Make cream cheese filling; combine softened cream cheese, brown sugar, vanilla and cinnamon and place in freezer to chill.

Next, in a food processor pulse the 1 cup of pecans until finely ground, do not over grind. If you don’t have a food processor you can finely chop.

Begin cookies; combine butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat at medium speed until well mixed. Beat in eggs, pumpkin and vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, spices, salt and baking soda

Mix the flour mixture into the creamed butter, pumpkin and sugar until just blended. Then Stir in the oats and pecans

Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a baking sheet or line with parchment paper or silpat

Make the streusel; in a bowl melt the butter and mis in the sugar and pecans

Next, prepare the cookies to bake; remove the dough from the fridge and using a cookie scoop portion out the dough

Line up half of the scoops on your prepared baking sheet and flatten them out

Remove the cream cheese filling from the freezer and place roughly 1 teaspoon of filling in the center of each of the cookies

Place the other half of the scoops on top of the cream cheese and seal the edges

Using your hand as a guide top each cookie with some of the pecan streusel and lightly press to ensure it sticks to the top of the cookie

Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until lightly browned and cracked looking on top. Test with your finger or a toothpick, these cookies should have a somewhat soft texture.

Cool 2 minutes on the baking sheet as initially they are a bit fragile. Remove to a cooling rack