Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

Phoebe and I made some cookies today. Pumpkin cookies with chocolate chips and pecans, and maple frosting. I love pumpkin. I love chocolate. I love pecans. I love maple. I love frosting.

2 1/4 cup self-rising flour
3 tsp pumpkin pie spice
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chunks

Whisk together flour and pumpkin pie spice. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter.
Add both sugars and beat until light and fluffy.
Add vanilla.
Add eggs one at a time and beat until combined.
Add flour/spice mixture to sugar mixture in three additions. Alternate with pumpkin in two additions, ending with flour mixture.
Stir in chopped pecans and chocolate chunks.
Drop on cookie tray lined with parchment paper.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Makes about four dozen cookies.

Let cool.

Maple Brown Butter Frosting

3 cups sifted confectioners sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
2 tsp maple flavoring

Sift sugar and set aside.
Melt butter over medium heat until golden brown. Watch closely so it does not burn.
Add butter to sugar, scraping all the butter into the bowl.
Add milk and maple flavoring. Stir until smooth.
Spread on top of cookies with an knife or offset spatula.





Phoebe can't be bothered with holding a cookie.

Oatmeal Whoopie Pies

My Mom and I (and the rest of us, but especially Mom) love to buy Oatmeal Whoopie Pies at a fleamarket we go to once a month. Some Amish ladies used to set up a table with all their delicious baked goods. This year they aren't setting up to sell anymore, and Mom has really missed the oatmeal pies. I stopped at our Bible Bookstore to buy some things and bought a book by Wanda E. Brunstetter that I'd been wanting to read (love her books about the Amish). When I was getting the book I noticed that Wanda Brunstetter also had a Amish Friends Cookbook. I flipped through to see if the Oatmeal Pie recipe was in it, and it was! So I bought it and made some for Mom. They are just about exact to the ones we bought from the Amish ladies at the fleamarket. They are SOOOOO good! I'm making some more today. Here's the recipe:

Oatmeal Whoopie Pies

3/4 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups quick cooking oats
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
3 T boiling water

(I skipped the soda, salt, and water because I used self rising flour.)

Preat oven to 325. Cream butter, sugar, and eggs. Combine flour, salt, and baking powder and add to creamed mixture. Add oats and cinnamon, mix well. Stir baking soda into boiling water, add to batter and blend well. Drop by teaspoons onton greased cookie sheet and bake 10-15 mintues. Cool and fill.

Filling
5 T flour
1 cup milk
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup margarine
1/4 cup shortening

Cook flour and milk until mixture forms a paste. Cool. Add remaining ingredients and beat until mixture resembles whipped cream. Spread between two cookies.
(Can freeze them and eat frozen, but I've never done that.)