Soft Pumpkin Cookies

This past weekend also inspired me to come up with a new paleo pumpkin cookie recipe for my father-in-law. The weather was also an inspiration since it was nice and crisp outside for the most part (perfect fall baking weather). I love pumpkins. I love carving them, decorating with them, I love pumpkin flavored drinks,  I love cooking with them and I love baking with them.

 

Using what I had on hand (left over pumpkin, almond flour, some cinnamon) I decided to try creating a new pumpkin cookie recipe from my old gluten-free recipe. Since my father-in-law eats only paleo friendly food, I just had to tweak the recipe a bit, but over all it turned out pretty yummy. 

Soft Pumpkin Cookies

 Preheat oven to 350 F , grease two baking sheets (or line with parchment paper) Makes about 18 cookies

Ingredients: 

 1/2 cup of milled flax seed a

 2 cups of almond flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 

1/2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice 

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 tbsp of honey

1/2 cup coconut oil (softend) or 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened

1 cup mashed pumpkin filling

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

First, in a mixing bowl or KitchenAid, mix in the oil or butter with the honey and vanilla, until all three ingredients are well incorporated and creamed together. Then add in the pumpkin and the spices. Next add in the egg, mix well. Add the flour, flax, salt, baking soda, and powder last. Mix together (make sure everything is well incorporated into the mixture, but try not to over mix). 

Spoon out the mixture onto the baking sheets in drop of similar size. I made them about the size of the palm of my hand (they do not expand outward very much while baking so form them into the desired cookie shape on the baking pan). The batter itself is very sticky and similar to sticky biscuit flour. 

Bake on the middle rack for 20-25 minutes or until the edges and top of the cookie are crisp and golden. 

Let cool on the sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack, let the cookies them cool completely on the rack before serving. 

Optional: 

Drizzle honey over the cookies before serving or you can make a glaze to drizzle on top as well.

Almond honey glaze:

1tbsp maple syrup

1 tbsp almond butter

1/2 tbsp honey

1/2 tbsp coconut oil (softened not melted)

Or Banana Almond Milk Glaze:

1 banana (mashed)

1/3 cup almond milk

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp honey

beat all 4 ingredients together until it forms a nice smooth glaze, then drizzle over the top of each cookie. 

Enjoy!