Spiced Pumpkin Cookies
These spiced pumpkin cookies are soft, cake-like, and beautifully flavored. Enjoy them plain or decorate them with spiders and webs for Halloween! They make the perfect kid's treat for Halloween.
These spiced pumpkin cookies are soft, cake-like, and beautifully flavored. Enjoy them plain or decorate them with spiders and webs for Halloween! They make the perfect kid's treat for Halloween.
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 300 g plain flour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 3 tsp mixed spice (or use pumpkin spice)
- 150 g caster sugar
- 125 g butter
- 1 egg (lightly beaten)
- 250 g pumpkin puree
- 60 g white chocolate buttons (i used 2 bags weighing 3
- 60 g milk chocolate buttons (i used 2 bags weighing 30
- Carbohydrate 14.8539166666667 g
- Cholesterol 25.2266666666667 mg
- Fat 9.625824 g
- Fiber 0.96166668732961 g
- Protein 1.22365066666667 g
- Saturated Fat 6.04810933333333 g
- Serving Size 1 1 approx (39g)
- Sodium 127.689933333333 mg
- Sugar 13.8922499793371 g
- Trans Fat 0.702269066666667 g
- Calories 149 calories
Step-by-step
- Turn the oven on to 160C (fan).
- Line 4 baking trays with baking paper.
- Put the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and mixed spice in a bowl.
- Put the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and cream together. Add the egg, vanilla and pumpkin puree. Beat together.
- Add the bowl of dry ingredient to the bowl of wet ingredients and mix together.
- Using a tablespoon, put spoonfuls of the mixture onto the baking trays, leaving a gap around each cookie as they will spread in the oven.
- Bake for 15 minutes.
- Leave the cookies to cool on a wire rack.
- Boil a kettle and pour the water into a bowl. Put a packet of white and a packet of milk chocolate buttons in the hot water. Leave for a minute.
- Take out one of the packets of chocolate buttons and dry it on a towel. Squish it between your fingers to check that the chocolate is fully melted. If necessary put it back in the hot water.
- Snip off a very tiny corner of the packet and squeeze out the chocolate to make a spider's web shape on half the cookies. Stick a chocolate button of the opposite colour onto the spider's web. It will stick to the wet chocolate.
- Repeat with the other packet of melted chocolate.
Moisture Control and Purée Selection
Swapping canned pumpkin purée for fresh roasted squash changes the hydration level of the dough entirely. Fresh pumpkin yields free water that canned versions lack. Drain homemade purée through cheesecloth for 30 minutes before mixing. Excess moisture turns these soft, cake-like cookies into soggy mounds. Weigh the flour carefully to counteract varying liquid densities.
Spice Ratios and Thermal Activation
Mixed spice and pumpkin spice rely heavily on ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. These aromatics require fat to carry their volatile compounds. Creaming butter and caster sugar at room temperature traps air pockets necessary for the 15-minute bake at 160°C fan. Chemical leaveners like baking soda react with the slight acidity of the pumpkin purée to create the final rise.
Chocolate Decorating Mechanics
Melting chocolate inside sealed packets using hot water prevents seizure from stray moisture droplets. Submerge the bags for 60 seconds. Test the center firmness through the plastic before snipping a tiny corner. Squeeze the chocolate onto cooled cookies only. Warm biscuits melt the piped webs immediately.
