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December 11, 2014

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

It's that wonderful time of year where the season for Christmas cookies, all things pumpkin, and shameless stress-eating all overlap. These pumpkin oatmeal cookies are the perfect solution to all these problems and more.


I know oatmeal cookies get a lot of hate, but I think that's only because people think they are getting chocolate chip cookies and end up severely disappointed. These oatmeal cookies are chock-full of pumpkin and spices, and they don't have raisins (unless you want them to). Instead, I load them with white chocolate, dried cranberries, and pecans, though you could use whatever mix-ins you want and/or have.


Don't be scared off by the long list of ingredients. These are just cookies. There's flour (you can sub half for whole wheat flour if you want), baking soda, salt, a bunch of basic spices, and oats. Make sure you use old-fashioned rolled oats and not instant oats or your texture will not turn out well. There's also lots of butter, some molasses, sugar (granulated and brown), an egg yolk, pumpkin puree (yes, there are cans available all year if you look hard enough), and a splash of vanilla.


You don't even need a mixer since the dough is soft enough. It may look a little too soft, but it will firm up after a few minutes once the oats start absorbing moisture from the batter. The cookies still bake up nice and soft, so if you like slightly cakey cookies, you should bake a few batches.


If you like really cakey cookies, these pumpkin cookies are wonderful. They are practically whoopie pies, so feel free to slather them in frosting and call them that. On the other end of the spectrum, there's my pumpkin white chocolate biscotti, which are crunchy and great for dipping in hot winter beverages. Lastly, these may not be cookies, but while you are on a pumpkin kick you absolutely have to make them: my pumpkin cheesecake muffins. They are pumpkin muffins with a creamy cheesecake filling and sweet, crunchy streusel sprinkled on top.


Although Starbucks has moved on from pumpkin, that doesn't mean you have to. It's still technically pumpkin season, and anyway there's a reason why grocery stores have canned pumpkin all year. Hint: it's so you can make delicious stuff like this.


2 Cups Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1/4 tsp Allspice
1/4 tsp Ginger
1/8 tsp Cloves
1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/2 Cups Oats
2 Sticks Butter, Melted
1/4 Cup Molasses
1/2 Cup Sugar
3/4 Cup Light Brown Sugar
1 Egg Yolk
3/4 Cup Pumpkin Puree
1 tsp Vanilla
1/2 Cup White Chocolate Chips
1/2 Cup Dried Cranberries
1/2 Cup Chopped Pecans, Toasted

Heat oven to 350F and line cookie trays with parchment.

Whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, cloves, and salt together. Stir in the oats.

Combine the butter, molasses, sugar, brown sugar, and egg yolk, Whisk in the pumpkin and vanilla, then stir into the flour mixture. Fold in the chocolate, cranberries, and pecans.

Scoop the dough into balls and bake for 12 minutes or until soft but cooked through.

Recipe Adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction

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