One of the things I dreamed about when we were waiting to bring our daughter home was baking for her. Filling her to the brim with delicious treats! Well, that didn't go quite as planned, since she arrived with a wariness of all things bread and a sweet tooth that only liked candy. Instead, she made me up my noodles and meats game. Slowly but surely, she's getting a taste for baked treats, and I have found the secret weapon: pumpkin!!
Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Printable Recipe
Makes about 2 dozen cookies
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled*
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup of sugar plus 1 1/2 Tb cinnamon for rolling
*Note: You can use the butter warm and melted, but you'll have to chill the dough to stiffen it up. I like to stick the melted butter in the fridge ahead of time so it's nice and solid when I make the cookies and I can put them right in the oven.*
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line or grease a baking sheet.
Cream butter and sugars together. Add pumpkin and vanilla and mix until smooth. Add all of the dry ingredients (yep, you read that right!) and mix until well combined. Roll the dough into 1-2 Tb balls, and roll in cinnamon sugar until completely coated. Place on baking sheet and flatten slightly (I like to use the bottom of a glass). Bake for 10-15 minutes. They should look not quite done, that will keep them nice and soft. Let cool for a few minutes before serving.
Awww, so cool to see a photo of your daughter after following the long jouney to get her home. She's adorable! The cookies look so delicious, and what a cool cookie concept.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand. You melt the butter... and then let it harden again in the fridge? What does that do? How is it different/better than just using a stick of butter that's softened enough to cream easily?
ReplyDeleteMelting the butter changes the chemical composition of the butter. I'm not sure exactly how, but it's a scientific thing and has something to do with water content and air... Creaming softened butter makes it fluffy, fills it with air, right? That's why we use this technique for cakes, which are full of air. Whipping that fluffy butter into cookies makes them fluffy, same concept as cakes. Somehow, (I forgot exactly how) melted butter makes cookies chewier instead of fluffier. Even if you let melted butter solidify, that chemical change remains. When you use softened butter in a cookie dough and place it in the fridge to chill, the only thing that really changes in that chilling is the butter stiffening up again. So the "softness" of the butter isn't really the point. I'm sorry I can't remember the exact reason, but you are welcome to use softened butter if you want! I'm sure they'd still be yummy!
DeleteHi are you still blogging? I miss your recipes, your style and just the beautiful accounts of your life. Please continue!
ReplyDelete