Not Really A Recipe

I posted on Instagram that I might post the recipe for these Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies today...The problem being that it is a “rough” recipe. Parts of it I measure out very precisely, and parts I add a dash of this or a splash of that. It’s really not exact, which is something I love about it, but it makes it hard to bang out a recipe for it. I’ll give it a try though. Feel free to tweak and experiment. 

Also, it is important to note that I live over a mile above sea level, so it might need to be adjusted for your altitude as well. 

Good luck! Let me know if you try them out. They are a favorite around here.

Holly’s Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies

1/2 cup vegetable oil

3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup granulated sugar

*It's already going to go off the rails now. Ready?*

Eyeball about 1 Large Egg's worth of egg whites

*Yup. Just eyeball it. That's a form of measurement now.*

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/3 heaping cup pumpkin puree

2 cups "loosish" flour

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/4 teaspoon salt

Spiced Coating Mixture:

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Toss some Nutmeg in there. Eyeball it again. Maybe 1/4-1/2 a teaspoon?

Do the same with Cloves and Ginger. How much spice do you want? Do that.

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray two cookie sheets or line them with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the oil and sugars until they are smooth. Basically, mix all the stuff before we went off the rails.  

3. Whisk in the eyeballed egg whites. Don't think it's enough? Add some more. 

4. Now add the vanilla extract and pumpkin. Whisk until smooth. It should be pretty "liquidy", though thick, at this point.

5. Pour your flour, cornstarch, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt right over the wet ingredients and stir everything together until just combined. Now it should be a nice, thick, doughy consistency. 

6. In a small bowl combine your spiced coating mixture.

7. Take your dough and, with medium/large pieces, roll it between your palms to make a ball.  Then roll or toss (because the littles love tossing the bowl around like we're making a spicy pumpkin salad) your ball into the spice mixture until coated. 

8. Space the cookies out about 1.5 inches on the cookie sheets.

9. This part will probably vary for you if you live somewhere a little closer to sea level, but I bake our cookies for exactly 11 minutes and 15 seconds. (Alexa has her own "Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Timer" and everything. We've found that this makes them the perfect texture of pumpkiny, snickerdoodley goodness. If you made your cookies a little larger, a little smaller, or you live at the beach your cook times will probably need to be different. Play around with it a bit. Look for the tops of the cookies just beginning to crack. You should also easily be able to lift the cookie off the sheet. 

9. Let cookies cool on the baking sheets until the smell drives you to grab one up, juggling the hot cookie from hand to hand, before taking an amazing, flavor filled bite that might burn you, but it's totally worth it. 

10. Realize you should have made more, because these won't last long. 

Let me know if you try them out. I'd love to hear how you like them. Michael insists that they are the best cookies I've ever made, which makes me pretty darn happy if I'm telling the truth. They are also super easy to whip up, and they never last long between the littles and the husband.