Recipe: Pumpkin Peanut Butter Cookies

 

#NoFilter (Just kidding!)

Okay, I didn't actually make these, but my mom did! She was planning to make the same peanut butter cookies she always makes, but I told her, "You don't just have to use your recipe cards to bake something. You have the entire internet at your fingertips!" So I found this recipe (from the Simply Joy blog) so we could continue to use up the big can of pureed pumpkin we had already opened.  

Ingredients

·         3 cups all-purpose flour

·         1 teaspoon baking soda

·         1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

·         1/2 teaspoon salt

·         3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

·         12 tablespoon unsalted butter room temperature

·         1 cup granulated sugar

·         1 cup light brown sugar, packed

·         1 egg yolk, room temperature

·         1 teaspoon vanilla

·         1/2 cup pumpkin puree

Instructions

·         Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

·         In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon.

·         In a large bowl, beat together the butter and peanut butter until smooth.

·         Add the granulated sugar and brown sugar and beat until the batter is light and fluffy (between 3 to 6 minutes).

·         Add in the pumpkin, egg yolk, and vanilla extract. Beat until just combined.

·         Add in the flour mixture and beat on low until it is integrated, turning up the hand mixer and beating until just fully combined.

·         Using a cookie scoop, create one-inch balls. Place on cookie sheet, approximately two inches apart, and using a fork push down one way and then turn the fork pushing down the other way making a hatch mark pattern.

·         Bake for 12 minutes, rotating halfway through. The edges of the cookies should be golden brown.

My mom didn't make the fork marks on the cookies. She just did drop cookies instead, which taste just as good! And she didn't rotate the cookies when they were baking. While this can be a good idea if you already know your oven doesn't cook evenly, every time you open the oven door, you release heat and the oven has to heat back up again, so that's not very efficient or good for baking, either. 

These are very yummy if you like soft, peanut butter cookies!