Sunday, November 29, 2009

Pumpkin Cookies

Behold you desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part you will make me know wisdom. Psalm 51:6

This is a perfect holiday cookie recipe passed along to me by Amy Whitson. It makes TONS so there will be plenty to share with family and neighbors. Just be prepared to be in the kitchen for a while once you start making these! I'm sure they are terrible for you but they are so light and fluffy to eat.

2 C. crisco/shortening
2 eggs
4 C. all purpose flour
2 tsp cinnamon
2 C. raisins (optional)
2 C. sugar
2 C. pumpkin
2 tsp. Baking soda
2 tsp. salt

Mix the shortening, sugar, eggs and pumpkin together. Add the dry ingredients, mixing well. Stir in the raisins. Drop by tsp (tbsp for larger cookies) on greased cooking sheet. Bake 375 for 10-12 minutes. The color will stay the same but you can tell they are done because they will not look wet on the top anymore. Just observe the first batch and then you will know how long your oven takes to cook them.

Cool completely. Make the icing while they are cooling and then ice immediately. The icing will harden.
Icing:
12 T. butter
1/4 C. milk
2 C. brown sugar
3 C. powdered sugar, sifted
3 tsp. vanilla
Cook 1st 3 ingredients on medium heat until sugar dissolves and butter melts. Remove the pot from the heat. Add the powdered sugar and 3 tsp vanilla. Stir vigorously until all the lumps go away. (I find using a rubber spatula helps.) Return the pot to the heat if it begins to harden up or thicken too much to drizzle. (You can keep reheating the icing as much as needed.)
Yields 40-60 cookies, depending on how big you make them.

Tips: If you have a Silipat sheet, this is the perfect recipe to use it with. Since it makes so many cookies, it can be time consuming to grease the sheet between each batch so this cuts out that step. (I LOVE my silipat sheets for those of you who do not have them. I think they are one of the best inventions!) Also, if you have a convection oven, I set it between 325/350 and my cookies took 8-9 minutes to cook. When the cookies are all finished, I just lined them all up on my counter and drizzled the icing back and forth over all of them until I had used all the icing. I found that to be faster than icing each individual cookie and it gave it a pretty drizzle look. These are best the day and the day after you make them. Do not store them in an airtight container because they get all gooey and messy. I also froze a few to see what would happen and am eating one right now as I am typing. It is great! Freeze them after icing, in a single layer. This icing recipe is awesome and would also be good to spruce up an pumpkin box recipe from the store.

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