Bonus Baking: Food Processor Pumpkin Cookies

Well, I got it in my head to bake again. What can I say? It's fall, it was less than 80 degrees today, and yesterday my neighbors brought over some orange rolls for all of us. So I had to return the favor, right?

Of course I did. 

I went with something easy for today: cookies are hard to screw up. So I dug around, looked at some recipes, and as my hard-cooking boyfriend once advised me, "figured out what they wanted me to do" and put together a recipe all on my own. 

Ingredients: Assemble!

Why, what's that in the background there? Is that a food processor?

Why yes. Yes it is. 

See, I couldn't bear the thought of dragging out my vintage stand mixer again. That thing annoys me more than it helps me sometimes, and I wanted to try something a little faster and a little more efficient. But as excited as I was to start in on the processing, I had to start with my dry ingredients. They got whisked together in a separate bowl and set aside. 

Then I dropped that stick of butter in little pieces into the food processor, and...

Pulsed it a few times until it looked like this:

Nice and creamy!

Then I added the sugar and pulsed it a few more times...

Until it looked creamed enough to continue. I added the pumpkin:

Then ran the processor continuously while I added the egg and the vanilla extract. Once it was done it looked like this:

I do not know why it looked so grainy, but it didn't affect the taste at all. 

Then I added the flour mixture about a half cup at a time, pulsing each one until it was just combined. This part took a lot of scraping of the sides, but it was well worth it for the convenience. 

I made sure not to over mix the flour into it but I'm not really sure why. Something about gluten. The websites I looked at all made it very clear that over mixing when using a food processor for cookies is a bad, bad idea.

I think I did it right though because the resulting dough definitely looked good enough to eat:

I dropped it a spoonful at a time onto a greased baking sheet. 

Baking time!

As soon as they came out of the oven, I sprinkled a little granulated sugar on them for extra flavor and texture. My last couple of efforts at making glaze didn't go so well, so I figured this would be simpler as well as more attractive. 

They were so delicious. And beautiful!!

The neighbors were grateful. But my kids were even more grateful. :)

Food Processor Pumpkin Cookies RECIPE!

Ingredients:

2.5 cups of all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1 Tbsp. pumpkin pie spice

1/4 tsp. salt

1.75 cups granulated sugar

1 stick of unsalted butter, softened

1.25 cups pumpkin (canned or fresh)

1 egg, beaten

2 tsp. vanilla extract

extra sugar for sprinkling

extra butter for the cookie sheets

Directions:

1. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and salt.
2. Cut your softened stick of butter into little pieces, and sprinkle these pieces throughout the food processor with the regular blade attachment.
3. Pulse 7-8 times until the butter looks all creamy and smooth.
4. Add the sugar and pulse about a dozen more times, pausing every few times to scrap the sides down with a silicon spatula. Do this until it appears creamed.
5. Add the pumpkin and whirr the food processor continuously until it's all combined.
6. While the food processor is still whirring on, drop in the egg and the vanilla extract.
7. Once everything is combined and it looks nice and gooey, open up the food processor and drop in a half cup or so of the flour mixture. Replace the lid and pulse a few times, JUST until the flour is incorporated. Then open the lid again, scrape down the sides, and add another half cup of flour mixture. Repeat until all of the flour mixture has been incorporated.
8. Take the whole basin of the food processor off and stick it in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.
9. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350F and smear melty butter all over your cookie sheet(s).
10. Remove the cookie dough from the fridge and drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto the cookie sheets. Leave about an inch to an inch and a half of space between them. They won't swell up too big - they tend to puff upwards more than spread outwards.
11. Bake 15-17 minutes.
12. This recipe makes quite a lot - I easily got more than 3 dozen cookies. More than enough to share with the neighbors!

XOXO