Sweet Pumpkin Cookies

Today was the quintessential rainy fall day. If I hadn't had children to deal with, I would have curled up in bed with my knitting and my books and slept all day! As it was, my eldest got out of school early and the youngest was needy, so I needed an activity that would keep us all busy and happy. The answer....baking cookies, of course!

I used to bake cookies all of the time - going back to high school when I cooked a double batch of chocolate chip cookies for my dad nearly every weekend. It's fun, it's relaxing and it feels like home. Quite naturally, though, my baking has been severely curtailed by my recent health initiatives. I've missed it - but not so much as you might expect.

However, it's fall, and in our home fall means pumpkin muffins and pumpkin cookies. We LOVE them, and almost always have some on hand. In fact, just last night my husband gave me puppy dog eyes and said, "You know, we don't have anything pumpkin...." Seriously, the pumpkin goodies are the only baked treats that he goes nuts over!

And so today the girls and I made Sweet Pumpkin Cookies. Yum. I love that baking with the Princess has now become a reading and math lesson, and I love that the Pixie is discovering the joys of dumping stuff into the mixer. Life is good.

While I've never before talked about cooking here at chez Green Woman, I couldn't resist sharing our favorite pumpkin cookies with you. Enjoy!

Sweet Pumpkin Cookies

from Moosewood Restaurant New Classics (with a few of our own tweaks)

1 c. butter

1 c. natural cane sugar (florida crystals work really well in baked goods)

1 c. pumpkin puree

1 egg

1 tsp pure vanilla

2 c. whole wheat pastry flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground allspice

1/2 tsp salt

1 c. toasted peanuts

1 c. raisins

1 c. chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375.

Cream together the butter and sugar, and then add the pumpkin, egg and vanilla. Mix until well blended. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice and salt and then add to the mixing bowl. Stir well to form a soft batter. Stir in nuts, raisins and chocolate chips.

Drop by rounded spoonfuls (We use a cookie scoop) onto a cookie sheet, and bake for 10-15 min. (Ours only take 10.)

These cookies are actually quite light and cakelike, and while I know the combination of ingredients sounds odd...trust me when I say they are incredible!

Enjoy!

PS. If you don't have any of the Moosewood cookbooks, all I can say is RUN to your nearest bookstore and get as many as you can. New Classics and Low-Fat Favorites are our favorites.

PPS. YES, I've dutifully entered the recipes into My Daily Plate - the website that I use to track my food - and so I can happily incorporate them into my food plan.