My husband attempted to grow his own pumpkin patch in our yard this year. However, we got the seeds in the ground about two months too late, and the rabbits and squirrels kept ripping up the plants. It turns out most plants don’t do well if they are ripped up and replanted every day. Our dreams of multitudes of heirloom pumpkins were dashed, but we have some thoughts on strategies for next year. Luckily, canned pumpkin is abundant this time of year. And let’s be honest, pumpkin that is already pureed and in a can is a heck of a lot easier to work. I’ve processed my own pumpkins before and it is a huge, labor Intensive pain in the tush.
I decided to combine two of my favorite things!
Pumpkin Molasses Cookies
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 cup unsalted butter room temp
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup pumpkin
1 large egg
1/4 cup molasses
Sift together flour, baking soda, spices, and salt. Set aside in bowl.
Place softened butter in deep bowl and mix it together with the Brown sugar and white sugar using egg beaters or a handmixer. Add the egg and pumpkin, continue mixing on low, then slowly add molasses. I say slowly since it can splatter.
Remove beaters. Slowly fold the flour and spice mixture into the wet ingredients, mixing by hand with a spoon.
Cover and chill dough in refrigerator for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Form one to one and a half inch balls of dough and roll them in sugar. Place them two inches apart on your baking tray. Score extra points if you rolled them in cinnamon sugar!
Bake 8-10 minutes
A little chewy, a little pumpkin-y, a little awesome. For a fun treat for the kids, you can put some cinnamon ice cream between two cookies as a sandwich. I doubt the kids will complain. I was tempted to eat one smeared with cream cheese frosting. Very tempted. Actually I did do that and it was about a thousand calories and awesome. Don’t tell anyone.