50 Chefs for 50 Years and Giada's Pumpkin Spice Cookies

 The House Smells Like Fall!

Giada.  What can I say.  She is one of the smallest Italian women, ever.  I have seen her appearances on the various morning shows, and her cookbooks have been a staple at the store since she started writing them.  I own a few myself.  I like her approach to food, family and her books are pretty straight forward, even a little basic.  She seems like an instinctive cook (which I am; open the vegetable drawer and invent dinner), and her books are written in a way you can change ingredients and understand how things go together.

Another in my vast collection!

This week was my last cooking class of the year, as Thanksgiving looms!  It was a cookbook club class featuring Giada's newest book: Giada's Feel Good Food.  A cookbook, yes, but also a lifestyle book to answer the question she is most often asked: How does a chef (she went to the Cordon Bleu) stay so darn thin!?  It isn't a diet book, no fear, but rather a book full of healthy recipes (nothing artificial), gorgeous pictures and plenty of great information.  It was really one of my favorite classes, likely because it was topped off by Pumpkin Spice Cookies.  I loved them!  I decided to make them at home with a few changes, but lets break them down first.

The original recipe calls for all purpose flour which we used in class and was fine.  I made my home version with Spelt Flour and it was seamless.

The recipe also calls for Raw Sugar.  We used a Demerara Sugar when we made them in class, and I opted for Light Brown Sugar at home, both produced fine results.

The recipe also calls for Raisins, and well, I opted for chocolate chips.  Yes, really.  I love pumpkin and chocolate, and I decided this was going to be my one pumpkin baked good this season, so I went for it.  And the results were just delicious!

At the store we used our famous Pumpkin Butter instead of canned pumpkin.  I was out of pumpkin butter at home, so had to go canned pumpkin.  I bumped up the spices to try and make up for the depth of flavor found in our pumpkin butter, but I would use pumpkin butter it if at all possible.  The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of canned pumpkin, and this really bugs me.  That amount is less than half a can, and what are you going to do with the rest?

And here's where my "aha" moment came.  Prior to class, one of the managers does the grocery shopping for class.  He goes through the scullery for ingredients and lays them all out for me, and there on my cart was a bag of whole allspice.  The recipe of course, calls for ground.  So as I was prepping, I got out the mortar and pestle and ground it up.  Wow!  The aroma was intoxicating, almost overwhelming.  And that came through in the baked cookie in the most delicious, fall-flavored way!  I have been a big fan of fresh nutmeg, fresh ginger, even fresh ground cinnamon, but this was a first.  I immediately went out and bought whole allspice and will never have it anyway but fresh ground again!

Smellavision would be good right about now!

Here's the recipe as written, and my substitutions.

Spiced Pumpkin Cookies
by Giada, adapted by me

1 cup all purpose flour  (I used 1 cup spelt flour)
2/3 cup old fashioned oatmeal
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I used 2)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice (I used 3/4 teaspoon of fresh ground)
3/4 cup Raw Sugar (I used light brown sugar)
1/2 cup canned pumpkin (I used half a can, but you should use Williams Sonoma Pumpkin butter instead!)
1/3 cup safflower oil
1 Tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla (I used 2 of the best vanilla...)
1/2 cup raisins (Ew. I used chocolate chips)

Mix the flour through the all spice in one bowl.  Use a whisk to make sure there are no clumps.  In another bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients except raisins, and again whisk to make sure your sugar isn't clumping.  Finally mix the bowls into one, and stir it up well.  Add your chocolate chips or raisins (or both!).  Drop onto parchment covered baking sheets, and bake about 15-18 minutes at 350˚.  Cool thoroughly before packing into airtight containers. Makes about 30 cookies.

If you have been around awhile, you may have read a similar recipe for Pumpkin Cookies and a nostalgic little story.  Don't tell Betty, but Giada's cookies are tastier! It must be the fresh allspice!  What are you waiting for?  Get in there and bake!

