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| This picture fills me with calm. Until I need to clean up... |
As I've gotten older, I actually don't want to eat the results of my baking... at least not as much! Now I actually want the other food even more. So generally I try to bake things that I can give to other people. Having a party? Great, I'll bring something along! I can't count the number of times I've had someone say "don't worry about bringing anything" and it goes in one ear and out the other. If you've invited me, you can expect something baked as a given. I'm not bringing it for you, I'm bringing it for me!
Nowadays my baking is more a way for me to try out new things. Hubby loves chocolate chip cookies; I could take or leave them, but I'm constantly trying new recipes in order to find The Perfect cookie, according to him (so far he says the closest is actually the cookies made on his ship, which frustrates me to no end!). The other half of my baking is making things that look really awesome. I've gotten really into decorating cookies recently, which is a ton of fun and again it's like a form of meditation. As long as I've planned out my design ahead of time, cookie decorating is like a little assembly line, no brain power necessary!
And basic cut-out cookies are really flavour adaptable; everyone knows the standard sugar cookie and shortbread roll-outs, but with a few substitutions, gingerbread, coconut, lemon are all easy. The possibilities are endless with a bit of imagination! This time around, since it's so close to Thanksgiving, I was craving some fall flavours.
Fall has always been my favourite time of year. Aside from the fact that my birthday is in the fall (and I LOVE my birthday) there's just something about it. The days get crisp so you can start wearing sweaters, and layers, and oh the boots!! The leaves all turn such amazing colours and it just feels like the world comes alive, while also feeling more cozy and comforting.
For a lot of people the "official" start of fall has become the ubiquitous pumpkin spice latte returning, to which my friend Adam quipped "I get that it's the season, but I don't understand the obsession". As much as I find the latte itself and the importance given to it mildly irritating, I do truly love all those flavours: pumpkin, warm spices, and especially coffee (oh my!). So clearly I had to try and put them into something baked. But the internet abounds with pumpkin spice latte flavoured muffins, and cupcakes, and cakes, and pies, and pillowy-soft cookies. I wanted to try a rolled, cut out cookie. Something toothsome and solid.
The pumpkin in these cookies does prove to be mildly problematic; the high moisture content tends to over-develop the gluten, which can lead to a chewier cookie than you may be expecting, so this may be a love it or hate it kind of recipe. But in my world that's the best part, it's all about the adventure of trying!
Pumpkin Spice Latte Cookies
If you are in fact anti-chewy texture, but you love the flavours of these cookies, there are a couple of things you can do to limit the gluten development: make sure you handle to dough as little as possible, only stirring in the flour until it is just barely combined; try to get as many cookies as possible out of the initial rolling, as kneading and re-rolling the scraps will overwork the dough; and finally, if you're crazy and obsessed like me you can sweat out the pumpkin puree in a small saucepan to evaporate as much water as possible. There are pumpkin flavour extracts available out there which you could use instead, but most you have to order off the internet, and ain't nobody got patience enough for that! Plus I always feel better about "real" food whenever possible.
Adding the coffee granules to the butter mixture will result in a slightly speckled appearance to the final cookies (which I think is quite pretty). If you prefer a more uniform latte-like colour, mix the coffee into the pumpkin first until so it has a chance to dissolve fully.
Finally, if you're going to decorate your cookies with royal icing like I did, omit the baking soda and powder to prevent the cookies from spreading and puffing up, which distorts the shape.
Yield:
about 75x2.5” cookies
Ingredients:
6 cups
all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
1 teaspoon
baking soda
1/2 teaspoon
baking powder
2 teaspoons
ground ginger
2
tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon
ground cloves
1 teaspoon
nutmeg
1 1/2
teaspoons coarse salt
1 ½ cups
unsalted butter (at room temperature)
1/4 cup instant coffee granules
1 ¾ cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup
pumpkin puree (not pie filling!)
1 tsp
vanilla extract
Directions:
1.
Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking
powder, spices and salt in a large bowl and set aside.
2.
Beat butter, coffee powder, and sugar together
in a large bowl with an electric mixer.
3.
Mix in eggs, pumpkin, and vanilla.
4.
Add flour mixture, mixing on low until just
combined. Divide dough into thirds and wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until
cold and firm, about one hour or up to two days.
5.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough on a
lightly floured work surface to 1/4-inch thick. Cut into shapes. Place cookies two
inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, and refrigerate until
the cookies firm up again, about 15 minutes.
6.
Bake cookies until firm but not dark, about 10
minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.
8.
Store cookies between layers of parchment or
waxed paper in an airtight container for up to a week (closer to 2 weeks when fully iced).
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