Cookies, Part 2
Made some pumpkin cookies tonight!
I used this recipe, with the only change being one suggested in the reviews - replacing the cup of shortening with half a cup of butter (okay, margarine) and half a cup of applesauce. I also left out the walnuts (my brother is allergic to nuts), but I did use some golden raisins. Also, the pumpkin I used was not canned pumpkin, but instead pumpkin purée I got from my mother-in-law a couple months back (frozen in the interim). It ended up making just short of four dozen.
The hardest part of this one was, uh, opening the applesauce jar. I really hate creaming butter and sugar together but I got to put the egg in at the same time, so the liquid made it a lot easier. The pumpkin was probably more watery than canned pumpkin would have been, and the applesauce surely added extra liquid that the shortening wouldn't have had, but these were really easy. They did spread a little - I'm glad I spooned the dough out fairly small. Also, they are VERY soft when they come out. I tested them with a knife, after ten minutes, to see whether they were done. The knife came out without a trace of anything, but I could wiggle and slide it around as though I'd just put the dough in the oven. They were done, though!
They were very soft and moist when I tried to get them off the pan, so I left them there to let them firm up a little. Very floppy. I did not use any icing. I think that would take away from the subtlety. Good pumpkin flavor, like eating a pie, but they were also kind of insubstantial - really light and fluffy. I would probably use more raisins in the future just to give them a little more substance.
The applesauce instead of shortening was a great mod. The pumpkin and apple and raisins taste really good together. They would make a good cookie for earlier in the fall, very harvesty. Also tasty.
On Monday, my bread recipe, my Dad's chili recipe, and my modded version of that chili recipe. I'll get to my other cookies another time - one won't travel to Michigan well, and the other will not be a novelty up there, as I'm merely the fourth generation to make it (the fifth, if you count my sister as separately, since she's eighteen years older than me).
I used this recipe, with the only change being one suggested in the reviews - replacing the cup of shortening with half a cup of butter (okay, margarine) and half a cup of applesauce. I also left out the walnuts (my brother is allergic to nuts), but I did use some golden raisins. Also, the pumpkin I used was not canned pumpkin, but instead pumpkin purée I got from my mother-in-law a couple months back (frozen in the interim). It ended up making just short of four dozen.
The hardest part of this one was, uh, opening the applesauce jar. I really hate creaming butter and sugar together but I got to put the egg in at the same time, so the liquid made it a lot easier. The pumpkin was probably more watery than canned pumpkin would have been, and the applesauce surely added extra liquid that the shortening wouldn't have had, but these were really easy. They did spread a little - I'm glad I spooned the dough out fairly small. Also, they are VERY soft when they come out. I tested them with a knife, after ten minutes, to see whether they were done. The knife came out without a trace of anything, but I could wiggle and slide it around as though I'd just put the dough in the oven. They were done, though!
They were very soft and moist when I tried to get them off the pan, so I left them there to let them firm up a little. Very floppy. I did not use any icing. I think that would take away from the subtlety. Good pumpkin flavor, like eating a pie, but they were also kind of insubstantial - really light and fluffy. I would probably use more raisins in the future just to give them a little more substance.
The applesauce instead of shortening was a great mod. The pumpkin and apple and raisins taste really good together. They would make a good cookie for earlier in the fall, very harvesty. Also tasty.
On Monday, my bread recipe, my Dad's chili recipe, and my modded version of that chili recipe. I'll get to my other cookies another time - one won't travel to Michigan well, and the other will not be a novelty up there, as I'm merely the fourth generation to make it (the fifth, if you count my sister as separately, since she's eighteen years older than me).