Spiced Pumpkin Cookies with Maple Icing 9Nov09

Yes it’s holiday season again. I feel like it hit really early this year. I heard Christmas music at Bloomies before Halloween! This year I’m so happy to be surrounded by all the amazing holiday paraphernalia. Pumpkins all over the place! Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, hams, you can’t miss it at any grocery store. Everyone gets into it. Starbucks with their special drinks, Dunkin Donuts with special holiday flavors so I figured it’s time for me to experiment with some pumpkin goodness.

We all love pumpkin pie. Those spices mixed with that rich pumpkin puree, mmmm mmm just reminds me of Fall. After 3 batches, I finally perfected the recipe for these scrumptious spiced pumpkin cookies. They’re more like muffin tops. Cakey and spongey like a moist muffin with a delicious maple icing on top. Perfect to fill the cookie jar for this holiday season!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves
1/2 cup or 1 stick of butter
1/2 cup of packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup of white sugar
1 large egg at room temperature
1 (15 oz) can of pumpkin puree

1 3/4 cups of confectioner’s sugar
3 tablespoons of pure maple syrup
3 tablespoons of water

Preheat oven to 375°F or 190°C

Step 1: The dry stuff!
In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. If you are using pre-seasoned pumpkin pie puree, then do not add the cinnamon, ginger and cloves. If you are using regular non-seasoned pumpkin puree, go ahead and add in the cinnamon, ginger and cloves to the dry ingredients. Whisk together to combine and set aside.

Step 2: Mix mix mix!
In another mixing bowl, whisk together the butter and 1/2 cup of pack light brown sugar and 1/2 cup of white sugar. It should be well combined and almost light and fluffy. Now add in the egg and mix until combined. Now add in half the pumpkin puree, mix. Then add in half the flour and mix. Add in the rest of the pumpkin puree and mix. Now add in the rest of the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Careful to not over mix the flour.

Step 3: Bake!
Line a baking tray with a little bit of butter and then parchment paper. Using an ice cream scoop or a large spoon, scoop dough balls of about 2 inches on the baking tray about 2 inches apart from each other. Bake at 375°F or 190°C for 15-18 minutes. You can kinda tell if they’re done by the color, they turn a slight darker brown but not on the edges. If you see the edges browning, they are over done! Take them out of the oven and transfer the parchment onto a cooling rack. Let them cool completely.

Step 4: The icing!
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the confectioner’s sugar, maple syrup and water. It’ll be a bit tough but get it to a smooth consistency and make sure that sugar is combined! Now drizzle the icing over the cookies over the cooling rack. Let the icing set for at least 20 minutes before moving or packing the cookies.

Mmm, I’m having one with my morning tea. I couldn’t resist the maple icing! It’s the best part of a muffin in a sorta kinda cookie form. Chocolate drizzled on top in place of the icing would be great too. I’m sure I’ll be making another batch of these really soon. Gotta get my fill of pumpkin! Hope you enjoy them!

Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: baking, cookies, cooking, desserts, food, holiday, recipe, recipes, sweets, thanksgiving

This entry was posted on Monday, November 9th, 2009 at 11:18 pm and is filed under baking, food, mmmm, recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.