour
Refrigerate dough for two hours or until cold enough to roll into balls
While chilling dough, line two jelly roll pans with wax paper
When ready, mold cookie dough balls by hand, about 1 1/2 tablespoons each (I used a cookie dough scoop to measure) and place one of the sheets of wax paper
Stick lollipop sticks into each ball so that the stick comes out of the top and goes almost all the way through the dough ball
Place prepared cookie dough in freezer and chill for two hours or until hardened
When dough is frozen, melt chocolate for dipping
Place chocolate of choice into a microwaveable bowl; melt by heating in 30-second increments and stirring in-between
Dip cookie dough pops one-at-a-time into chocolate and coat each entire dough ball; use a spoon to shape the chocolate around the cookie dough and form a thin layer
Place dough ball down onto unused sheet of wax paper and sprinkle pop with gingersnap crumbs; repeat for remaining dough balls
Once finished, chill pops in refrigerator until ready to serve
Store in refrigerator up to three days or freezer up to four weeks

Notes:

You will need to chill the dough between each step to make sure your pops keep a round form

When dipping pops in chocolate, I recommend keeping some dough balls in freezer and working with about 10 at a time; this will keep dough from getting too soft before dipping in chocolate

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Are you pumpkined out yet?