Sunday, November 09, 2008

Writer's Block Recipes: Vegan Pumpkin Cookies

So, after tapping out more than 25,000 words in the past 9 days, I found myself hit with a severe case of writer's apathy this afternoon. Instead of staring daggers at a blinking cursor, I gave myself a short break and decided to create something else from scratch: Vegan Pumpkin Cookies.






I'm pleased to report that the cookies were a success. They're more like mini-cakes, actually, but I certainly don't think that's a bad thing. Anyway, if you're suffering from writer's apathy/block but would like to feel productive by way of baking, here's the recipe (adapted from here).

Ingredients
1 cup brown sugar (I used 1/2 cup Splenda Brown Sugar Blend)
1 cup white sugar (mine happened to be organic)
2 t. vanilla
2 cups canned pumpkin
2 t. baking soda
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 t. baking powder
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. nutmeg
1 t. ginger
1 cup currants (optional)
4 cup all-purpose flour (this also happened to be organic)

Directions
  1. Beat together pumpkin, sugars, oil and vanilla.
  2. Sift together remaining ingredients except for currants. Add to wet ingredients about a half a cup at a time until well-mixed.
  3. Fold in currants.
  4. Drop by heaping spoonful onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. These don't expand outward too much (at least mine didn't), so you can put them pretty close together. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 12 to 15 minutes until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean.
  5. Transfer to a cooling rack and (duh) let cool. Then enjoy! These would also be fabulous with a bit of cream cheese frosting.