Pumpkin Cookies with Penuche Frosting

A little messy, but so good...

I don't know where I got the recipe for pumpkin cookies, or even when I first made them. It's been years, and there are about a million versions out there. Some have chocolate chips, some have nuts. Some have cream cheese frosting, some have none. In the end, I just made them the way I like them. No nuts, no chocolate chips, and topped with a very delicious penuche frosting (that I use on a bunch of other stuff). These are my husband's favorite cookies.

Pumpkin Cookies with Penuche Frosting

Printable Recipe

½ cup shortening

½ cup unsalted butter, softened

½ cup packed brown sugar

½ cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

½ teaspoon salt

Frosting

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

½ cup packed brown sugar

¼ cup light cream

2 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 ° F.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the shortening, butter and sugars until light and fluffy; about 2 minutes. Add the egg and continue to beat for another 2 minutes. Stir in the pumpkin and the vanilla.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, spice, and salt. Add to the creamed mixture and beat until just blended.

Using a cookie scoop, drop the batter, two inches apart, on cookie sheets. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 10-12 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

Using a cookie scoop makes it easy to have the cookies turn out the same size.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the 3 tablespoons butter and ½ cup brown sugar. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 1 minute. Remove from the heat, stir in the cream, and beat until smooth.  Gradually stir in 2 cups powdered sugar until frosting has reached desired consistency. Spread on cooled cookies.

I like to keep the frosting on warm heat and drizzle them on the cookies--then they harden up a little like candy. Alternately, you can add more powdered sugar and frost them the usual way.

Put a parchment lined pan underneath to catch the drips.

They're like little soft cakes with candy on top.

My Favorite Coffee Cake

People sometimes ask me how I come up with a recipe. For the most part, the answer is pretty simple.....I tinker. I simply take an existing recipe and make it my own. The rule is that you have to make at least 3 major changes (and change the title) to make the recipe yours. The coffee cake recipe that I'm going to present to you today, is not my own. It is, however, an example of a recipe that is very adaptable--it is very easy to swap out ingredients and make an entirely different cake.

First, let's take a look at the basic recipe. Truthfully, I'm not sure who to give credit* to for this one as it's been in the family for years. Even in its original form, it is a very popular cake....cinnamony, moist, sweet, portable....you get the picture. Here is the recipe:

My Favorite Coffee Cake

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

Cake:
4 eggs
3/4 cup oil
3/4 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
1 tablespoon butter flavoring
1 envelope Dream Whip
1 pkg yellow cake mix (no pudding in the mix---use Duncan Hines)
1 (small) package instant vanilla or butterscotch pudding

Topping:
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts (optional)

Glaze:
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon butter flavoring

Grease and flour and oblong angel food cake pan. (or use a regular tube/bundt pan or two regular loaf pans and adjust baking time)

In a large mixing bowl, combine all of the cake ingredients. Beat a low speed for 30 seconds to combine, then beat at med/high speed for 6 minutes.

Pour 1/2 the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with 1/2 of the topping mixture. Pour in remaining batter and sprinkle with remaining topping. Cut through the batter with a knife to swirl in the topping. Bake 50-60 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Cool for at least 10 minutes in the pan before removing. Drizzle with glaze, if desired.

Here's where I started changing things around with this batch. I blended together 1/4 cup softened butter with 2 tablespoons flour, 1/2 cup of brown sugar and a teaspoon of cinnamon. You can see in some of the pictures where this mixture might have been a bit heavy---it didn't swirl nicely and settled near the bottom. But it was very tasty and I would make it this way again!

I took a few liberties again with the glaze. Since I'm not a huge fan of raw powdered sugar, I made a very easy penuche glaze.

You can see just how easy and versatile this recipe is---swap out chocolate cake for the yellow, chocolate pudding mix for the vanilla, and use some Oreo crumbs and mini chocolate chips for the middle. Or use the Butterscotch pudding and swirl in some chocolate syrup. Let your taste buds be your guide.....

*My sister just informed me of the origins of this wonderful treat. Apparently, it is known as "That" Coffee Cake or "Shiva" Cake and is a very popular recipe belonging to Temple Israel in Minneapolis. They even take orders for this stuff....see, and now you can make it at home. :)  She also wanted to pass along that this cake, made in its original form, tastes great toasted and smeared with butter.

Penuche-Glazed Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

Luckily, I have stockpiled several cans of pumpkin in anticipation of the great pumpkin shortage (has anyone seen evidence of this yet?), I am more than happy to get creative with pumpkin and these cinnamon rolls are what I came up with. At first bite, the pumpkin taste is pretty subtle, but the next day the flavor really came out.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Penuche Glaze

Ingredients:

¼ cup water

¼ cup milk
¼ cup butter
2 tablespoons sugar
2 ¼ teaspoons yeast
3-3 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup pureed pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 tablespoons pureed pumpkin
1/2 cup pecans (optional)

Glaze:

1 1/2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons milk or cream
1 cup powdered sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 ° F.

Put the water, milk and butter in a measuring cup and microwave for about 45 seconds or until the temperature is 110 ° F. (bathwater warm). If it gets too hot, just let it cool for a few minutes. Pour into a large mixing bowl and stir in the sugar and then the yeast. Let this mixture stand for about 5 minutes, or until it begins to foam.

 If you don't have a stand mixer with a dough hook, add two cups of the flour, the salt, the pumpkin, and the spices to the yeast mixture and beat well.

Add the remaining flour, ½ cup at a time, stirring well after each addition. When the dough has just pulled together, turn it onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, about 5 minutes. If you are using the stand mixer with a dough hook, as I did, add all of the ingedients in order and knead the dough for 5 minutes with your dough hook. Add additional flour, one tablespoon at a time, if the dough is too sticky.

Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover with a clean damp towel. Allow dough to rise until double, about 1 hour. In the mean time, in a small bowl, mix together the softened butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and 2 tablespoons pumpkin.

Roll out the dough into a 12X9 inch rectangle (I like to do this on my Silpat).

Spread the dough with the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Sprinkle with pecans if desired.

 Roll up the dough and pinch seam to seal. Cut into 12 equal sized pieces and place into a greased 9X13 inch pan. Cover and let rise until doubled.

Bake at 375 ° F. for 25 to 30 minutes or until browned. Remove from oven and frost while warm.

For glaze, in small saucepan, melt the butter and the brown sugar over medium heat until it boils. Let it boil for about a minute or until thickened. Whisk in the cream, then the powdered sugar. Add a teaspoon or two more milk if it needs to be thinned. Drizzle over rolls.

Try not to eat them all at once!