Yummy Fall Pumpkin Glazed Cookies

So it's no big shocker that fall, and all things fall, kinda get me all jazzed up.  Throw in temps in the 50's (like they're supposed to be) and I'm set.  It was the perfect morning yesterday to hit up the local pumpkin patch but the heavy rains the day before kept it from opening so I decided that getting our fall fix at the grocery store would have to do.

We hadn't even actually made it into the main part of the store before it looked like fall had thrown up in our cart...your normal, run-of-the-mill pumpkins for carving, fat squatty Cinderella pumpkins for our front porch fall display, apple cider.  I think you're getting the drift here.  Oh, and I can't forget the massive straw bale in the back of my vehicle for the aforementioned front porch display.  I'd found a couple recipes online that I wanted to try and of course, I needed some pumpkin puree for them.  As much as I wanted to go all nuts and whip out every pumpkin recipe I had, I decided to start with the Pumpkin Glazed Cookies and they don't disappoint.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup pumpkin puree {canned pumpkin}
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs
4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (I added a little extra...can't have too much pumpkin pie spicyness!)

Glaze
3 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (again, 1/4tsp didn't seem like quite enough)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with wax/parchment paper.  This kinda goes against what the recipe says but I used my KitchenAid mixer to mix everything together instead of doing it by hand.  It does a better job of mixing things and is faster at it so that's a no brainer.  I combined the butter, oil, pumpkin, sugars, vanilla and eggs first. Then I added the dry remaining dry ingredients.  Go slow with the mixing because the bowl will be full and you don't want to be cleaning it off the counters and floors!  I used an ice cream scoop to scoop out the 'batter' onto the baking sheet and then flatten to 1/2 inch thick using the bottom of a glass. Bake 8 minutes.

Go ahead and mix the the glaze ingredients while the cookies are baking since this only takes a couple minutes.  Once you pull each batch of cookies out, let them cool a couple minutes on the baking sheet before moving to a cooling rack or, if you're like me and have a too small cooling rack, a long piece of foil on the counter.  Take spoon and kinda joosh and smear (yes, those are technical terms) glaze over each warm cookie.  Let the glaze harden on the cookies at least a couple hours before moving them to wherever you plan on storing them: cookie jar, container, cookie jar, etc. 

Try not to eat them all at once and enjoy!

What's for breakfast?

Pinterest is both a blessing and a curse in my house.  I've found some amazing ideas and recipes off there...and at the same time it can make any mom feel like a complete failing loser for not making every day for her kids look like it came straight from the 1000 times over re-pinned board of How To Be The Best Mom Ever.  That being said, I was on the hunt for some healthier breakfast ideas for Selah and looked to the ol' Pinterest for, at the very least, some inspiration.  This was partly due to the fact that after perusing our local grocery store's healthy/organic breakfast section, I discovered I have a small issue with paying $4 for a box of 6 frozen pancakes that half of which will more than likely end up flung on the floor or secretly fed to the dogs while I'm not looking. 

Pumpkin pancakes piqued my interest so I decided to give them a try and it ever so conveniently happened that I had all the ingredients, including the pumpkin puree.  That would be thanks to my attempt at making Pumpkin Pie Fudge last month for my husband's work Christmas party.  They turned out great but had so much freaking sugar in them (I swear it was like 10 cups powdered and granulated) that I dang near went into diabetic shock just sampling the pieces that fell off while trying to cut them into squares.  I decided my major organs couldn't handle anymore so one batch was enough which left me with an extra can of pumpkin puree and for some weird reason, 5 cans of evaporated milk.  Go figure.

So I busted out my box of pancake mix, Bisquick's Heart Smart, and measured based off the Pancake recipe on the side.  By the way, I fudged my way through most of the ingredients on this.    Or I believe the correct term is called, eyeballing it.  I used half a can of the pumpkin puree and to make it a little more festive, tossed in 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.

 It never fails; I always make a huge mess when it comes to floury type mixes.

 

I made mini pancakes with my batter since Selah loved the frozen mini buttermilk ones we were buying previously and the little ones seem to interest her more.  With a little dab of Smart Balance butter and a very light dollop of syrup, she was a big fan of these. Woohoo...mommy success!