Pumpkin cookies are cookies that are either made from pumpkin or have a pumpkin flavor. These cookies tend to be most popular during the fall of the year because this is when pumpkins normally become ripe and ready to harvest. Pumpkin cookies are also a popular type of holiday cookie and may be served during both the Halloween and Thanksgiving holidays along with other pumpkin-flavored desserts. Many people make these cookies from scratch using actual pumpkin, while other people might take shortcuts and make the cookies out of pumpkin spice or canned pumpkin. Grocery stores might additionally carry prepackaged pumpkin cookies, and these are most likely to be available during the fall as well.
Making pumpkin cookies from scratch using real pumpkin can be a very involved process because, before the cookies can be prepared, the pumpkin must be cut apart and cleaned out. Cleaning out a pumpkin normally involves scraping out the insides, which includes all the seeds and strings. This can be a very time-consuming process for many people, particularly if the pumpkin used for the cookies is large in size. Even though many people claim that cookies made with fresh pumpkin taste better than cookies made with canned pumpkin puree or pumpkin spice, many people don't go to the trouble of using real pumpkin because of the complexity of the process.
People who opt to bake their pumpkin cookies from scratch using real pumpkin may be able to simplify the process by baking their pumpkins whole first. This is a popular method used not only to make baking cookies made from pumpkin easier, but also for any type of dish that requires pumpkin. The process of baking a pumpkin whole normally makes cutting it open and cleaning it out much easier to do because the heat can soften up the shell and loosen up the strings and seeds from the inside.
Regardless of the type of pumpkin used, most of the other ingredients needed to make pumpkin cookies are fairly basic. The majority of recipes for pumpkin cookies call for eggs, oil, and sugar along with other basic cookie ingredients, including flour and vanilla. Some people add cinnamon and nutmeg to their pumpkin-flavored cookies to give the sweetness a hint of spice. Icing might also be used as a topping for cookies made from pumpkin. Cream cheese and butter cream icing are two common icing choices for pumpkin cookies.
