Iced Pumpkin Spice Cookies

It’s no secret that baking is one of my favorite fall activities. I love to bake goodies for people. We celebrated my best friend’s birthday this past weekend, and she absolutely loves my pumpkin spice cookies. So of course I had to make a fresh batch! These pumpkin spice cookies are one of my absolute favorite cookies to bake. They bake up soft (the only way to go if you ask me), and have a perfect balance of sweet between the cookie and icing.

These cookies always seem extra special to me as I only make them in the fall. I suppose I could make them any time, but they are just such a perfect fall cookie (especially since pumpkin spice is all the rage!). Whip up a batch with the recipe below!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour (I split mine half white flour, half whole wheat flour)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar (I cut mine down to 1 1/4 cup – it makes a difference with how sweet the icing is!)
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

• Preheat oven to 350F.
• Mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt. Set aside.
• In a larger bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Beat in egg and vanilla until creamy, then beat in the pumpkin until smooth.
• Add in dry ingredients, and mix thoroughly together.
• Drop tablespoonfuls onto lined cookie sheets (foil or parchment paper). Bake for 15 – 20 min (I find 16 minutes perfect!).
• Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Make sure they cool completely before icing them.

Icing Ingredients:

2 cups confectioner sugar
3 tbsp milk
1 tbsp butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla

• Combine all ingredients in a bowl until a semi-thick icing is formed. Add more milk to thin if necessary.
• Once cookies are completely cooled, just smear some on with a knife. The icing will harden some on the outside after a bit, but it never gets crunchy-hard – it’s one of my favorite icings for that reason. The perfect texture!

If you’re not an icing fan, these cookies are just as yummy without icing. I love them plain with a cup of tea. If you are making a plain batch, I highly recommend using the full 1 1/2 cups of sugar so they don’t taste too bland or get a bit overpowered by the spices. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Iced Pumpkin Spice Cookies

Happy Halloween everyone! I’m sure I’ll have some photos of my little miss trick-or-treating tomorrow, but for today, enjoy a yummy cookie recipe instead.

Pumpkin Spice Cookies are yet another fabulous part of fall. Granted, I could bake them anytime I wanted, but they just seem to taste better in their appropriate season! I think this is one of my most highly loved recipes by my friends and family (They did quite well at the farmer’s market last year as well). This year my best friend asked for them for her birthday, and my hubs asked me to bake them for the blood drive at his work. So I’ve had a pumpkin-y household for the past two weeks. It’s okay, I needed a break from all the apple goodies I had been baking anyway.

Ingredients:

Cookies:
2 1/2 cups flour (I use half white flour, half wheat flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened (I use Country Crock Spread and it works perfectly fine)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree (canned or fresh, whatever you have)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Icing:
2 cups confectioner sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat your oven to 350F.

She decided she had to bake in her jammies!

First, mix your dry ingredients, stir and set them aside.

In a larger bowl, cream butter and sugar together.

Add eggs and vanilla and blend thoroughly.

Then add in your pumpkin and mix well.

Pour in the dry ingredients and mix until thoroughly combined.

And the most important part, the assistant taste test.

I use my dough scoop to drop the dough onto cookie sheets – if you don’t have one just drop tablespoon size balls. Bake for 15 minutes, and let thoroughly cool before icing them.(To make the icing, combine all icing ingredients and stir with a fork.)

To ice mine, I use a fine icing tip and bag, but a baggie with the tip snipped would work as well. Or, if you don’t mind a messier way, you can just drizzle it on with a spoon! (I say that’s messier because when I’ve done it that way I get it all over my cooling racks and table.) Let them sit out until the icing hardens, then store in an air tight container.

These are just so delicious – chewy and soft, just the way I like a cookie. Enjoy!

Connect With Me

Pumpkin Painting

My daughter can be a sensitive little one, which isn’t too surprising as I was too as a toddler/preschooler. That being said, Halloween has always been a little rough on her. Not because of the costumes, or creepy monsters, or scary decorations. Because of the pumpkin carving. The first time she ever saw a pumpkin being carved (last Halloween) she really freaked out. She started crying and got very shaky. Naturally I asked what was wrong and she said to me in the most crushed, teary voice, “Mummy, hurting pumpkin!!!”. She was convinced they were causing severe harm to the poor innocent pumpkin. This year is no different – seeing pictures of Jack-O-Lanterns always causes a reaction, though it’s less extreme than last year. Now she usually says, “I just don’t like that pumpkin thing, Mommy.”

Needless to say, we are not a pumpkin carving household. But, I do like having them outside on the stoop, so I decided to have her do pumpkin painting! She loved the idea. Nothing ‘violent’, just good crafty fun. At least, I’m assuming that’s how she sees it.

So I picked up a variety of little pumpkins for her at the grocery store and she got to work. We had white, a nice Halloween-y blood red, and then some Glow-In-The-Dark pink since pink is her current favorite color.

She had a ball. But of course, I had to get in on the fun too! I picked out two big pumpkins for myself to paint, and got to work. I wanted a tree design, so after browsing some refs, I ended up with this pumpkin.

I just LOVE it! It came out much better than I expected! I debated adding in some little white owls or some bats, but in the end I really just like the gnarly old tree.

And here’s the second one, out on display on our stoop with the tree pumpkin.

My little ones are piled up on the bottom step – my daughter loves to see them when we go in and out!

It turns out, I liked the pumpkin painting BETTER than carving. It opens up a lot more design ideas for me, is FAR less messy, and the best part of course, it doesn’t terrify my child!! Maybe one day she’ll be ready for carving, but for now we are both happy with painting.

Until next time,

Connect With Me