Halloween Pumpkin Spice Cookies

My mixer, creaming the butter and sugar.



So, I decided when I was still in bed this morning and thinking about getting up, that I wanted to bake today. When I finally crawled out of bed, I went to Martha Stewart's website (what? she has some great stuff on there.. :) ) and picked out this delicious sounding recipe.

Before I could begin baking, I realized we had no sugar. Now, there aren't many cookie recipes that do not call for sugar, so off to the store I went.

I came back with soy milk and Fleischmann's unsalted margarine, as well, because our good friends' kiddos have Galactosemia, so I always alter ingredients, so that whatever I bake, they can have too. I also bought some Celestial Seasonings Blueberry Breeze tea, because it is delicious with whipped cream. It tastes like blueberry pie, but it is much more healthy. :) So, along with my other purchases, I got 2, not 1, but 2, count 'em kids, bags of sugar. I am not running out of a household staple like SUGAR, again! And, I also bought more flour, in case I get carried away in my baking.

Back to baking, so I prepped this recipe's dough today, put it in the fridge, so that tomorrow I can roll it out and use my fall cookie cutters. :) Yay!

Martha's recipe calls for royal icing. I will be making my own icing and coloring it, myself. I usually make a simple icing with powdered sugar. Such as this one.

Just to let you know, the dough is amazing! I can't wait to taste these babies after they are baked! Yum!


Halloween Pumpkin Spice Cookies

Ingredients

Makes about 6 1/2 dozen cookies

• 4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature (Like I said, I used Fleischmann's unsalted margarine, which is lactose free)
  
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup molasses
• Royal Icing
• Paste or gel food coloring

Directions

1. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and ginger in a large bowl; sift, and set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter and sugar. Beat, starting on low speed and increasing to high, until mixture is fluffy, about 2 minutes; scrape the sides of the bowl down once with a rubber spatula. Add eggs, one at a time, and vanilla; beat on medium speed until just combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.
3. Turn off mixer. Add molasses, and mix on medium speed until just combined. Scrape sides of the bowl, and add dry ingredients. Mix, starting on low speed and increasing to medium high, until ingredients are just combined, about 30 seconds.
4. Transfer dough to a clean work surface. Roll the dough into four 1 1/2-inch-diameter logs. Wrap in parchment or plastic wrap, and refrigerate until firm, 1 to 2 hours.
5. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Unwrap, and slice each log into 3/8-inch-thick rounds. Place rounds on parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until cookies crack slightly on the surface, 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
6. When completely cool, decorate with royal icing mixed with desired food coloring.

{Halloween Pumpkin Spice Recipe courtesy of Martha Stewart}
{Icing recipe courtesy of Cooks.com}
{Photo courtesy of the author}