For some reason, I’ve been wanting to bake things.  New things.  I have no idea why.  I also have wanted warm tasty comfort food as well.  I blame the remnants of having the Crud in conjunction with the cooling weather.  My theory is baking myself means I control ingredients.  And this is a good thing, since I really need to get back on track with that aspect of my weekly accomplishments.  Cooking things myself, not the uh..baking.

I started with a mental raid of my pantry, then consulted the Great and Wise Internets (GWI) for recipes that used the ingredients I had on hand because I’m also working to stay within a monthly food budget.   I wanted to see what I could do with oat flour.  I stumbled across this Pumpkin Cookie recipe, took a look at the ingredients and violated my first rule of Beta Cooking by having my first run be an altered version of the recipe.  Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose doing this.  I won.  And I’m certain I can attribute that to having tried and tasted variations of a beloved fall time favorite: Pumpkin Bread.  Since I’ve never made cookies from scratch, [not even joking], I made this my Fearless Friday endeavor, despite that technically I was accomplishing this on a Wednesday.  It kinda ensures I get the post all typed up and ready for sharing.  And as if it couldn’t get any better: freezable- the dough AND the baked cookies.  A quick wiki is at the bottom of the recipe

How’d It Go

I had no way to gauge if my mixing was on target, since I’ve never made cookie dough and my quick GWI consultation didn’t include in progress photo viewing.  I just hoped the adjectives in the recipe were spot on along with my interpretation of ‘fluffy.’  I’m fairly certain my alterations increased cooking time, because these make dense cookies and they needed cooking more along the 20 min time frame in the cited 16-20.  Also, ovens vary.  But this a good thing.  Unless you’re not a fan of toasted outside, moist chewy soft inside cookies.  Then you can try and spread them a little with a spoon before baking, because they don’t spread a lot on their own.

Prep time: Your usual measuring out ingredients and coordinating combining wet and dry ingredients.  The butter needs to be softened, so that’s all dependent upon ambient kitchen temperature.  The wet ingredients have a two phase process before you add in your dry ingredients.  Reserve a little over an hour for start to finish for this ~20 cookie yield.

What you may not have handy: European style butter [ a good baking butter or margarine really], whole oats/oat flour, baking soda, pure pumpkin, walnuts, chosen add-in [chocolate chips, etc], brown sugar

Budget: European butter, walnuts, semi-sweet chips [depends on your brand preference] and since there’s a shortage of pumpkins this year, I imagine canned pumpkin is among the pricier items on the shopping list.  I had some because I’m still on the lookout for a pumpkin bread recipe I lost.  I would have been up the creek, because the store I went to for the walnuts and chocolate chips..didn’t have any in stock.

What I Used

I used Plugra unsalted butter and if you know from other baking endeavors of mine, that’s a staple if I’m not substituting.  I do want to try and see what happens when I go and substitute for diabetics and lower fat.

Store brand semi-sweet chips were fine, and I used black walnuts because I only needed 6 oz of those.  I don’t use walnuts often to merit a bigger bag and that was the only kind in a 8 oz size.

What I’d Do Differently Next Time

I started my search with using oat flour.  The recommendation I kept seeing is to go halves with substitution.  If two cups of all purpose flour is being called, then use a cup of oat flour and a cup of APF.  Since the recipe doesn’t get too complicated measures wise to scale..I can make smaller batches and see how different substitutions affect outcome compared to the full on naughty version.

I’d also like to see how different grain based flours pair with pumpkin.  I know whole wheat and fruit pair nicely, so the oat flour and something else would be an interesting ‘study’  I also would be interested in changing out the butter.

Options to consider:

The original recipe calls for raisins instead of chocolate chips.  Basically if you like pumpkin bread…attack this cookie recipe as such.  I’ve had pumpkin bread with nuts and chocolate chips as variations…which is what inspired my deviation outright.  The addition of raisins opens the door for playing with flour types..again it’s a fruit.  You’ve got cinnamon already in the recipe, so scale the recipe and have ‘playtime’ based on your tastes.

Pumpkin Bread Cookies   Print This Post

I got the original recipe here.  Below is how I modified it.  I used steel cut oats.  They lent a crunch to the cookie that paired well with the walnuts.  You can use any whole oats you want, but try for steel cut old fashioned versus quick oats.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/3 cups oats
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened [you should be able to make a dent with your finger w/ little effort]
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup pure pumpkin
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 3/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, prep baking sheets
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
3. In a large mixer bowl, beat butter and sugars untl light and fluffy
4. Add pumpkin, egg, and vanilla extract; mix well
5. Add flour mixture and mix well
6. Add walnuts and your add in [in this case, the chocolate chips]
7. Drop dough on prepared cookie sheet.  They don’t spread much so you can easily bake 12  on one sheet- makes 2″ cookies when baked
8. Bake for 14-16 minutes; cookies are done when firm and lightly browned on top.
9. MPORTANT: cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes, then move to wire racks to finish cooling.  The bottoms will be moist and give the impression of not done, BUT THEY ARE.  Cool completely before enjoying

Saving it for later

I made a couple right after the dough came together.  I also made some after the dough chilled in the fridge overnight.  The latter needed to cool a little longer before they were ready to enjoy.  Also, you can prepare this ahead of time and freeze the dough so you only need to cut rounds and place on a cookie sheet.  Anything that makes any holiday baking easier, right?

Freezing Baked Cookies [with thanks to All Recipes]

Freezing baked cookies is a great way to preserve their freshness.  Similarly, you do the same thing for the dough.  Shelf life for dough is 4-6 weeks. Defrost in the fridge, be mindful of size because it will take hours- so divide, wrap and freeze accordingly else you’ll be waiting a while for the whole thing to defrost.  And you can only refreeze so many times before they loose that tasty deliciousness.

• Baked cookies will keep in the freezer for up to 3 or 4 weeks.
• As with freezing cookie dough, double-wrap the cookies securely and write the date and the type of cookie on the outside of the package.
• When you are ready to eat your frozen cookies, just let them come to room temperature, or, for you impatient types, pop them in the microwave on high for about 30 seconds. (Times will differ depending on the size of cookie you’re defrosting.)

The type of cookie determines the best way to freeze the dough.  Edumacate yourself here.  Worried about the pumpkin? Don’t be.  People have frozen pumpkin cookie dough with success.

Suggested double wrap from Real Simple Magazine:

Roll it into a log; wrap it in wax paper, then plastic; and freeze. Later, cut off the portion you want, thaw, slice, and bake for hot, fresh cookies anytime. Keeps up to 2 months.