Best Baking Club Bakes: Pumpkin Cookies

Cookie Ingredients: 

● 2½ cups flour (fluffed) 

● 1 tsp baking soda 

● 1 tsp baking powder 

● ½ tsp salt 

● 2 tsp ground cinnamon 

● ½ tsp ground ginger 

● ½ tsp allspice 

● ¼ tsp cardamom 

● ¼ tsp ground nutmeg 

● ½ cup unsalted butter (one stick, softened not room temp) 

● ½ cup granulated (white) sugar 

● 1 cup brown sugar (packed) 

● 1 room temperature egg 

● 1 tsp vanilla extract 

● 1 cup pumpkin puree 

Icing Recipe: 

● 2 cups powdered sugar (sifted) 

● 3 tbsp milk 

● 1 tsp vanilla extract 

● Crumbled pecans or walnuts (optional) 

Materials: 

● 2 – 3 medium/large bowls 

● Electric mixer 

● Paddle attachment for said electric mixer 

● Silicone spatula 

● Metal spatula 

● Measuring cups 

● Oven 

● Metal baking sheet 

● Parchment paper or a silicon mat 

● Wire rack

Instructions: 

1. Mix the 2½ cups flour (fluffed), 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp salt,  2 tsp ground cinnamon, ½ tsp ground ginger, ½ tsp allspice, ¼ tsp cardamom, and ¼ tsp ground nutmeg together in a medium sized bowl. Set this mixture of dry ingredients aside. 

2. In a stand mixer (or in a bowl if you have a hand electric mixer) add in the stick of softened butter, 1 room temperature egg, and ½ cup granulated sugar, and mix on low speed until combined. Next, add the ½ cup of packed brown sugar and mix on low speed until combined. After this add in the 1 cup pumpkin puree (if it’s watery, use a strainer to get the water out) and mix on low speed until combined. It’ll look all weird and curdled but that’s ok, that’s how it’s supposed to look. Next add the mixture of dry ingredients you set aside in step 1, mix on low speed until smooth (make sure there are no clumps). 

3. Wrap the bowl of cookie dough in plastic wrap or aluminum foil and chill in the fridge between 30 minutes to 1 hour. 

4. While you’re waiting for the cookie dough to rest, make the icing. To do this add the 2 cups powdered sugar (sifted), 3 tbs milk and 1 tsp of vanilla extract into a bowl and stir (with a whisk or fork) until completely smooth. Adjust to desired thickness. If it’s too thin, add more powdered sugar, if its too thick add milk in small amounts.

5. Prepare a baking sheet to put the cookie dough on. To do this get out a large metal baking sheet and some parchment paper (or a baking silicone mat if you have one). Cut the parchment paper to fit into the borders of the baking sheet and stick the corners of the wax paper down by putting a little bit of icing or cookie dough in each of the corners of the baking sheet and lightly press down so the wax paper is able to lay flat. (DO NOT USE WAX PAPER)

6. Preheat the oven to 370 degrees fahrenheit and go take the cookie dough out of the fridge 

7. Get an ice cream scoop and scoop out 1 scoop’s worth of cookie dough onto the baking sheet (or about 2 tbsp). Leave about 2 ½ inches or so between the balls of dough. 

8. Put the baking sheet of cookie dough into the oven and set a timer for around 15 – 20 minutes.

9. Take the baking sheet of cookies out of the oven and set it on top of your oven to avoid burning your countertop. After this, get out a wire cooling rack and set this on your countertop. Get a metal spatula and carefully transfer the cookies onto the cooling rack. 

10. After the cookies have finished cooling, take some of the icing and drizzle it over the cookies with a spoon (if you’re really fancy then you can put the icing into a piping bag, or a makeshift-ziploc piping bag by cutting a small hole in the corner of the bag). 

11. Now top with crushed walnuts or pecans on top and you’re done.

Side notes: 

● If you can’t get all of the spices, try to get at least the cinnamon powder and one other spice (preferably the powdered nutmeg or coriander). Add another ½ tsp of each of these spices if you’re missing two or more other spices.

● If you can’t get an electric mixer, it is possible to do it by hand but it takes a bit longer

● Dark brown sugar yields the best results, but light brown sugar will also work

● If you can’t use up all of the cookie dough then wrap it in plastic wrap and freeze. It’ll keep for up to 3 months. 

● You can sort of put in approximate measurements for all of the ingredients, but make sure you use the exact measurements for the baking soda, baking powder, and brown sugar or else your cookies will either taste like soap, or they’ll just be kind of weird. 

● Make sure not to add too much flour or else the cookies will taste bad. ● If you only have salted butter that’s fine, or possibly even better. Just  don’t add in ½ tsp of salt. 

● If you don’t know how to fluff flour, basically just pour the flour into a bowl and mix it around with a fork until it’s all loose and airy. Or, you can even mix it around with a fork inside the measuring cup. 

• If you don’t know how to pack the brown sugar, basically just press the brown sugar down into the measuring cup so it’s very compacted and dense.