Pumpkin Spice Sugar Cookies
A Starbucks pumpkin spice latte ain't got nothun' on these cookies, suga! What could be more fitting for these magical little treats than a pink sparkly chinese takeout box. For more pumpkin recipes check out the hip horticulturist where this recipe is featured and plenty more!
We spent an afternoon baking pumpkin and pecan pies last week and ended up having an extra cup of pumpkin puree. Pumpkin is very good for you, full of Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol), Pantothenic Acid, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Copper, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Iron and Manganese, all of which is good for your skin so we didn’t want to waste a drop.
We made these cookies taking advantage of the skin benefits of the pumpkin while lightening up on the sugar content.
We seriously could not stop at one cookie with a cup of steaming hot coffee! Let us know how you like them in the comments below.
Ingredients
(makes 84 small cookies)
1 Cup of canned pumpkin puree
1 large egg
⅓ cup of dark molasses
3 cups of all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 ⅔ teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice **
½ teaspoon salt
⅞ cup of white sugar
2 sticks of butter
2 cups of turbinado sugar or any decorating sugars for rolling cookies
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
In a medium bowl sift flour, salt, baking powder and pumpkin spice and set aside.
In a stand mixer, or by hand, cream butter, white sugar and molasses until light and fluffy. Beat for two minutes and then scrape down and beat for another minute or so.
Add egg and beat for another minute
Add pumpkin puree and thoroughly mix.
Add dry ingredients in thirds and mix.
Use an ice cream scooper and place on baking sheet. Then roll the dough into perfect circles in your hands before rolling them in the sugar sprinkles.
Then flatten each sugar covered ball with the bottom of a glass into similar sized circles.
Once all the cookies are flattened, coat them in sugar once more.
Place in the oven 12-13 minutes, until slightly crispy around edges but still soft in the middle.
Remove them and allow to cool on pan for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.
** To make pumpkin pie spice mix combine 3 tablespoons of ground cinnamon, 2 teaspoons ground ginger, 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg, 1 ½ teaspoons ground allspice and 1 ½ teaspoons of ground cloves. Mix the spices together in a small bowl. Store in an airtight container.
Tip: Use an ice cream scooper to ensure that each cookie has the same amount of dough. Then roll the dough into perfect circles in your hands before dipping them in the sugar sprinkles. This way they will all flatten perfectly and all the cookies will be uniform.
