Pumpkin Cookies

Pumpkin Butterscotch Cookies
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola or corn oil
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup butterscotch chips

1. Position a rack in the middle of the oven . Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and butter the paper.
2. Stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together in a medium bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the eggs and sugar until smooth and lightened in color, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. On low speed, mix the oil, pumpkin, and vanilla until blended. Mix in the flour mixture to incorporate it. Mix in the chips.
3. Using an ice cream scoop with a 1/4-cup capacity, scoop mounds of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing the cookies at least 2 1/2-inches apart. You could also simply use a 1/4-cup measuring cup if you don’t have a scoop. Use a thin metal spatula to smooth and flatten the rounds.
4. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, about 16 minutes. Cool them on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then use a wide metal spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool cimpletely.
5. Dust the cooled cookies lightly with powdered sugar. The cookies can be stored in a tightly covered container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

It's that time of year. Pumpkin is everywhere and it's filling my pantry as well. In branching out from the traditional pumpkin pie, I thought I'd find something else to do with my canned pumpkin. This is the first of a couple recipes I'll try and I found it on Joy the Baker

The ingredients.

The dough. It comes together really easy. It includes oil instead of butter or shortening so it kind of reminds me of a cake batter instead of a cookie dough.

Joy said to use a 1/4 cup scoop to spoon these out but that seemed really big to me. I ended up just spooning out a good sized mound for each. This was the first sheet. On the second sheet I went even smaller and they still turned out great.

Here are the ginormous results of the first sheet. They bake up really well and end up being more like individual pumpkin butterscotch cakes. I'm not exactly sure why the butterscotch chips sunk but I kind of like the effect. If you could finagle a design, you could make these into jack o' lantern cookies. How fun!

The final product: these are light and cake-like. The pumpkin and spice are very festive and the butterscotch chips are a wonderful compliment. I'll definitely make these again. If I want to impress, I'll stick with the original, ginormous size. If I just want to indulge in some festive treats, I try the smaller size and be able to share with lots of friends. Yum.