#41. Pumpkin Spice M&Ms Pumpkin Cookies

Don’t you just love a bargain?

Well, I do, obviously, given my infatuation with discounted ingredients like this bag of pumpkin spice M&Ms I picked up at Kroger for 50 cents.

Mr. Orange M&M is deeply afraid. BUT OF WHAT???

And what better way to batter these highly processed squash-flavored treats than with some pumpkin spice cookie dough (significantly less processed).

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened

• 1 cup white sugar

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 1 egg

• 1 cup pumpkin puree

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

• 2 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

• 1 bag Pumpkin Spice M&Ms, preferably discounted

Directions

1. Preheat over to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, sugar, and vanilla using a hand-held mixer.

3. Beat in egg and pumpkin puree until thoroughly combined. Set aside.

4. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice.

5. Gradually incorporate dry ingredient mixture into wet ingredients, beating on medium speed.

6. Mix in M&Ms using a wooden spoon or spatula.

7. Place golf ball-size spheres of dough evenly spaced apart on cookie sheets.

8. Bake for 11-13 minutes until barely brown. (Or longer if you want a more cake-y cookie.)

#31. No-Bake Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

WHY IS IT STILL SO HOT OUTSIDE?!?

I have lived in Texas for 10 years and inevitably at some point during the seemingly interminable summer, I start to lose it.  This slow descent into humidity-induced madness is fortunately usually arrested by the arrival of a cold(ish) front right around my birthday (fingers crossed).

Until that point, my faculties become increasingly fuzzy and my relationship with my oven, fraught.  Sophisticated inner monologue: Oven, you make yummies. But when you do, you also make warmies.

At the end of last week, I had pumpkin puree to spare and wanted to use it in cookies but couldn't bear to turn on the oven. So, this is what happened and testimony to the fact that just because you can't stand the heat, you don't have to get out of the kitchen.

No-Bake Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

• ½ cup butter

• ½ cup milk

• ½ cup pumpkin puree

• 2 cups sugar

• 4 cups rolled (not instant) oats

• scant handful leftover M&Ms

Directions

1. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

2. Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Stir in milk, pumpkin puree, and sugar. 

3. Increase temperature slightly and keep stirring until mixture comes to a boil.

4. Remove from heat and add oats and M&Ms.

5. Shape into small scoops and place on cookie sheet. Cool in fridge about an hour before eating.

#21. Harry Potter Pumpkin Cookies

Here's a statement that irritates me: Enjoy the fall flavor of pumpkin cookies made with Pillsbury™ Pumpkin Cookie Mix.

Now, I have nothing against Pillsbury. Quite the contrary, in fact, if you are familiar with my well-documented history of obsessing over the doughboy. Nor do I have anything against box cookie mixes, though homemade is always preferable. 

It's the inevitable tethering of "pumpkin" to "fall" that gets my goat because of the implicit assertion that pumpkin-flavored baked goods should only be enjoyed during autumn. Obviously, that practice arose from the fact that pumpkins are in season during those months, but, thanks to the good people at Libby's, there's really no reason why this ingredient, so lovely in its versatility, can't be incorporated in cooking and baking year-round. End of rant.

Isn't his orange checkered apron the best???

My Harry Potter house crest cookie cutters from Williams-Sonoma, which I bought heavily discounted during a recent stress-shopping binge, arrived simultaneous to my discovery of a Pillsbury Pumpkin Cookie Mix I bought last November in the back of the pantry. At the time, I remember thinking, "Your Future Self will thank you when you're craving pumpkin at an 'off' time." Well, you were right, Past Self.

Now, technically, pumpkin JUICE cookies would be the most appropriate medium on which to test Harry Potter cookie cutters, but that's a labor-intensive project for another day. 

I was disappointed that the resulting cookies' surface lacked the clarity I was hoping for in the house crests, whose finer details blurred in the fiery heat of the oven. Additional testing with recipes expressly designed for thick, contoured cutters is definitely in order.

Ingredients

• Pillsbury Pumpkin Cookie Mix

• 1 stick butter

• 1 egg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Combine cookie mix, softened butter and egg in medium-sized bowl. 

3. Mix with spatula until a supple dough forms.

4. On a lightly floured surface, press dough by hand into large flat rectangle. Apply cookie cutters. Combine scraps and repeat until you have as many cookies as you want.

5. Bake 9-11 minutes. Cool completely and enjoy with your favorite muggle.