The email said “Spruced-Up Spice Cookies.”  I have to be honest.  I am sort of an instant gratification girl when it comes to baking.  I want to make the dough and plop whatever in the oven and have baked goods shortly there after, maybe an hour or so if I am talking breads.  I am not one for refrigerating dough as it tends to disappear.  Either I eat it or my children do before the dough ever becomes cookies.  I gave up making my mother’s sugar cookies because of this issue.  I went to making gingerbread people and cut out for the holidays.  So the idea of a spice cookie, a slightly healthy one until I frost it, made me happy.  I was set to try.

I got a good look at the recipe and was fairly happy.  No eggs – good thing in my mind.  Ooops, calls for pureed banana.  I had no bananas in the house.  Now that I think about this, the lack of bananas may be the reason for my calf cramping problems of late but that is for another post.  I did happen to have some very chunky applesauce and some pumpkin puree.  The applesauce was too chunky and, even as much as I bake and cook, I do not own a food processor so that was out.  I decided to use the pumpkin instead of the banana.

Spruced-Up Pumpkin Spice Cookies

INGREDIENTS
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons ginger, ground
2 teaspoons cinnamon, ground
2 teaspoons allspice, ground
1/2 teaspoon  salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick margarine (I used a half cup of Smart Balance margarine as that was what I had on hand.)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 c pumpkin puree
1 t decorating sugar, candy sprinkles or sugar in the raw (optional – my son chose to frost the cookies but no photos of the frosted ones)

DIRECTIONS
Sift all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. If you do not own a sifter, use a whisk to combine dry ingredients. Place the margarine in a mixing bowl, then add the sugar and mix until creamy. Add the pumpkin and continue to beat at medium speed for 2-3 minutes. If the mixture looks loose, add one tablespoon of the flour mixture to the wet mixture. Add all the flour mixture in small amounts until combined. Divide the dough into 2 balls, wrap and press each one into a flat disk (I had some freezer paper on hand so wrapped in that). Chill for at least two hours. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place the dough balls between two sheets of wax paper (again used the freezer paper) and roll out as thinly as possible. Stamp with a small (1″-1 1/2″) cookie cutter. Sprinkle with decorating sugar, if using; bake 8 minutes. Immediately after cooking, transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool. Store cookies in an air-tight container for up to one week. One serving equals two cookies.

Number of Servings: 36 (less if you use bigger cookie cutters)