Deliciously Festive Treats

So probably the best part of my new job is getting to taste treats. Occasionally one of the owners will let me have a salad or something off the menu for free, but my FAVORITES are the treats from the pastry chef, Nancy. She is so so so nice and smiley and SO talented. Often she'll have someone bring me a piece of whatever she's making in the kitchen, and the other day she gave me an iced soft pumpkin cookie from a batch she was making for Mark's wife.

SO GOOD.

So I had to ask for the recipe and last weekend when Kevin was home visiting me, he and I decided to spend Saturday night after dinner attempting to make them ourselves, and it wasn't hard at all! The hard part was finding a can of pumpkin - we left Kevin's house at 8:41pm, and didn't bite into a fresh cookie until 11:38pm. It was ridiculous! We went to my house, then the Saratoga Safeway, then the Los Gatos Safeway, then Walgreen's, then Nob Hill Foods, NONE of which had one freakin' can of pumpkin in stock! We started driving back home having run out of grocery stores to check since it was now like 10:30, so sad and bitter at the laziness of pumpkin farmers everywhere. Our last resort was to call our friend Mika's mom who we knew would be awake and who we knew baked a lot and might have this random ingredient. It turned out that she did have a can, but of course, it was past its expiration date. We thought about it for a minute, but honestly we were so determined to make these cookies, and had been let down so many times that night, that we just decided to take our chances with the 5 months expired can.

Luckily for us it worked perfectly fine, and the cookies were extra delicious and satisfying after our long hunt. I wish I had thought to take a picture, but it didn't occur to me until now that I must share these treats with the world (aka fellow sugar-eating Goeschs) so I found one that looks close online:



And the moment you've all been waiting for, the recipe:

SOFT PUMPKIN COOKIES

Mix dry ingredients in large bowl (Bowl 1):
2 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

Cream wet ingredients in another bowl with mixer (Bowl 2):
1/2 c. butter
1 1/2 c. sugar

Add to Bowl 2 and mix with mixer:
1 c. pumpkin
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Add contents of Bowl 2 to dry ingredients in Bowl 1 and mix with mixer. Dough will look crumbly at first, but keep mixing until it becomes thick. Spoon onto cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 15-17 minutes. Finished cookies will not be very flat, so you'll know they're done when the cookies' tops look dry. While cookies are still warm, add icing:

2 c. powdered sugar
3 TBS milk
1 TBS butter
1 tsp vanilla

Try them out! It's just in time for the Fall months :)