Not Scary At All: Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

Pumpkin season is finally upon us!  The Bean has been craving pumpkin and apple pie and muffins and crisps and cookies for about a month now, and I confess, sometimes I indulge her.  During the past two weeks we'd gotten a pumpkin in our CSA share.  We were assured that this was a "cooking" pumpkin, not just a jack-o-lantern pumpkin, so after displaying them on our table for a few days, I decided to roast one up and see what would happen.

Only twice before in my life have I cooked a pumpkin: once, in graduate school, I tried Mollie Katzen's Pumpkin Tureen recipe,and the other time, two years ago, I baked a pumpkin that our neighbor had given us, too long after I'd displayed it on the porch ... and after thinking that the baking process didn't smell very appealing, found that it was full of worms.

This time, I cut the pumpkin in half first, scooped out the guts and seeds, and roasted it for a good hour at 375 (probably could have done 400), face down in a roasting pan spritzed with olive oil.  The pumpkin itself was incredible when it came out of the oven: I proceeded to scrape off and devour the lightly caramelized edges, and found that the rest of it separated easily from the skin.  I got a good 3-plus cups of pulp from one of the pumpkins and 4-plus from the other; interestingly, it's not quite as orange as the pulp that comes in a can, and it's just ever so slightly more watery, so you have to be careful about reducing liquids if you're using it for a recipe.

Ian had some very specific requests about how all of this pulp was going to be used.  "Pumpkin cookies," he said, "and pumpkin pie."  S. doesn't much love pumpkin pie, and I wasn't about to make one that I'd have to share only with Ian, so I thought the cookies would make a good first dent.  I've been using this recipe since graduate school, and I find that it makes a lovely hearty cookie, somewhat healthy (and can be made healthier if you so choose), full of fiber.  I even snuck a few into I.'s lunch box this week, despite the fact that his school prohibits "treats" in children's lunches, with a note to his teacher about the cookie's nutritional value (I wish they had as stringent a rule about things like chicken nuggets and other processed junk!).

Pumpkin Cookies

1/2 c. butter (or 1/4 c. butter and 1/4 c. unsweetened applesauce)
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. white sugar (or use 3/4 c. agave nectar in place of both sugars)
1 c. pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
1 c. flour
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. nutmeg
3 c. oats

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream butter and sugar together until well combined.  Beat in eggs, one at a time, then pumpkin puree and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, sift together dry ingredients (except oats).  Add these to the wet ingredients and mix to combine.

Add oats and stir; drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto a cookie sheet and bake 10-12 minutes.