On Friday for art class(and math and chemistry and fun) we made a care package of cookies for the big sister away at college. Having turned up my nose at all the "Pumpkin Spice" products on the market this month, I didn't see it coming: that I would be happily indulging in testing various recipes involving these ingredients!
It all started with seeing a facebook post for pumpkin-banana "ice cream." I'm not sharing the recipe here because it's buried in the depths of old posts, and really you can count on your own taste buds to help you decide how much pumpkin and spice to use and whether to add more sweetener to the mix besides frozen banana. Simply a frozen banana, smashed about long enough in a food processor, can be the base for many fine frozen desserts. It has the rich, creamy mouth-feel of gelato. Baked goods, however, involve chemistry, so I've included the exact cookie recipe we invented. It was extrapolated from a banana bread recipe, substituting pumpkin pie filling for the banana.(It took three tries to get this recipe down, but we didn't mind the work involved in research and development.)
Another special thing about this cookie recipe is that it is gluten-free. That's another food trend I had not appreciated personally until this past summer, when my son was sick enough for long enough that I was willing to do anything, including changing his diet almost completely. Improved digestion and reduced joint inflammation for both of us was significant enough that I'm now a dedicated gluten-free baker. Learning to bake gluten-free has been an interesting and tasty learning experience.
Xanthan gum is the magic ingredient that holds these soft cookies together in place of the strands of gluten. We played with a pinch of xanthan gum and a few drops of water, finding out how slimy and sticky it becomes. It is hard to wash off––kind of like slug slime!
I would like to experiment with an egg-free version of this recipe by substituting flax seed meal, a dairy-free version using coconut oil instead of butter, and a lower sugar version using banana as well as pumpkin puree. For now though, these cookies are great for making the whole house smell good, and fun to decorate and share. Enjoy!
Gluten-free Halloween Cookies
2 cups Arrowhead Mills Gluten Free Baking Mix (plus some to use on hands when rolling dough balls)
1 T. pumpkin pie spice
1 t. baking soda
1/4 t. xanthan gum
mix together well:
1 c. butter, melted
1 c. pureed pumpkin (I bought pumpkin pie filling but you could cook a pie pumpkin.) (Alternatively you could use less pumpkin and add mashed banana.)
1 c. dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 t. vanilla
Mix dry and wet ingredients, let dough rest at least 1/2 hour because the non-gluten flour needs time to take in the liquids.
Roll dough into 1" balls, flatten. Draw lines for pumpkin effect, decorate with chocolate chips and candied ginger.
Bake 30 min at 350 degrees.
When I first posted this I forgot to add that the specific gluten-free baking mix I used was Arrowhead Mills. This matters, as every gf baking mix is different. I chose AM's mix because it does not contain any potato products. It turns out that potato is in the nightshade family, and for those with a food sensitivity to nightshades even a bit of potato starch can exacerbate arthritic symptoms. Unfortunately most store bought gf products contain potato, which is what drove me to develop my own recipes at home!
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