Baking Bread & Pumpkin COokies

Today was another rainy day, so we did some baking. The summer is for preserving foods, eating fresh veggies, grilling, and having lots of tomatoes. Each year as the weather is cooler and fall rolls in, we get back into the groove of stews, crock pots, bread baking, and warm comfort foods. While I know that we will definitely be getting hot sunny days again at some point before fall arrives, we have felt that drive to make things as the rain hits the windows.


Today G helped me bake a loaf of whole grain white bread with oats and flax. Very yummy.

For a sweet treat, both boys helped bake pumpkin cookies (can you tell we REALLY want fall to arrive?). They turned out great - and the drizzled icing on top is too much for one little boy to stay away from (other little person helped bake, but doesn't like sweet things much-but he loved the fresh bread with butter!).


Here is the recipe - I make 2 sheets of the base recipe for kids, and then I add fresh homemade granola into the rest for the adult version. Your kids may be reasonable and like granola in all of them! ;) It is a nice recipe because the base cookie is soft and not so sweet...so you can make some with icing and some without too!

Pumpkin Cookies:
2 cups of organic all purpose flour
1/2 cup organic oat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder (we use aluminum free baking powder, but you can also use arrowroot powder)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg or pumpkin spice
1/2 tsp finely ground sea salt
1 cup granulated sugar (you can use white, turbinado, cane, xylitol, etc.)
1/2 cup packed organic brown sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat to 350.

Combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in one bowl and mix a bit. In a second bowl beat the sugar and butter until blended. Beat in the pumpkin, egg and vanilla extract until it is smooth. Slowly add the flour mixture in, stirring. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto baking sheets. Bake 15-18 minutes. Cool.

Alternate version: When dough is ready, stir in 1 cup of mixed crunchy granola (not the cereal type). Today I used a crunchy apple cinnamon with sunflower seeds granola.

Glaze:
2 cups organic powdered sugar
3 tbsp organic milk
1 tbsp melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
Stir together until smooth - add more milk if it is too thick.
Drizzle over cooled cookies (use a wire rack with parchment paper under to catch the drips).