I wasn’t even going to blog this recipe for pumpkin cookies with brown butter frosting. I’d seen it repeated over and over by different bloggers on my blog feeds and on Pinterest and so I was just going to make the cookies I needed for a church function tonight and go on about my day.

Then I made the icing. And it was really drippy. So I put it on one of the cookies and it looked…um…I don’t know how to put this delicately. It looked like bird poop on top of baby poop. And once I saw it, I couldn’t un-see it. It definitely didn’t look spreadable or like it was ever going to have the texture of the ones in the Martha Stewart picture. Don’t get me wrong, the cookies are delicious. They would have been fine to eat myself, but they were definitely not fine to bring as a treat to an event.

That said, it was easy to fix.

When I was peeling the cookies off the parchment paper, a little voice in my head kept saying, “Whoopie pies. Whoopie pies. Whoopie pies!”

And the texture is definitely more similar to whoopie pies than it is to any cookie I’ve ever had. They’re really spongey and cake-like.

So here’s what I did: I added four ounces of softened cream cheese to the frosting in the stand mixer and whipped it all together. And I put a teaspoon on half the cookies and then put the other half of the cookies on top. And I think they’re really cute and yummy. So there.

1. Make cookies: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice in a medium bowl; set aside.
2. Put butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in eggs. Reduce speed to low. Add pumpkin, evaporated milk, and vanilla; mix until well blended, about 2 minutes. Add flour mixture; mix until combined.
3. Transfer 1 1/2 cups batter to a pastry bag fitted with the largest plain tip you have. Pipe 1 1/2-inch rounds onto parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until tops spring back, about 12 minutes. Cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks; let cool completely.
4. Make filling: Put confectioners’ sugar in a large bowl; set aside. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, swirling pan occasionally, until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Immediately add butter to confectioners’ sugar, scraping any browned bits from sides and bottom of pan. Add softened cream cheese. Add milk and vanilla; stir until smooth. Spread about 1 teaspoon filling onto half of the cookies. Put the rest of the cookies on top of the frosted cookies, making cookie sandwiches.