Practical Alchemy White Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Cookies
With thanksgiving just around the corner, pumpkin puree has been finding its way into a wide variety of things I've been cooking. Over the weekend I decided to try and make pumpkin pie cookies and came up with these delicious fall treats. Flavored with a reduced pumpkin puree and creamy white chocolate morsels these cookies are delicious with a dollop of fresh whipped cream or packed plain in a lunch at work.
Ingredients:
2oz brown sugar
4oz unsalted butter at room temperature (1 stick)
6oz flour
1 large egg
1/3rd cup white chocolate morsels
3/4 cup canned pumpkin filling
1 cap of vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
This recipe is similar to the 1-2-3 cookies covered before, but to make the moist pumpkin work correctly a few extra steps are involved. Start off by reducing the pumpkin, nutmeg, cayenne, and cinnamon in a sauce pan over low heat until some of the water has boiled off. The goal is to reduce it from 3/4th of a cup to about a half a cup.
During the reduction stir the puree frequently to avoid burning. Once the reduction is complete set the pumpkin mixture aside to cool and begin on the cookie dough. Once this is complete start the oven pre-heating to 350 degrees.
Start by mixing the brown sugar and butter on medium until the sugar and butter have a fluffy texture. Add in the egg and vanilla, then while continuously mixing slowly add in the flour until a the mixture has the consistency of cookie dough. Add in the pumpkin mixture and white chocolate morsels and mix thoroughly by hand. The dough will be a little thinner than normal cookie dough thanks to the pumpkin, and accordingly will need a little extra time in the oven.
Spoon 1" balls of the dough onto a non-stick cookie sheet (or Silpat) and flatten with your fingers into cookie discs then bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes. Once removed from the oven the cookies will need to cool completely before being 'frosted' with whipped cream, or a cream cheese glaze.
Enjoy!
--Sparky
