Batter or dough? You decide.

I love pumpkins. I love the way they look, and I especially love how delicious it tastes while still being nutrition-packed and low-fat. 

I’ve already shared how easy it is to make healthier cakes with packed pumpkin, but I haven’t really showcased my deep love of pumpkins on here yet. I’m going to remedy that in the next few posts. (Spoiler alert! Expect crockpot pumpkin butter, pumpkin French toast bake, and an as-yet undetermined goodie that will probably involve cream cheese pumpkin cheesecake.)

But this pin for soft pumpkin cookies is the one that I’m pretty sure made me awfully popular at my apartment complex in the leasing office and residential services after I took a batch over to my roommate at work. 

The pin links to the Honey and Butter blog, which is written by Christi Park. It appears the blog hasn’t been updated in a while (October 2011), but it’s a very clean, very navigable site, with plenty of categories and recipes you can look through. I’m eyeing the watermelon lemonade for when summer rolls around.

But back to a more cold-weather recipe in these soft pumpkin cookies.

Ingredients

They kept their shape better than I expected.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups chilled pumpkin puree (canned pumpkin)
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger and nutmeg. Set aside.

You can tell I used a spoon to dish 'em onto the cookie sheet.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk the granulated sugar, the dark brown sugar, and the oil together. Add the pumpkin puree and whisk to combine thoroughly. Add the eggs and vanilla and whisk until combined.

4. Gradually add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and whisk until completely combined.

5. Use a small cookie scoop or a large spoon to drop a rounded, heaping tablespoon of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart.

6. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, making sure that the cookies are just starting to crack on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cookie comes out clean. The cookies should be firm when touched. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool completely on a cooling rack.

How it went

I feel like I should knock on wood, because my last post (gluten-free four-ingredient peanut-butter cookies) went smooth and now this one went off without a hitch, too!

These passed the firm-to-touch and toothpick tests.

I used canned pumpkin and didn’t chill it, and my spice measurements were heaping measurements.

The only problem I encountered was that my whisk sucks. Seriously look at it. I have to bend it back into a workable shape all the time. It’s definitely seen better days. 

Maybe I'll buy a new whisk, but I'll probably
just keep complaining about this one.

I had to work at mixing it up a little more because of that. This cookie dough is going to end up very similar to cake batter in that it is way runnier than your average cookie dough, but that's part of why these cookies are so amazing — they have a distinctly moist cake-like texture that makes them delightful.

I'm pretty sure this is an accurate representation of how many of these cookies my roommate ate.

I baked mine about 10 minutes on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets, and they slid off the parchment paper like it was Teflon. 

Really, the hardest part of making these cookies was trying to keep my roommate from eating them all.

Love pumpkin? 

I've also blogged about making healthier cakes with packed pumpkin, a pumpkin French toast bake that will brighten any morning, and an easy and delicious pumpkin cheesecake.

— Nicole Franz | NiFranz@News-Herald.com | @FranzOrFoe
Follow my Mission: Pinpossible board on Pinterest.

I love it when a plan comes together. Why yes, yes I am channeling Hannibal Smith of “The A-Team” (shout-out to my dad, brother Tony and roommate Chuck on that one), but it’s just nice when something works out perfectly. Particularly a recipe that claims to contain the blueprint to a perfect no-fuss baking experience.

Spoiler alert, yummy cookies await!

Too often those “easy-to-follow,” “simple” recipes end up being deceptively difficult (cough, Brownie bites on steroids, cough).  

But this marvelously manageable pin of four-ingredient peanut butter cookies was just as uncomplicated as advertised.

Peanut butter and sugar (2 of the 4 ingredients)

The pin links to a picture-heavy blog post on the PBS Parents site called Kitchen Explorers. It’s a kitchen-focused blog that has a distinctively family-friendly air, with tons of kid-approved and kid-focused recipes. 

Ready for egg, vanilla (the other 2 ingredients)

This particular post is by Alice Currah who happens to also publish SavorySweetLife.com, a popular food blog that has an awesome array of categories so you can easily navigate the site to find blogs on topics like “Cake Decorating,” “Coffee Drinks,” “Beans and Legumes,” “Casseroles” and more.

But I digress, back to these awesomely easy peanut butter cookies.

Ingredients

1 cup peanut butter (can be smooth or crunchy)

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla 

I doubled the recipe

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Now that is some peanut-buttery cookie dough

2. Using a hand or stand mixer, mix the peanut butter, sugar, egg and vanilla on low speed until well combined.

Resist the urge to just pop one in your mouth

3. Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough 1 1/2-inches apart onto the baking sheet. If you don't have a cookie scoop, drop the dough with a spoon.

Criss-cross!

4. Flatten the dough balls the tines of a fork, making a cross pattern on the cookies.

So good!

5. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes until they are golden around the edges. Allow the cookies to rest on the counter for 2 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

I'm virtually incapable of not crumbling at least one cookie,
but then again, it's a great excuse to eat one right away

How it went

This is so straightforward that even I couldn’t manage to muck it up even though I doubled the recipe. 

I hand-mixed the ingredients, starting with the peanut butter (I used creamy) and sugar and adding the egg and vanilla after I already had a pretty even consistency.

I don’t have a cookie scoop so I just dropped the dough with a spoon, then delved in to leave that tell-tale crisscross pattern with a fork.

Yes, I have to eat this cookie right this second.

My cookies were perfect after 11 minutes, though a little crumbly even after the requisite two minutes on the cookie sheet. Just be careful when you’re using a spatula to transfer them to a cooling rack — or in my case a parchment lined tray — and you’ll be as golden as these cookies.

These cookies were very soft (though I’m sure if you prefer crunchy cookies baking them a little longer would do the trick) and delicious. They’re gluten-free and I honestly thought they were easier to make and tastier than traditional peanut-butter cookies with flour. 

I'm getting hungry just looking at these cookies!

I can't wait to try them with crunchy peanut butter!

— Nicole Franz | NiFranz@News-Herald.com | @FranzOrFoe
Follow my Mission: Pinpossible board on Pinterest.