Pumpkin Spice Cookies - vegan

Happy Halloween! And Happy Birthday, Daddy! It seemed appropriate to use a picture of me in costume (from back in the ballerina days for all you people out in the interwebs), and I've always liked how proud you look in this shot. Sorry I cut you out, Mom, but it's not your birthday (and I knew you wouldn't really mind). Have a great time at dinner! I'm glad the restaurant reopened!

I was wearing my cute new jack-o-lantern tshirt, and I was hoping to get Roomba to cooperate because a black dog is almost the same thing as a black cat, right? Well, she had very little interest in doing what I thought she should do. Basically, she was holding on for dear life. By her claws. In my shoulder.

Anywho, I hope all you east coasters are safe and that Sandy didn't cause too much damage for you. When you get electricity, I recommend making sure your oven works with a batch of cookies.

These cookies, specifically. They taste like all the good things in fall - pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. These little guys are light and fluffy, almost like handheld cakes, and they are legitimately not bad for you. If you're handing out treats tonight and trying to ignore the lure of the candy bowl, whip up a batch of these. I know you already have all the ingredients on hand, and you'll be able to resist temptation because you will have something even better (especially if you dip them in chocolate).

Pumpkin Spice Cookies - vegan

These should freeze pretty well. I haven't tried it, though, so I can't promise. I used all whole wheat flour, but there's no reason not to make these with all-purpose, white whole wheat, or some combination of whatever you have on hand. 

1/2 C vegetable oil (I used olive)
1/2 C packed brown sugar
3/4 C pumpkin puree
1 C whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp salt

Preheat your oven to 375F.

Using an electric mixer, beat the oil and sugar together for a minute or two to blend and aerate. Add the pumpkin and beat for another minute or so. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and spices to your bowl and blend thoroughly.

Drop generous teaspoonfuls/fairly level tablespoonfuls of the dough onto your parchment covered baking sheet 1-2" apart.  You may notice that mine aren't perfect looking? Yeah. Turns out that these stay in basically whatever shape your drop onto the cookie sheet. So if you care about how great yours look, drop carefully, or even use a pastry bag+tip if you want perfection.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let them cool somewhat on the cookie sheet, and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Yields about 20 cookies.