Pumpkin Spice Cookies: pumpkins and autumn leaves

 

Everything is pumpkin spice these days, right?  It can get a little out of hand, but since it's for only a short time once a year, I'm okay with it.  Now, if marketers started saying, "Hey, people are really into this stuff!  Let's give it to them all year!" that would be another story.  But once a year, it's a good reason to try new things.

So here I am with pumpkin spice cookies.  There is no pumpkin involved*; these just contain the spice mix that goes into pumpkin pie.  So all these "pumpkin spice" items would be more appropriately called "pumpkin pie spice mix" whatevers, but it doesn't roll off the tongue quite as nicely.

The assignment my art group had this week was for anything seasonal, artist's choice.  What with decorations and shorter days and festivity plans, the idea of stretching myself further with an "art project" was taking the fun out of the activity, which defeats the point.  So I opted to make autumn themed cookies.

This recipe seemed a little light on spices compared to this other one, but since I've never made either I decided to test the one that had a raising agent to see how the designs worked out.  (In looking this recipe up again, I found she has added canned pumpkin to the original.  I did not use the pumpkin, but wish I had... just because.)  I followed the recipe faithfully, with only two small changes.  There was no salt in the original recipe and that is not a good thing.  Also, I think my allspice has expired.  I use the berries and crush them as needed, but still they don't seem to have much flavor, so I doubled that.  I have no idea whether it made a difference.

*She has since added pumpkin to this recipe, which she says makes a softer cookie.  It's an optional ingredient.

Here's what I used to make about 3½ dozen 3" cookies:

3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated if possible
1/4 teaspoon allspice (I used 1/2 teaspoon)

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2/3 cup granulated (white) sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (best quality available)

1/4 cup pumpkin puree (optional)

In a large bowl bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and spices. Stir with whisk to combine.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Add both sugars and beat until fully combined and fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla (and pumpkin, if using) and beat to combine. Scrape down the sides of your bowl with a spatula. While the mixer is running on low, add the flour mixture, slowly.  Mix until all of the flour is incorporated, and the mixture begins to ball up and pull away from the sides of the bowl. Dump out the dough onto a clean work surface, knead in any extra bits of flour or dough, and divide the dough into two large balls. Place balls of dough in a plastic bag (or plastic wrap), flatten dough into large disks and place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.  (If you leave it too long, it becomes quite hard and difficult to work with.) When the dough has chilled, roll out onto lightly floured surface and cut out desired shapes. Bake cookies in a pre-heated, 350F oven, on ungreased baking sheets, 9-15 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies.

Frosting (approximately 1/2 cup):
2/3 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1½ teaspoons Wilton meringue powder
1+ tablespoon warm water
food coloring gel

Mix the first 3 ingredients on low with a mixer, adding more water as necessary to produce a
somewhat thick paste. Add color, and continue to mix and adjust water until desired consistency is achieved.

I left the dough in the refrigerator until the next day and had to let it sit out for a bit to soften.  However, once warm, the dough is very soft and can be difficult to work with.  For that reason, I ended up chilling the dough between rolling sessions, as well as the sheets of cookies prior to baking.  (I wanted to make sure to preserve the designs, but that didn't end up being an issue.)

Aside from their taking longer to bake (and that might have been my oven --- it seemed to be losing temperature), these were easy to make and baked up really well.  Despite so much butter and a raising agent, the didn't spread or lose their shape and also retained the designs.  Which means this recipe would work well for a stamped pattern.  Good to know.

For the decorative icing, I reduced the original recipe by a factor of 6 to produce about 1/2 cup or so.  The directions were to mix it for 10 or more minutes, but I didn't know what I was looking for, and other directions said it wasn't necessary.  So I didn't.  Also, it seems formulas vary; here's another that uses more meringue powder.

Conclusion:  Absolutely delicious!  They were lightly spiced, but still noticeably so, and they made the kitchen smell fabulous.  They were crisp, but with a delicate crumb, and could easily be manipulated for crispness by rolling them thicker or thinner.

Recipe:  Pumpkin Spice Cutout Cookies via Glorious Treats; Royal Icing via Wilton