Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Pumpkin and Snickerdoodles, a match made in heaven. I've seen different versions of this cookie on various blogs, but the reviews were mixed. Some said they were too dry, others said not enough spice. I thought they didn't use enough pumpkin! So here is my soft, pillowy, spicy version of pumpkin Snickerdoodles.

Makes 3 1/2 dozen

1 C. Butter-unsalted and softened

1 C Evaporated Cane Sugar

1/2 C Rapadura Sugar (or brown sugar)

1 C Pumpkin Purée

1 Egg

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

3 3/4 C Whole White Wheat Flour

1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Sea Salt

1 tsp Cinnamon 

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

For the coating:

1/4 C Evaporated Cane Sugar

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1/4 tsp Nutmeg

Dash Cloves

In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, sea salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. 

In a large bowl beat together butter and sugars, then add pumpkin and vanilla finally add egg. Mix flour mixture into wet ingredients. 

*Side note, I did this all by hand and it turned out great. I think people have a tendency to over mix cookie dough and the cookies turn out tough.*  

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a small bowl combine remaining 1/4 C sugar and spices. Set aside. Either using a cookie scoop or teaspoons portion out equal size balls of dough, rolling into a smooth ball and coating in spiced sugar mixture. 

Place sugared balls of dough on baking sheet (don't worry about spacing, they are going into the fridge to chill out). When all dough has been used place cookie sheet in fridge for about an hour. Alternately, you can put the tray of dough into the freezer until dough becomes hard, then place cookie dough in a freezer bag to use at a later date or just bake a few at a time for portion control. I usually start putting cookie dough in the freezer a few months before christmas to take some of the stress out of holiday baking. All I have to do is bake the dough!

Preheat oven to 350. Place 12 balls of dough onto parchment or silpat lined baking sheet 

and flatten slightly with the palm of your hand. 

Bake 15-18 minutes

Harvest Time Apple Butter Bars

Fall is my favorite time of year. The rich smell of baked apples, pumpkin, cinnamon and cloves permeates the air. Every few years our apple trees go crazy and I'm trying to find new ways to use them. In 2011 I made cases of apple butter, apple sauce, apple juice and over 5 gallons of hard cider along with countless pies, granolas and bags of dried apples. I realized I still have a case of apple butter in the back of our pantry so I better use it up before the madness begins again. If you have never had spiced apple butter, I'm sorry and I will post my super easy crockpot apple butter recipe shortly!  If you don't happen to have any spiced apple butter you can certainly make this with applesauce using the changes I noted in the recipe. I'm making these as an easy breakfast for a picky toddler, so I didn't want something loaded with sugar but you could up the sweetness to your tastes.

2 C. Old Fashioned Oats

1 C. Whole Wheat Flour

1 tsp Baking Powder

1 C. Spiced Apple Butter

     Or 1 C Apple Sauce and increase spices to 2 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp cloves. Add 2 Tbs Honey

1/2 tsp Cinnamon 

1/8 tsp Cloves

2 TBS Oil

1 Egg

1 C. Milk (I use almond)

1 C. Raisins

Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8x8 pan, set aside. In a large bowl combine oats, flour and baking powder. Add apple butter, spices, oil, egg and milk. Stir until just combined.

Stir in raisins.

Spread mixture into prepared 8x8 pan.

Bake 30-35 minutes

Spicy Salsa Flax Crackers

We love flax crackers in our house but until recently we only had a round dehydrator that I had to cut parchment paper to fit in the trays to make fruit leather or flax crackers, what a pain! Well we hit the jackpot a couple of weeks ago when a customer sold us an Excaliber dehydrator with the teflex sheets for $5! It looks like its 30 years old but works great! So I've been making flax crackers and chia seed fruit leather for the toddler and the husband. This has been a favorite recipe of ours for years so I decided to share it first, but I'm working on some different flavors and some may show up at Vita-Mart in the near future!

1 C Flax

1 C Water

1 C Tomato 

1/4 C Onion 

1 clove Garlic

1/2 Jalapeño (more or less depending on desired heat level)

1 tsp Sea Salt

Mix Flax and water in a soup bowl

and let sit for about an hour until it gels.

Cut tomato, onion and jalapeño into large chunks. Toss in a food processor or blender with garlic and salt 

and process until smooth.

Mix tomato mixture with flax mixture and spread evenly over a teflex sheet lined dehydrator tray (or use parchment paper).

(I forgot to take a pic of this step with this flavor so don't mind the banana chunks in this picture. This is the Banana Bread Flax Cracker Recipe I'm working on.)

If you want your crackers thinner divide mixture between 1 1/2 trays.

Dehydrate mixture  at 110 degrees, if you have the option to set a temp, for 4-6 hours until you can pull the cracker (at this point it will be one solid piece) off the teflex sheet and put back on the dehydrator tray. The side that was down on the sheet will still be wet. Keep dehydrating for another 4-6 hours.

Break cracker into pieces and keep in a plastic bag or Tupperware until you eat them all!