Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! Last night, we celebrated with my family by having the typical feast. Turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and all the other good stuff. Usually, come dessert time, I sit at the table and look around at everyone’s plates while they enjoy all sorts of delectable treats. This time, my mom suggested I bring a dessert so that my partner and I could join in after dinner. So I decided to bring pumpkin spice cookies.
There was already going to be pumpkin pie, so my mom suggested I make cookies instead. Because I refused to eat pumpkin for 20 years, I now feel the need to make up for all the pumpkin I’ve missed. This is how these cookies came to be.
This recipe makes really soft cookies. If you want them to be a bit less soft, you can try any combination of the following: change the sugar proportions so that there is less brown sugar than regular sugar; use less xanthan gum; bake them a bit longer.
Pumpkin Spice Cookies With Cinnamon Glaze (vegan)
For the cookies:
1 1/2 cups brown rice flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1/2 cup potato starch
1 tsp each: xanthan gum, baking soda, corn free baking powder
1 cup brown sugar (or healthier equivalent)
1/2 cup sugar (I used organic cane sugar)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup apple sauce
1/4 cup oil of your choice
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 tbsp vanilla extract
For the glaze:
1 cup icing sugar*
2-3 tbsp milk of your choice (I used coconut)
3/4 tsp cinnamon
*You can buy icing sugar made with tapioca starch instead of cornstarch, or make your own by putting organic cane sugar in a food processor until it’s a fine powder and adding tapioca starch and/or arrowroot powder. Use a sugar to starch ratio of about 4:1.
Directions
Preheat oven to 350F.
In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and mix well. Add the apple sauce, oil, pumpkin puree and vanilla. Mix until well blended.
Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a baking sheet. These won’t move much (if at all) during baking so give them the shape you would like them to have. Bake for 15-18 minutes.
Move to a cooling rack
For the glaze, combine all the ingredients and drizzle over the cookies. Alternatively, you can dip the cookies directly in the glaze.