Pumpkin Cookies with Coconut Cream and White Chocolate {Whole Wheat, Butter Free + Super Simple}

• In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, beat together the coconut oil and both sugars with an electric hand mixer, until light and fluffy.

For the Cookies:

• Add in the vanilla extract, egg yolk and pumpkin puree and beat until well combined.
• Stir the flour mixture into the coconut oil mixture and stir until well combined. The dough will be quite soft and sticky, and not as firm and hard as a typical dough, don’t worry it set up a lot when it’s chilled. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours to overnight.
• While the dough chills, you can prepare the coconut whipped cream.
• Take the chilled coconut milk out of the refrigerator and dump upside down. Open it with a can opener and drain out all the liquid on top, leaving you with the thick coconut cream on the bottom.
• Scoop the cream into a large bowl (it should equal about 1 1/4 cups) and add in the powdered sugar.
• Beat the cream with an electric hand mixer until light and fluffy, about 4-5 minutes. Place back in the refrigerator until ready to use.
• Once the dough has chilled, preheat your oven to 325°F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
• Scoop the dough onto the cookie sheets in 1/2 tablespoon. balls (they spread!) very lightly pressing down. You want the balls taller than they are wide, so don’t flatten them much. Note that your dough will be a little sticky, you can always spray your fingers with a little bit of pam if the dough sticks to them.
• Bake the cookies until lightly golden, about 15-17 minutes. They will feel quite soft and under baked, but they continue to bake on the pan.
• Let them cool on the pan for 10 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the Chocolate Coconut Coating:

• Once the cookies are cooled, melt the chocolate in a small bowl in the microwave in 20 second intervals stirring between each interval, until smooth and melted. Pour the coconut onto a plate.
• Dip the bottom 1/3 of each cookie into the melted chocolate, gently scraping off any excess, and then into the coconut flakes, pressing them down gently. Place back onto the parchment paper lined cookie tray. I dipped my cookies at a slight angle, so that the undersides did not get covered in chocolate, just the top 1/3 and the edges. Repeat with remaining cookies, being very careful as the cookies are soft and delicate.
• Transfer the trays into the fridge to let the chocolate harder for about 30 minutes.

For the Coconut Cream Filling:

• Once the chocolate is hardened, fill a parchment bag ( or a Ziploc bag with the corner cut off) with the coconut cream and lightly pipe it into the middle of half of the cookies, leaving a little space around the edges for the cream to spread once sandwiched.
• Place the bare cookies on top of the coconut creamed cookies
• You can serves the cookies right away, or wait for them to back up to room temperature (my preference.)