Have you missed the previous chefs?  50 Chefs for 50 Years:
#1 Mom, and Steak In A Bag and Ambrosia Pie
#2 Chuck Williams (founder of Williams Sonoma) and Cheese Souffle and Chuck's Zucchini
#3 Dinah Shore, and Corn Crab Cakes with Jalepeño Tartar Sauce
#4 Deborah Madison, and Summer Squash Tatines
#5 & 6 Eli and Max Sussman, and The Best Fall Dinner EVER!
#6 Ina the Barefoot Contessa and Chopped Cape Cod Salad
#7 & 8, Julee Russo and Sheila Lukins, The Silver Palate and Chicken Puttanesca

#9 Paul Prudhomme and Mirliton Pirogues Stuffed With Andouille and Shrimp

The House That Built Me

It is my favorite song. Sung beautifully by Miranda Lambert. It is about a 20 something (she must be young) who is trying to find herself and goes to her childhood home. Well I'm not 20 anything, I found myself a long time ago, but for some reason as I plan my next move to our 8th residence in a 24 year marriage, I get a little nostalgic. This is the house my kids will most remember. But it is the house that "built" me I lovingly remember.
I spent my preschool and elementary years in Clinton, Iowa. By the time we moved I was entering high school and was the only child at home. So the house in Clinton that was full of family is the one I pine for. It is a gorgeous English Tudor sitting on a large hill with views of the Mississippi River. It was once a retreat for an order of monks which explains the cross mowed into the lawn. It sat on an acre of property, most of it woods, and had a beautiful stone patio, an enormous screened in porch and a balcony from my parents room. The wood was heavy and dark, and every room had built in closets, dressers and shelves. The windows are were all leaded glass and there were 2 huge picture windows. In the spring there were dozens of lilac trees and bushes of peonies. In the summer we would have thousands of monarch butterflies and in the fall we would collect hedge apples and pine cones.

Christmas was magical. My dad would string the big Charlie Brown bulbs all over the hedges and when the snow would fall they would glow in bursts of color. Our huge tree would proudly stand at the living room picture window. We would have cut it down ourselves and decorated with the dozens of family ornaments and tossed tinsel all over it. I never thought to look for the Christmas presents hidden on the screened in porch, but many years later I learned that was my mom's favorite place to hide them.

Of course the house had a basement, and a pit in the garage that my brothers used to learn to work on their cars. And my favorite spot was the breakfast room with its octagonal shape and all the leaded windows. No one could come in either driveway without being seen. My last bedroom (I had to wait until the older sisters went to college), had a wall of windows that looked out over the river. It was such a magical place. I have the photographs and the memories, and this time of year makes me think of a particular cooking memory. In the Betty Crocker cooky cookbook that is falling apart, are the many recipes we made. I blogged about it before and decided that it was the perfect time to make Pumpkin Cookies. These are the cookies I made on September 24, 1976. The note next to the recipe says "couldn't go skating". It was a sad day. Every fall we had a roller skating party and it was the one night a year a 7th grade girl (in 1976) could hold hands to a Shawn Cassidy song and roller skate a memory. But alas, I didn't clean my room, and the meanest mom in the entire world made me stay home. She probably launched my love of baking and journaling through recipes. I remember the night clearly. It is, after these many years, a very happy memory. Needless to say I couldn't make the recipe as it is written, so here it is with my changes.

PUMPKIN COOKIES
1½ cups brown sugar
½ shortening (I'm using butter)
2 eggs
1¾ canned pumpkin (this is one, 15oz. can)
2¾ cups flour
1 T baking soda
1 tea cinnamon
½ tea nutmeg
½ tea salt
¼ tea ginger
1 teaspoon vanilla (this is my addition)
1 cup raisins (yuck!) (I'm using 1 ½ cups mini chocolate chips)
1 cup chopped pecans (I am using walnuts)

Okay, my changes. Shortening does make a really soft cookie, but butter just tastes better. And I think raisins are yucky in a cookie, so chocolate chips, perfect replacement. The recipe says the cookies can be iced with a thin butter icing. Would you ice a chocolate chip cookie? I mean, the recipes are very similar. I say enjoy the pumpkin! This recipe makes about 6 dozen and they do not spread, so you can really cram them on the baking sheets.

So, what are ya waiting for? Get in there and bake!