Sarah at In Praise of Leftovers posts some of the best cookie recipes I have found in blogger-land. She generously shared this family recipe, which has now become one of my family's favorite recipes. I made these for my son and DIL and three grandchildren yesterday, and we all went wild for them. We normally send leftovers home with them, but we were fighting over the last 8 cookies and finally just divided them.
After sampling two from the first batch and deciding I must photograph and blog about them, I was so distracted by how good they were I forgot to take a picture of the interior, which is soft, just sweet enough, and just pumpkiny enough. Warm from the oven these remind me of pumpkin pie. Although they are delicious on their own, in my opinion the icing just sets it off.
I made some very tiny adjustments to Sarah's recipe, adding ginger, in place of pumpkin pie spice, and vanilla to the dough and maple flavor to the icing. Visit her site for the lovely story that accompanies the cookies. Her recipe - the cookies, the icing, and the instructions - is spot-on perfect.
Pumpkin Cookies
adapted from the blog In Praise of Leftovers
1 cup salted butter, softened to room temp
1 cup white sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg (regular ground nutmeg is fine)
1/4 teaspoon salt
chopped pecans for garnish
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
With mixer, combine butter, sugar, and pumpkin and mix until combined. Add egg and vanilla and mix well. Mixture will appear curdled.
Whisk together dry ingredients. With spatula, gradually fold flour mixture into batter and mix until just combined.
Drop by heaping tablespoon onto parchment-covered cookie sheet and bake until barely golden and baked in center, 10-12 minutes. (Mine were perfectly done in 12 minutes – I turned the cookies sheets midway through baking.)
Cool for two minutes, then frost or drizzle with icing while still warm. Makes 24-30 cookies
Icing
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons salted butter
4-5 teaspoons milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon maple flavoring
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
In small saucepan, combine brown sugar, butter, and milk over low heat just until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat, add flavorings; whisk in powdered sugar until smooth.
Ice cookies while cookies and icing are warm. Sprinkle with nuts, if desired, while icing is still wet.
Boy, do these look DELICIOUS! Once fall hits, or approaches, or PROMISES to come, I am all over pumpkin recipes. I'm trying these. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThese look like the perfect fall cookie- especially that maple praline glaze!! Looks so good. I will have to make these to take somewhere. ;)
ReplyDeletePattie, thanks for visiting. I know what you mean about "promises" - in our area fall is a big tease. ;)
ReplyDeleteDishy, good luck getting them out of your house. I honestly could have made myself ill eating them all myself.
These cookies are amazing.......You can not eat just one.......I like to put the pecans in the cookie dough.....Mmmmmm Amazing :)
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I agree you cannot eat just one. ;)
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