Pumpkin Cookies

Summer arrived in Colorado about a month and a half ago. I was home in Minnesota last weekend, and the trees were budding. This place is crazy. Matt and I have been doing wedding preparation type things. And Ultimate season is starting, which means I get to wear my garish homemade pink tractor skirt (and yes, this fabric is available at JoAnn's)! And that I can bake for frisbee friends.

Today's special is pumpkin cookies (more like pumpkin muffin tops, really).

Soft Pumpkin Cookies

from AllRecipes

Cookies

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting

• 1 cups confectioners sugar
• 1 tablespoon cream cheese
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-2 tablespoons milk

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with partchment paper or silpat. (Or not, if you're ill-equipped).
2. Mix together oil, egg, sugar, vanilla, and pumpkin until well-blended
3. Add flour, leavening, spices, and salt in a pile on top and mix them together a bit before stirring into the wet ingredients.
4. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto cookies sheets (supposedly makes 36, my batch made 22 because I got overexcited about large cookies). Bake for 15 minutes or until tops are slightly browned. Cool completely.
5. In the meantime, make the icing. Combine all ingredients but the milk, and add enough milk to make it drizzly. When cookies are totally cool, drizzle the icing over them.

Pumpkin love and fish paste

They opened up an IKEA in Colorado, and I went with a friend last weekend. I've always been a little fixated with IKEA. It's like walking around in someone else's well-designed and fabulously clean house. And they have $1 ice cream. This time, I also discovered they have salmon paste. Which is delicious. And in a tube.



One of my favorite parts of fall is the prerogative to bake delicious apple and pumpkin items. Matt likes pumpkin more than anyone I've ever met. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin bread. When we set out to find a pumpkin bread recipe this week, we browsed through recipes and he pointed out which breads were acceptable by their picture. Is the top a bit shiny? Does it look moist inside? This one fit the bill for all. And I got to change the name. I'm so funny.


I brought some so school today, only to find that my friend SB had also brought pumpkin bread. After bantering about how delicious pumpkin bread is an whose would be yummier, we discovered that we had both made the same recipe from online. Creepy.


Pumpking Beard
adapted from Allrecipes

• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cups water
• 2 1/3 cups white sugar
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour 2 9x4 inch loaf pans (or 3 7x3 inchers).
2. Mic pumpkin with eggs oil, water, and sugar until well blended. Mix dry ingredients in separate bowl. Gently fold dry ingredients into wet (no whisking!) Pour into pans.
3. Bake for 50 minutes, turning halfway through, until toothpick comes out clean. Cool a couple of minutes before removing from pan.