Hints of fall from the oven: Pumpkin Cookies

Pumpkin Cookies

While yesterday was too hot to make chili while I settled in to watch college football, today was cool and breezy with the perfect amount of sun to keep it in the low 70s… which meant I could, for the first time without AC, turn on the oven comfortably this afternoon.  I missed out on going to the apple orchard this weekend, which means it will likely be October before I can reasonably make the pilgrimage… but in the interim, I settled for some hearty, but light chickpea cutlets and pumpkin cookies.  Both recipes started courtesy Isa Chandra Moskowitz, but were adapted to have no added oil.  Ok, I did more than just swap oil in the cookie recipe, but I’ll share that below.  For Moskowitz’s original, click here.

For the chickpea cutlets, I made a simple swap of spicy mustard for oil and it turned out fabulous.  The recipe for the cutlets is in Veganomicon–a must have cookbook for anyone.  Every time I make these I do it slightly different–mixing it up with the spices.  I never tire of these and their versatility… from serving with marinara and pasta to nomming on with a side of barbeque sauce, they are an easy item to quadrupole the recipe and enjoy for a week.

Oh, but the cookies.  All I knew for sure was that I wanted pumpkin and cinnamon–with enough pumpkin left over to incorporate into an oatmeal smoothie, or two, this week for good measure.  Doing as I do, I scoured my trusted sites for various pumpkin recipes–oil, no oil, vegan, non-vegan… what combination looked like it would work??  I settled on a variation of the one linked above at Post Punk Kitchen and I love them!

Pumpkin Cookies

2/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce

1 cup pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix!!)

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 1/2 tablespoons molasses

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon ground flax seed meal

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup Grape Nuts

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• In mixer add apple sauce, pumpkin, sugar, molasses, vanilla, flax seed meal, and oats until just incorporated.
• Stir in cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and baking soda.
• Add flour 1/4 cup at a time until all incorporated.  Stir in Grape Nuts and walnuts.
• Using a cookie scoop, scoop out onto a greased baking sheet.
• Cookies hold shape of the scoop well so you can space them closer together.
• Bake approximately 18-20 minutes.
• Remove from baking sheet immediately to a wire rack to cool.
• Store cooled cookies in an airtight container.

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies.

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