Mr. Jack O. Lantern Cookies |
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour (substitute wheat flour or half and half if you would like)
- ¼ tsp. nutmeg
- ¼ tsp. salt (always optional)
- ¼ teaspoon ginger
- ¼ tsp. cinnamon
- ½ tsp. baking powder
- 6 tbs. butter or 3/4 stick (room temperature) and use the light sticks of margin, if you prefer
- ¼ cup sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- ½ cup unsweetened pumpkin puree or pure natural pumpkin filling
- 3-inch pumpkin shaped cookie cutter (or use whatever you have for somewhat of a round shape)
- 1 cup of raisins
- 3/4 cup of natural honey
- orange food coloring
Directions
- In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and baking powder. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the brown sugar and beat until fluffy.
- Add the vanilla and egg yolk. Beat well. Add the pumpkin puree or filling. Blend together.
- Slowly add the flour mixture.
- Divide the dough in half. Form into 2 balls. Wrap each ball in wax paper and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350°.
- Between 2 pieces of lightly floured wax paper, roll out the dough to 1/8 inch thick. Use a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter to cut out the cookie shapes. Cut out eyes and mouth using a sharp knife, if the kids are helping, use a sturdy plastic knife and supervise. Put on a baking sheet.
- Carefully place raisins in the spaces of the cutout eyes and mouth.
- Bake approximately 12-14 minutes until golden brown. Let cool on the cookie sheet set on top of a cookie cooler rack (or a cake rack).
- Decorate the cookies with honey drizzle : Stir a few drops (2 or 3) of orange food coloring into 1/2 cup of all natural honey. Drizzle over warm cookies for best results. Stir all of the ingredients together until smooth and easy to spread.
Yields 4 dozen cookies (more or less depending on what you used for the size of the cookie cutter).
© 2004 Jodie Lynn
