A big thank-you shout-out needs to go to Kristen at Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker. She picked up the Improv Challenge, graciously offering to put the time and effort into hosting, and now I can continue joining in on the link-up!
November's ingredients? Pumpkin and Cream Cheese
There's a super simple recipe for pumpkin cookies out there. Something about a cake mix and a can of pumpkin and everyone bragging about how easy it is to make.
That's great. Really, it is. For a bake sale, if you're short on time, etc. I'm certainly not against cake mixes.
But that cake mix pumpkin cookie cannot hold a
If you want to impress people and make them hate you at the same time (those are the emotions most people convey as they're over-eating, right?), make these cookies. I've taken them places, I've eaten them by the handful, and they've impressed people from PA to Alaska.
Can your cake mix cookie do that??
Oh, and I've discovered the secret to PERFECT cream cheese frosting.
Buy the 8 oz. whipped cream cheese in the tub instead of the block. They cost the same at my store. The whipped version blends up in seconds with the butter and powdered sugar. No lumps!
Pumpkin Walnut Cookies
makes 3 dozen
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 t. vanilla
1 t. lemon juice
1 t. freshly grated lemon peel
2 1/2 cups flour
3 t. baking POWDER
1 t. salt
1 1/2 t. pumpkin pie spice
1/4 t. ginger
1 cup chopped walnuts
Cream the butter and sugar together. Add in the pumpkin, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice, and lemon peel. Mix well.
Mix all of the dry ingredients, minus the walnuts, together in a bowl (sifting is suggested, but I usually don't). Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture in three batches while mixing at a low speed and scraping down the sides of the bowl.
Stir in the walnuts.
Dollop onto a greased cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 10-14 minutes. They should be just starting to brown when you pull them out.
Cool before frosting.
Perfect Cream Cheese Frosting
This will make more than enough for this amount of cookies. Consider doubling the cookie recipe or halving the frosting recipe. I halved the frosting recipe.
1 tub of whipped cream cheese (8 oz.)
1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
1 t. vanilla
about 3 cups powdered sugar (I don't like giving exact numbers on the sugar. You know the consistency you want.)
1 T. meringue powder (Optional, but will help the frosting harden. Found in the wedding aisle at Wal-Mart)
Cream the butter and cream cheese together, using a hand mixer or the whisk on a stand mixer. Add the vanilla. Then, add the sugar until you reach the consistency you want. Add the meringue powder last.
Frost the cookies as soon as they're cool and refrigerate any leftover frosting. This collection has been deleted by its author
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Seasonal Inspiration
Strut Your Stuff Saturday
Sweet Indulgences Sunday
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