Pumpkin Gingerbread with Cream Cheese Icing

These are great gingerbread cookies.  We made them for Halloween, hoping for pumpkin-pie flavored gingerbread.  It didn't quite work out that way.  I think that there wasn't enough pumpkin perhaps.  It just tasted like good gingerbread.  The cream cheese frosting is great.

This might be tweaked to taste more like pumpkin pie.

Cookies Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup canned pumpkin puree {pure pumpkin~ not pumpkin pie filling}
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. ginger
3/4 tsp. cloves
3/4 tsp. nutmeg

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 stick of butter softened
1 package of cream cheese softened
5 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Instructions
Cookies
In your mixer, combine butter, sugar, and molasses. Add your pumpkin puree and mix well. Add egg and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine all of the rest of the dry ingredients. Slowly mix your dry ingredients into your butter mixture until combined.
Wrap in wax or parchment paper and throw in the refrigerator for at least 3 or 4 hours until it firms up. I leave mine in over night.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly flour your work surface and split your dough into thirds. Lightly pat the top of one section of dough with flour and roll out until it is about 1/4″ thick.
Cut into desired shapes and place on a greased cookie sheet.
Cook for 6 to 7 minutes at 375 degrees. Mine were perfect at exactly 7 minutes. Let cool completely.
Pipe your favorite icing onto each of your cookies into desired design.
Cream Cheese Frosting

Whip together butter, cream cheese, and vanilla in your mixer until well combined. Add powdered sugar and beat until light and fluffy. It may take a minute for all of the ingredients to combine. It might look too dry to begin with, but it will mix together and turn out perfectly.