Pumpkin Cookies

Pumpkin Season!!

I just got my new mixer and I was excited to put it to use! Baking around the holidays is so much fun; I couldn't resist. Given the time of year and that I had just gotten 3 great little organic pumpkins, I decided that it must be time for me to track down a delicious pumpkin cookie recipe. I did some searching on Pinterest for something that looked yummy. Of course there were all sorts of options but I picked two to try. Oh - I should mention here that one of my friends at work had jokingly suggested I should make vegan cookies to share with her. I was up for the challenge! One of the recipes I picked was vegan but I did still make some modifications. I really just wanted to be able to use ingredients I was familiar with and still get a tasty result! Here's what I made: (1) Cream Cheese Stuffed Pumpkin Cookies and (2) Vegan Iced Pumpkin Cookies. Oddly enough - I LOVE the Vegan Ice Pumpkin ones!! They're 'deelish. 

BUT FIRST, It's time to make the pumpkin puree! I bought 3 beautiful little organic pumpkins to make puree from so I'd be ready for all sorts of holiday treats. To make these, I cut them all into quarters, cleaned out the inside (note - if you just slide your spoon along all the strings on the inside, the seeds will pop right out and you can save these to bake into snacks!) Um... just remember to either bake them right away or put them in the fridge because before I could get to baking up some delicious pumpkin seed seasoned snacks... my seeds became sprouts! I had a pan full of baby pumpkin plants before I knew it. Oops. Anyway - moving on - I cut them in quarters, scooped out the inside, put them on a lightly greased cookie sheet. I had pre-heated the oven to 375 and was ready to go and then I came to the devastating realization that I was out of foil!! Eek Eek Eek. 

Foil - for those who don't know, helps to a) hold in the moisture and heat so the pumpkin doesn't dry out and cooks quickly, b) keep the pumpkin from being in direct heat and burning, and c) be shiny. Girls all like shiny things. :) 

So now what do I do??? Well, rather than run out for foil late at night in my PJs and slippers... I opted to take the risk and NOT cover my pumpkin in foil (I know, I'm such a thrill seeker). I checked on it a couple of times and it was definitely starting to dry out and it was taking longer to cook so I added some water to the cookie sheet (thankfully mine had a decent size rim) to help 'steam' the pumpkin and keep it moist. That seemed to work. Awhile later, when I could stab each with a fork without too much effort, I took them out of the oven and let them cool. Once the pumpkin had cooled, I scooped out all the pumpkin and ran batches through my food processor to get the puree that so many wonderful holiday recipes call for. All set! Ready for Cookies!!

 Cream Cheese Stuffed Pumpkin Cookies
I saw this recipe and it was love at first site...until I made the cookies, then I was ready to 'see' other cookies. :)  Yes, that says it all doesn't it? I wasn't all that impressed with this recipe but there were some people at work that seemed to like them. I brought them lots! I'll share the recipe anyway. If I did make them again because I had nothing better to do, I'd put WAY more cream cheese in the middle and I'd cook them a few minutes longer. Hmm, I'd probably add more pumpkin spice seasoning too and just a touch more salt. They didn't seem very flavorful to me. But I can't hold out - Here's the recipe: 

Filling: 

4oz cream cheese

2 tbl sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Cookie Dough: 

  2.5 cups flour

   1 tsp baking powder

   1 tsp baking soda

     2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp salt

1.5 cups sugar

       1/2 cup butter, softened

      1 cup pumpkin puree

    1 large egg

       1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions: 

Mix the filling ingredients and chill in fridge.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, salt. 

Beat sugar and butter together until well blended. Beat in pumpkin, egg, vanilla until smooth. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Chill in fridge for 20-30 minutes. (Chilling is important to make stuffing them easier!)

Grease Cookie Sheet or line with parchment paper. 

Put scoops of dough (about 1 tbls) on the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Make an indent in the middle of each and add filling. Place another teaspoon of dough on top and seal the edges or roll into balls. Put these in the freezer for 5 minutes to firm up before cooking. Then, bake 18-20 minutes until edgers are firm, cool on wire racks.

On a side note, that whole 'stuffing process' described in the oh-so-simple recipe is NOT so simple. I had pumpkin cookie dough sticking to everything! It was all over my kitchen and ME! Ugh. Not so fun. Through mess, I learned a couple of tips. (1) put more of the cookie dough on the bottom and just a little 'cap' of cookie dough on top - none of this silly half and half stuff! (2) Spray a little PAM or oil into a little bowl. Dip your fingers in it now and then as your making indents otherwise you or whatever utensil your attempting to use are going to get eaten alive by cookie dough.

<--- These are my beautiful cookies! The ones in the top of the picture are the cream cheese stuffed version that I just mentioned. The others are coming up next after this quick commercial break... uh oops... never mind. Just see below. :) 

Next up are the super yummy vegan (shhh..) cookies! I swear that if you don't tell people these are vegan they would NEVER know. 

Vegan Pumpkin Cookies with Icing *My New Favorite*
These come out really soft - a bit like a muffin top. : )

Ingredients: 

2 cups white flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup coconut oil

2 cups pumpkin puree

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar

3 tablespoons almond milk

Preheat oven to 350. 

Grease baking sheets or use parchment paper.

Combine flours**, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, salt. Set aside. 

Beat sugar and coconut oil (softened) until well blended. 

Beat in pumpkin and vanilla until smooth. 

Gradually mix in flour mixture.

Drop by round tablespoon onto prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until edges are firm.

Cool on wire racks. 

**Note: I have used more wheat flour and less white flour but it does make the cookie a little bit more dense, 1 cup white and 1 1/2 cup wheat seems to work but I'm not sure I would go further. If you want to try the cookies with all wheat flour, you might try switching out the coconut oil for apple sauce to add extra moisture.

While cooling - make glaze. Mix 3 tablespoons almond milk into 2 cups powdered sugar (more or less to desired consistency). The glaze should be thick. It will thin out when you put it on the cookie. Drizzle glaze over cooled cookies. 

Last but not least - Enjoy and share with a friend for the holiday!! Hey... I said share. :) I have to say these are one of my new favorite cookies, vegan or not! I love how soft and almost cake-like they are. These little 'dollops of goodness' are making my favorites list.