Where it all began...

Apparently I make good cookies. Not just good cookies but awesome cookies. Not my words, the words of my family and friends. Don't get me wrong, I can follow a recipe. But I'm not really sure what makes them so delectible. I almost feel as though I am cheating my family, mostly my husband, out of the tastefulness of life when I make cookies from premade dough or pour them out of a box. They even have their own name: Shari Cookies. These "Shari Cookies" have become the only request of my family as Christmas presents and are a requirement at family parties. It all started Christmas 2005 when I tried to get a cookie exchange going. I made hundreds of cookies in my college apartment all by hand (I didn't yet have a mixer), in an oven that barely fit one pan. My roommate awoke to masses of baked goods covering each and every surface of our living space, save her bedroom and our tiny bathroom. I boxed them all up, well most of them, wrapped them in holiday flare, and placed them under the trees of my unsuspecting family members. With visions of sugar plums fleeing their dreams, they awoke to the sugar spender that has now become the traditional holiday staple. My goal is to get some practice this year. Not that I'm rusty. I absolutely adore baking. However, it seems as though I always go into the holiday cold, without the proper shoes, stretch and warmup. Not this year. This year I plan to outdo all the rest, which will be hard to do, for sure. And so, "The Cookie Project" was born. Each week I plan to make one type of cookie. It must be from scratch and have all the love and tenderness of warm homemade cookies and the subsidial milk, sans the slobber of my husband's spit on the spoon. So, one homemade cookie a week. This can't be good for our waistlines, but he's not complaining...

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Week Six: Iced Pumpkin Cookies

Iced Pumpkin Cookies
Yields 36 cookies
Courtesy of allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cupos white sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Combine flour, baking poweder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.
In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls.
Bake for 15-20 minutes. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork.
To make glaze, combine confectioners' sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed to achieve drizzling consistency.

In the fall, I am always looking for new pumpkin recipes. I have always made pies before, but this time I wanted to do something else. Since they fit the cookie project mold, they came to fruition. I like recipes in which my cabinets already contain the ingredients and in this case, they did. I chose to dip the cookies in the frosting instead of drizzling so I had to make it a little thicker. These taste like little bites of pumpkin pie. I only baked them for 15 minutes so they are quite soft, but I like them that way. Bake them 2-3 minutes longer and they'll crisp up nicely. Yummy fall recipes!!
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)