Once upon a time, long, long ago (so long ago that I was a sophomore in college) I was home for winter break—then known quaintly as Christmas vacation—when I found a recipe for pumpkin cookies in Glamour Magazine…of all unlikely places. It was just a tiny sidebar, sandwiched between articles on what to wear to holiday parties and the latest hairstyles, but the cookies sounded so good…I dashed to the grocery store to buy the ingredients, commandeered my mother’s kitchen and whipped up a batch.
They were an instant hit with my family, and have continued to be loved by everyone who’s eaten them over the years. I’ve been asked for the recipe countless times, and my mother has threatened to cut me out of the will if I don’t bring or send her a supply every Christmas. Unfortunately, I have no idea who originally devised the recipe, and the original page that I ripped out of the magazine has long since disintegrated, so as far as giving credit, I’ve done what I can.
I’ve tinkered with the recipe, substituting coconut oil for Crisco, dried cranberries for raisins, and chocolate chips for butterscotch, and enjoyed all the permutations, but for simplicity’s sake, here’s the original recipe. Do with it as you will.
Pumpkin Cookies
1 cup shortening (not butter)
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 16 oz can pumpkin puree
2 cups unbleached flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 cup each butterscotch bits, chopped toasted pecans, raisins
Preheat the oven to 375º F. Have ready 2 parchment lined cookie sheets.
Cream sugar and shortening together in electric mixer. Add pumpkin and egg, blending well. Combine flour, salt, pumpkin pie spice and soda; add to creamed mixture. Stir in butterscotch bits, nuts and raisins. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto cookie sheets and bake 10-12 minutes. Glaze while still hot.
Brown Sugar Glaze
In small saucepan, combine:
3 Tbsp butter
4 tsp milk
½ cup brown sugar
Heat over medium low heat, stirring till sugar dissolves.
Let cool slightly, stir in:
1 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Dollop on warm cookies. If glaze gets too stiff, just add a little milk and stir.
Makes about 4 dozen.
MAKE AHEAD
The cookies can be scooped and frozen on a cookie sheet, then stored in a plastic baggie or other air-tight container till ready to bake.
This cookie recipe looks tempting. How important is the glaze? Need to watch the sugar c0nsumption. Would the recipe suffer if the glaze sugar was cut in half? Please print your version t00. I thought coconut oil was one of those non-gratis fats? And please-how goes your new book—I’ve been waiting and waiting. Mele Kalikimaka & a Hauoli Makahiki H0u!
Hi, Li–
Thanks for the comment! My first from Hawaii!
I think the glaze is pretty crucial, but you don’t need a lot. I just put a tiny dab on each cookie while they’re hot and it kind of melts over the top. If you cut the amount of sugar, I think the consistency would suffer. Hope that answers your question. Re: coconut oil, it’s actually very good for you, much more so than Crisco. If you decide to try it, you’ll need to melt it. It’s pretty solid at room temp. Also, thanks for asking about my new book–it’s part three of the Bread Alone series and I’m working hard on it! Hope to have a finished manuscript shortly after the New Year!
Merry Christmas to you, too!
Hi Judi,
Delighted to read that you have a new book in the works! How long is the turn-around from finished manuscript to my hands?!
Might have to buy a couple cookie sheets. Recipe sounds yummy.
All best wishes for a happy, healthy, and magical 2012.
Vicki from Florida
Hi, Vicki–Thanks for asking about the book…it can be anywhere from a year to eighteen months between a finished ms and a book. Hopefully that will be on the shorter side, but you just never know. Thanks, too, for the good wishes for 2012. Same to you and yours.
judi
I am so happy to hear that you’re adding another book to the series — yippee! I will look forward to reading it.
A question on the pumpkin puree — what size can? The small one or the large one?
Hi, Denise–
Thanks for the comment. Yes, I’m glad to have the manuscript completed…at least the first draft! Re: the pumpkin, the 15 oz can is what you want.
Best,
judi
These cookies are very good – thank you for the recipe. However, there are a couple of corrections that would be helpful.
1) Ingredient naming: The ingredients list calls for pumpkin pie spice while the actual instructions refer to it as cinnamon. We all know what you mean – pumpkin pie spice contains cinnamon, of course – but I had to scan the ingredient list again to make sure I wasn’t overlooking a separate measurement of cinnamon, so a little consistency would be nice.
2) The pumpkin puree can size: The size is left off of the actual recipe, and while I appreciate that you clarified this for another commenter, it would be nice if you would edit the recipe to include this. I printed this off to read later and when I realized (while shopping for the ingredients at the grocery store) that the can size wasn’t specified, I had to hunt up your website again when I got home to see if this was addressed in the comments.
These are just small things, but it really makes everything go smoother for the reader if they don’t have to constantly guess and deduce what the recipe calls for.
Thanks again for the recipe!
Glad you liked the cookies! Thanks for pointing out the discrepancies. Duly noted and fixed!