What's scarier for you on Halloween?
A) Your food-allergic kid getting un-safe Halloween candy from your otherwise well-intentioned neighbors.
B) Not having something safe at the ready to trade for the 90% of Junior's Halloween booty you had to confiscate because it's not safe to eat.
C) Having that confiscated candy tucked away in your house, just begging for you to eat it after the kids go to bed because, let's face it, the kids can't have it and you don't want it going to waste, after all...
D) The weight you'll gain from eating all of that damned Halloween candy by yourself, because all your spouse likes is candy corn.
The answer is E) All of the above. So, to help allay your Halloween worries this year, we've got a really yummy dairy-free, egg-free, and nut-free pumpkin cookie recipe. This recipe is ALL OVER the Internet, so there's not really any one to credit for it. But how dumb are we that we've never thought to do a search on egg-free pumpkin cookies? And really good ones at that.
If anyone deserves credit for this recipe, it's our prima preschool teacher, Ms Lauren. We love Ms Lauren, who herself has a food allergic child, and who introduced us to this recipe. She did a simple Google search and voila, there it was. She made a few adjustments to the recipe - not sure why, but it worked out great - and we copied.
And how exactly does this tie in with the scary Halloween question above? Make these cookies and neither you nor your kids will care about that stuff they can't eat, and you won't be tempted to eat the contraband. Until the pumpkin cookies are gone, that is.
Ingredients
- 2 cups sugar (or 1 cup white plus 1 cup brown, unpacked)
- 1 cup shortening (we used 1/2 cup Crisco plus 1/2 cup Earth Balance)
- 1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 cups all-purpose flour (or 3 cups ap flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour)
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon (or 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice) (but we used apple pie spice because we didn't have pumpkin pie spice)
- 12 ounces dairy-free, nut-free chocolate chips (optional) (we used Trader Joe's brand, and we used between 1/2 and 3/4 cup - just pulled a Rachel Ray and eyeballed it)
Steps
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Cream the sugar(s), shortening, pumpkin, and vanilla until light and well combined.
- Mix the flour, baking soda and cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice.
- Stir the dry mixture into the wet mixture.
- Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Drop by teaspoons onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until set.
- Let cookies cool on a rack.
They apparently freeze well, but if you want them fresh, you'll have to eat them within a day or two.
