Pumpkin Cookies

My sister, Jessica, had a Lia Sophia jewelry party last night and she asked me to make some cookies.  Well, it being Fall and having lots of pumpkin lying around, I decided to make pumpkin cookies.

With cream cheese frosting, of course.

Here is our array of food we had set out for the party.  Unfortunately, there were five of us at the show: Jessica, me, our grandma, Nan, and the jewelry consultant, Megan and her sister-in-law, Marissa.

And now for the cookies:

First, mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.  Yes, another recipe that will have you dirty more dishes than probably necessary.

Blend together the eggs and sugar.  Did you know that breaking an egg on the counter will keep the yoke from breaking, compared to breaking the egg on the edge of the bowl?

Add in the pumpkin, vanilla, and oil.

Slowly mix in the dry ingredients.

The batter comes out not quite cookie and not quite cake.  But there's something about it that makes the cookies more cake-like than cookie, too.

I used a cookie scoop that's a little bit smaller than a 1/4 cup and space them about 2 inches apart.

Look at how tasty!  And they're not even frosted yet.

I whipped up the cream cheese frosting: cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla.  Then I had some chocolate frosting in the fridge so I decided to give it a try on the cookies.  For some reason a lot of people have recipes for pumpkin bread with chocolate chips, or pumpkin cookies with chocolate chips.  And I admit the cookies were good with the chocolate frosting.

And now 24 hrs after making the cookies, there are four left :)  I guess we kind of liked them.

 

Pumpkin Cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 2 eggs 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup canola or corn oil 1 cup canned pumpkin 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Position a rack in the middle of the oven . Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and butter the paper. Stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together in a medium bowl and set aside.  In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the eggs and sugar until smooth and lightened in color, about 1 minute.  Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing.  On low speed, mix the oil, pumpkin, and vanilla until blended.  Mix in the flour mixture to incorporate it. Using an ice cream scoop with a 1/4-cup capacity, scoop mounds of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing the cookies at least 2 1/2-inches apart.  You could also simply use a 1/4-cup measuring cup if you don’t have a  scoop.  Use a thin metal spatula to smooth and flatten the rounds. Bake the  cookies one sheet at a time until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, about 16 minutes.  Cool them on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then use a wide metal spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool cimpletely. Cream Cheese Frosting: 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened 2 tbsp butter, softened 4 cups confectioners' sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract Blend cream cheese, butter, sugar, and vanilla together.  Then spread over the cooled cookies.