It's "cookie" time

Ok before I begin, I must apologize. Picture quality is not what it should be. My hands shake a bit...guess it is part of the fibro or something , or I need a new camera...sometimes the photos come out wonderful and at other times ....but I still swear to you that I did not "create" the swirled photos of yesterday. I will hopefully after the first of the year be able to afford a new camera. At any rate , in my drive to post a few more pleasurable things even when I can not go on a daycation to share, or a shopping trip or do not have new products /beauty/fashion chat I wanted to share with you recipes that I love.
It is hard for me to bake with the fibro, hard to stir the bowl of ingredients, but all the same baking relaxes me and right now with so much negative on my plate, I need relaxing!! One "cookie" ( I use quotes because once I toy with some cookie recipes they become more like mini cakes or muffins ) is from a childhood cookbook.

You can see that it is well loved. I have had it since I was a child and have tried nearly every thing in it. BUT my fav is the Great Pumpkin Cookies. I used to make it as it was originally written...and I shall include that along with my tweaked version . But as you can see, I use a lot of subs in my need to make it a healthier "cookie". In doing so it becomes a moist , chewy ( in a good way) muffin/mini bread/cake concoction. But hey it is low fat, low calorie, low sugar and it has your fruit , vegies, and protein and dairy in it as well!  I know,as I said my photos are lousy as of late...so going to start using less of them till I can get a new camera....anyway you can see how many adjustments I have made over time. 

So  here is the recipe:

Original 

1/2 cups brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup shortening 

2 eggs

1 lb of pumpkin 

2 3/4 cups of flour sifted

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ginger

1 cup raisins

1 cup of pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix sugar, shortening , eggs, and pumpkin thoroughly in a large bowl. Sift dry ingredients and add to pumpkin mixture. Blend well. Add raisins and pecans. Drop by teaspoonsful on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven , lift off with pancake turner .  Cool on racks. Makes about 6 dozen . A delicious snack while waiting for the "Great Pumpkin" 

Ok now here is the tweaked version that makes it more like mini breads/muffins.

3/4 cup of brown sugar , packed

3/4 cup of unsweetened apple sauce

2 eggs OR equiv. of egg sub.

1/2 cup of low fat or fat free sour cream 

1 lb of pumpkin ( I used one 15 oz can as well as 1 oz of a second can)

2 3/4 cup of whole wheat flour ( I did not sift) 

1 TBSP of baking powder 

*2 tsp of cinnamon

*1 tsp of fresh grated nutmeg

1/2 tsp of salt

*1 tsp of ginger

(* We love spicy cookies )

1 cup of craisens or raisens

1 cup of pecans...optional . I never use them.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix sugar, apple sauce and eggs till well blended. Add  sour cream and mix again, then add pumpkin and continue to blend. 

 add in all dry ingredients. I do not sift first. Blend well .The dough/batter will be poofy with lots of air to it. This is normal!  Then add in the craisens/raisins and the nuts if you are using them . Then I put parchment paper on cookie sheets to keep from washing them ..just be sure to change it with each batch.

As you can see I used a larger amount of dough, so size is more like 2 TBSPs worth of dough , so I got 32 cookies last night. I could make them smaller...but love to carry one with me when I walk and so this is easier to grasp. You can drop into smaller portions and get more cookies. Bake for 15 minutes...that is what worked for me, but all ovens vary so you might check at 13, and they may need to go as much as 16-17 minutes. Check them with wood tooth pick , they will be moist... but it should still be pretty clean....
Once they are fully cooked, put on racks and let fully cool or .... IF you are serving right away, dusting with powdered sugar is a nice touch.....  Now when you go to store these, if they last that long, they will be VERY moist and sticky even ! I store them in the fridge and the next day before I reach for one, toss with a bit of powdered sugar to wick up some of the wetness....you can eat cold or put in the microwave for just a few seconds ( not too many now) and eat them that way ..either way they are a quick, pretty healthy and yummy snack!

So there you have it..slightly blurred photos and all....yep , need that new camera! If you make the cookies, um, muffins, um quick mini breads, lmk how you like them !