Pumpkin Cookies

December 1, 2010 by

I remember walking in my great-grandmother’s home on one of our trips to Pennsylvania and finding her packing up these cookies to give to us. At that point, I thought pumpkins were useful only for pies at Thanksgiving. Little did I know! Thanks to the lovely lady I called Great Grandma Hahn, my mother’s father’s mother, for the memory and these tasty treats.

This is the first of 25 cookie recipes I’m posting to celebrate the Christmas holiday, but these pumpkin cookies are tasty any time of year!

Ingredients

  • ½ cup shortening
  • ½ cup soft butter or oleo
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup pumpkin
  • 1 cup raisins
  • ½ to 1 cup nutmeats (e.g., chopped walnuts)
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tsp soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 cups sifted flour
  • 1 can evaporated milk

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
  2. Place raisins in a saucepan and cover with water.
  3. Bring water and raisins to a boil over medium heat, and then drain and allow to cool.
  4. Cream together shortening, butter, sugar and egg in a mixing bowl.
  5. Add pumpkin, raisins, nutmeats and vanilla.
  6. Sift together soda, baking powder, cinnamon and flour.
  7. Add flour mixture (dry ingredients) to pumpkin mixture (wet ingredients).
  8. Drop by spoon onto greased cookie sheet and brush with canned milk.
  9. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

Variations

  • Any chopped nut can be used for the nutmeats—walnuts, pecans, and so forth.
  • Skip the step of boiling raisins if you like. The process makes the raisins plumper and juicier, but isn’t required.
  • Add white chocolate chips after combining wet and dry ingredients for an even richer cookie.

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