Cream Cheese Stuffed Pumpkin Cookies

Ingredients

• 3 cups AP Flour
• 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup Splenda (use could white sugar if you like)
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 - 15 oz. can of pumpkin
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 - 8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened (filling)
• 1 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature (filling)
• 1 - 16 oz. package of powdered sugar (filling)
• about a capful of vanilla extract (filling)
• a pinch of cinnamon (to taste) (filling)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Beat together brown sugar, Splenda, oil and pumpkin. Add eggs one at time, mixing well after each addition, followed by the vanilla. In a separate bowl, shift together the dry ingredients.
3. Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined.
4. Using a pastry bag with a round trip, or a big zip top plastic bag with one corner snipped, squeeze out concentric circles of batter, starting from the middle and working outward until the circles are about 2 inches in diameter. Bake for 11 minutes and cool on a rack.
5. Cream Cheese Filling. Beat together cream cheese and butter. Add powdered sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Frost flat side of half the pies and top with another piece.