A cake-like cookie that was very well received by the grade 3-4 class that I work in. I was a little worried they wouldn’t like them because they aren’t, well, you know, crunchy, like most cookies are! I think it was the chocolate chips that scored the extra brownie points. Oh, and one student thought they tasted like peanut butter! Which, now that he mentions it, they sort of, kind of do! It is the pumpkin that gives it that different texture and the combination of spices, fruit and chocolate that keeps you guessing, “Hmmm…what is that taste? I think I love it!”

1 cup Flour
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 1/3 cups Old Fashioned Rolled Oats
1 1/4 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 teaspoon ground Cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon each: ground Ginger, Cloves and Nutmeg

1 cup Coconut
1 cup dried Cranberries or Raisins
1 1/2 cups Chocolate Chips

1 cup Butter, softened
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 cup Sugar
2 large Eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
1 cup Pumpkin Puree

For the Glaze
1 cup Icing Sugar
2 Tablespoons Milk, or to right consistency
1/2 teaspoon Maple Flavouring

Preheat oven to 350F.
Line baking sheets with parchment paper or lightly spray with vegetable oil spray.

In large bowl combine flours, oats, baking powder, salt and spices; set aside.
In a small mixing bowl combine coconut, dried cranberries (or raisins) and chocolate chips; set aside.
In mixing bowl beat butter and sugars together until light and fluffy (5 minutes), scraping down sides of bowl a couple of times.
Add eggs and vanilla and continue beating for about  a minute.
Stir in pumpkin puree.
Add the flour mixture, all at once, and mix on low speed for about 2 minutes.
While mixer is going, pour in fruit and coconut mixture.

Drop  1.5 ounce portions, 2 inches apart,  onto each baking sheet, I use a Pampered Chef scoop, or use a heaping Tablespoon.
Bake in 350F. oven for 12 minutes, rotate pans and continue baking for another 12 – 15 minutes until cookies are golden brown on the bottom and around the edges.
Remove from oven and let cookies cool on baking sheets for about 5 minutes.
Lift cookies off baking sheets and transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

For the Glaze:
Mix together icing sugar, milk and maple flavouring in  a small bowl, adding more milk if necessary to get desired consistency.
Load glaze into a piping bag with the tip snipped off or a heavy grade Ziploc bag with one corner snipped off.
Pipe glaze over cookies.
Allow glaze to set before storing cookies in an airtight container.
Yield: 3 1/2 Dozen Cookies

I haven’t done a whole lot of baking with Pumpkin except the traditional Pumpkin Pie at Thanksgiving when Pumpkins are all over the place!  I think I will keep a can of pumpkin puree in the pantry in the future…
If you want to have a look at the original recipe head over to Chow; I did make a few substitutions…for one, I only had 1 cup of Pumpkin in the fridge. And I added lots of yummy stuff: Coconut, Chocolate Chips and Dried Cranberries.