Pumpkinlicious with Brown Butter Frosting

Just when I thought I was completely over the pumpkin and cinnamon flavors of November and December; BAM, it hit me.  I had a craving for these amazing, pillowy soft cookies that transform pumpkin pie into portable treats.

Making cookies may not be in your schedule as far as New Years resolutions go, but they sure are a good excuse for therapy.

I’ve been making them since 2008. I highly recommend them. D, Z, A & R recommend them too. So do all the people we have shared them with.

They start out as just pumpkin cookies, then once the brown butter frosting is added, they take you to a whole new realm.

Enough said. Try them out for yourself. 

Martha recommends using a pastry bag. I don’t. I speed up the process skipping the pastry bag and dropping the cookies on the pan with a cookie scoop. 

Here you go!

Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing

Martha Stewart Living, October 2004   Yield Makes about 6 dozen

Ingredients

• For the Cookies

  • 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
  • 3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 1/4 cups packed light-brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin (14 ounces)
  • 3/4 cup evaporated milk
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• For the Icing

  • 4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
  • 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
  • 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon evaporated milk
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Make cookies: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg in a medium bowl; set aside.
2. Put butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in eggs. Reduce speed to low. Add pumpkin, evaporated milk, and vanilla; mix until well blended, about 2 minutes. Add flour mixture; mix until combined.
3. Transfer 1 1/2 cups batter to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain tip (such as Ateco #806). Pipe 1 1/2-inch rounds onto parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until tops spring back, about 12 minutes. Cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks; let cool completely.
4. Make icing: Put confectioners' sugar in a large bowl; set aside. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, swirling pan occasionally, until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Immediately add butter to confectioners' sugar, scraping any browned bits from sides and bottom of pan. Add evaporated milk and vanilla; stir until smooth. Spread about 1 teaspoon icing onto each cookie. If icing stiffens, stir in more evaporated milk, a little at a time

 

The up and coming cookie bakers of 2013.

BEWARE: these bakers are bringing the ninja back into baking.

Three cheers for pumpkin!