Thanksgiving Recipe: Pumpkin Cookies!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

This year I didn't host a Thanksgiving dinner, or even have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner! My husband and I went to Frankie and Benny's (I get points because it's American themed), which was delicious! My little flat isn't big enough to do justice to the comfort foods that are a must-have for any Thanksgiving feast.

But I just couldn't let Thanksgiving pass by without cooking at least a little something festive. Pumpkin pie sticks out to me as the perfect Thanksgiving dessert, but honestly I didn't feel like a pie. So instead I settled on making some delicious pumpkin cookies! This is a recipe I've had for a while but never tried, and I can't remember where I got it. But the cookies are super soft - more like little cakes than a cookie! They're also really easy to customise - try adding some dried cranberries or a maple-pecan topping for an extra decadent dessert.

(Recipe without pictures at the bottom)

The Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Canned pumpkin is pretty hard to come by in the UK

Method

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (about 175 C - although for this recipe I used 180 C).

Combine your dry ingredients (except sugar) - so your flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Top tip: if, like me, you adore sea salt - that's fine. However, don't forget to grind it up!! I used the little chunks without thinking and had a couple of salty bites. It was still yummy though.

Yep, just like that. But, you know, stir it.

Now get out another bowl (I know, I know, more dirty dishes. It's worth it, I promise). Combine your sugar and butter - beat until nice and smooth. 

Appetising! 

You can use an electric mixer. I just don't have one.

Add your pumpkin, egg, and vanilla extract to your sugar butter and beat it all together. 

I much prefer extracts to flavourings. They're just so much yummier.

The pumpkin gives it such a lovely colour. I have a nail polish in a similar shade.

Now combine your pumpkin mixture with your flour mixture. 

THE MEETING OF THE MIXTURES! 

Mix the mixtures together until they form a good sticky dough. 

Magic is happening here.

Plop your dough onto prepared pans. I used a baking paper type thing - the cookies didn't stick and cleanup was super simple. To keep the cookies more uniform, I used a tablespoon to do my plopping.

Don't eat raw cookie dough - you could get sick! I mean, I totally did it anyways, but you so shouldn't.

Bake those bad boys for 15 minutes or until your edges are firm. 

That's a lot of cookies.

That's it! You're done! Let them cool for a few minutes and then go to town. Now, they're not the prettiest cookies out there. At all. But they were AMAZING! 

Don't worry cookies, I love you even though you're ugly. 

Pumpkin Cookies

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F (175C)

Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, and salt. 

In another bowl, combine sugar and butter/margarine until smooth.

Add pumpkin, egg, and extract to butter/sugar mixture. Beat until well mixed.

Combine pumpkin mixture with flour mixture and beat until a sticky dough forms.

Drop dough onto prepared pans and bake for 15 minutes or until edges are firm. 

Let cool before serving.

What's your favourite Thanksgiving recipe?