Pumpkin Cookies

I remember every fall as a kid my mom would make the best pumpkin cookies in the world.  Even as someone who doesn't like pumpkin pie or much else pumpkin related, I love these cookies.  The recipe came from my Grandma's friend, Daisy and we got used to getting our pumpkin cookies every year.  I think my mom let us stuff our faces with more of them than other cookies because at least they had pumpkin in them.  My cousins love the recipe also and its something we always talk about as the first sign of the fall.  On of my cousins even submitted the recipe to a parenting magazine she was working for at the time.  So its now the "famous" pumpkin cookie recipe, even though she thought the recipe came from her dad's side of the family.  So I've made 2 batches of cookies this weekend, the first batch went quickly, since my mom and brother stopped by yesterday.  

The first batch from last year...

Here is the recipe, if anyone is interested:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• ¼ tsp ginger

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine brown sugar, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Add canned pumpkin, oil, and vanilla. Mix thoroughly with a spoon or your hands.

3. Grease cookie sheet and spoon batter into mounds on to the sheet. Bake cookies for 10 to 13 minutes.

Optional: Frost with cream cheese frosting from the grocery store or make your own.  I make a powdered sugar glaze using 1 1/4 cup of powered sugar and 3 tbsp. of milk or water.  Feel free to substitute 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice for the cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger.


Makes about 24 cookies.