Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

I shared this forever ago to my friends online, but had completely forgotten that I don't have it on this blog. Baby preparations have kept me super busy, so sorry for not posting much recently or getting pictures taken of these yummy cookies. This is a great recipe for any time of year as applesauce works great in place of pumpkin. My bunch loves to top these with peanut butter, but they would be really cute with black frosting in spider shapes for Halloween or pumpkin and leaf shapes for Thanksgiving. These freeze very nicely and can be stored up to a month (but are usually gone sooner than that).


Ingredients:

1/2 cup sorghum flour

1 ½ cup homemade brown rice flour

1 cup potato starch

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp cream of tartar

3 teaspoons Gaur gum

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup cane sugar

1 cup pre-cooked pumpkin puree or canned pumpkin (may need to add water to canned as it is thicker than homemade)

½ cup oil or spectrum shortning

1 Tablespoon flax seed meal and 3 Tablespoons hot water set aside for 10 minutes or 1 egg

2 teaspoons GF vanilla extract

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

potato starch, for kneading

Preheat oven to 350F. I also preheat my baking stone at this time.

Mix flax and water and set aside. Mix dry ingredients first, including brown sugar. Mix oil, pumpkin, flax mix and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients. Whip until too thick for beaters then knead with hands. Move to the table dusted with potato starch. Knead about 2 T to ¼ cup of potato starch into the ball of dough depending on the texture until it is workable and doesn’t stick (similar to regular sugar cookies).

Cover and store in refrigerator for at least half an hour. This helps the dough to rest and firm up, making it easier to roll out. Because of the vegan shortening/oil they just come out better if they are colder.

With some potato starch on your hands, make the dough into a ball and roll out onto a potato starched surface. If the dough is too sticky, just knead in more until you have reached a desired sugar cookie consistency (basically, you don't want it to stick to everything, but still be a big sticky to the touch). Roll to 1/4″ thickness. Cut into shapes using your favorite cookie cutters. Place on greased cookie sheet at bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes (my baking stone is usually about 20 minutes for a nice golden brown). Cool on rack. Decorate and enjoy!