Milk & Cookies

...but where are all of the muffin bottoms?

Sometimes things just don’t work out the way you plan them. This week’s cookie is a great example for two reasons. First, I was very excited to try out the recipe voted most popular by those of you who voted. I was at the grocery store with a pile of fresh jalapenos, and cream cheese. Sadly, there were no fresh cranberries to be had. After weighing my options (dried cranberries, canned cranberries), I decided to go with the second place cookie instead. Pumpkin Butterscotch! Don’t worry jalapeno lovers…that cookie is still going to happen.

Also, these aren’t really cookies. Even though Joy the Baker calls them cookies in two different recipes… do not be fooled. These truly are muffin tops. Light, fluffy, sweet, and very cake-like. All that is missing is the muffin bottoms, but who needs those anyways.

Ok, here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1-1/2 tspn baking powder
• 1 tspn baking soda
• 1/2 tspn salt
• 1 tspn ground cinnamon
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1-1/4 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 tspn vanilla extract
• 1 cup butterscotch chips

Directions

Looking at all of those ingredients, these cookies might appear to be complicated. Don’t worry about it. These cookies are actually pretty easy to make.
First combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon) but not the sugar, in a medium bowl and mix them together. In a second (larger) bowl combine the eggs and sugar. Beat the eggs and sugar together using a blender until they are well mixed (about 1-2 minutes). Now mix in the dry ingredients a bit at a time and blend on slow until they make a nice batter. Now mix in the pumpkin, vanilla, oil, and butterscotch chips. This batter will end up being much more like cake batter than cookie dough.

Now that the batter is complete, set it in the fridge for an hour or so. In the mean time you can prepare a couple of baking trays by lining them with parchment paper.

When you are ready to bake preheat the oven to 325° F. Using a large spoon or even an ice cream scoop, make ~1/4 cup batter piles for each cookie. These cookies expand by quite a bit during baking so be sure to leave 1-1/2 to 2 inches between each cookie. I was only able to get 9 or 12 on each baking sheet depending on how tight I tried to squeeze them. When each tray is complete pop them into the oven and bake one tray at a time. Baking time should be approximately 16 minutes, but you should test a cookie with a toothpick before removing them. If the toothpick can be inserted into a cookie and come out clean, then it is done.

Each tray will need to cool for a few minutes before you remove the cookies, and eat them.

If you are a fancy-pants and have a sugar sifter, give the cookies a nice dusting of powdered sugar and they will look amazing. I sadly, do not yet have one, but it is next on my list of kitchen gadgets (along with a cooling rack).

Oh yeah, don’t forget your milk!