From the beginning….pumpkin cookies

Starting a food blog has been on my To-Do list for a few months. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to include and who would actually want to read it. Well here goes nothing……
TheSheenBean is born on this rainy fall day in South Carolina. In the next few weeks, I will be updating my blog with author details and a recipe list once I figure out how to work wordpress. Come back soon to see the updates!

I originally wanted this blog to be about healthy food but my life hasn’t exactly been on the healthy track lately. We have been eating out too much and not exercising. Hopefully this blog will help me turn that around and get us back on a healthy track especially since the Holiday Eating Season is beginning.

My first recipe is one of my favorite fall desserts. These cookies remind me of my childhood. My mom always made them for us in the fall. I made these cookies last weekend to send to my brother and a friend. Hopefully they made it to their destinations in one piece!

Pumpkin Cookies
(I think the recipe comes from Betty Crocker but I just have a photocopy of a book page that my mom gave me.)
Makes 3-4 dozen cookies, depending on size.

1 cup sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup shortening
2 cups all-purpose or whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
Optional: 1/2 cup raisins, 1/2 cup nuts or 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Using a stand mixer (or hand mixer), mix the first three ingredients. Once combined, add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Mix until batter is consistent. Add in the optional ingredients if you choose to do so.

Using a cookie scoop, drop scoops of cookie dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes or until light brown. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack.

** I scooped out half of the dough onto my cookie sheets and then added a few chocolate chips to the remaining batter.

Maple Pumpkin Icing
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3-4 Tbs milk
1/3 cup of butter, melted
1 Tbs maple syrup
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Add all ingredients to bowl and mix. You can add additional powdered sugar or milk depending on how thick you want your icing to be.

Once you have the correct consistency, fill a Ziploc bag with the icing. Snip off the corner and pipe your icing over the cookies.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I do. I have another delicious dessert to make tomorrow night for our work Thanksgiving Feast so check back on Thursday for another fall dessert recipe!

What is your favorite Thanksgiving dessert?

My favorites are pumpkin rolls and pecan pie!