Pumpkin Cookies. Really?

I had the opportunity to help out a friend the other day by making some cookies for an event she was hosting.  I listed several options and then threw in “Pumpkin Cookies” just to be cheeky.   She actually picked the pumpkin cookies!   Now, as cookies go, they are relatively healthy and I like the flavor, but my memory of pumpkin cookies as a child are a cakelike cookie with a burned bottom.  I figured I could keep from burning them, but I think that if a person wants to eat cake, she will eat cake.  A cookie should be crunchy or chewy or both!

I decided to tweak this recipe.  I think I like it!  

1 ½ C Shortening

4 ½ C Sugar

3 Eggs

2 C Canned Pumpkin

7 ½ C Flour (I used 6 ½ cups)

1 ½ tsp Salt

3 tsp Baking Soda

3 tsp Baking Powder

3 tsp Nutmeg

3 tsp Cinnamon

3 tsp Vanilla

1 ½ C Nuts

2 C Chocolate Chips or Raisins

These are the changes I made.

·         Cut the flour back to about 6 ½ Cups.  More flour can be added if you feel the cookies are too gooey.

• I only added chocolate chips, because I don’t like nuts messing up my cookies and others in the household are not fans of raisins.

·         Bake at 350◦ for 10 minutes. 

·         Bake a “test cookie” to be sure you have the consistency you like.

The prejudices we bring from childhood are unique to each of us.  My husband is not a fan of fried eggs.  He ate too many as a child.   My oldest son will not touch a shrimp because he came down with the stomach flu once after eating them.  I don’t eat oysters.  Here is why. 

Might it be wise to revisit some of those things we avoid?  Our likes and dislikes have been formed by our experiences.  Could it be that tweaking those experiences, something as simple as cutting back on the flour, might change our entire perspective?  I wonder …