pumpkin snickerdoodles

i had an American girl doll growing up. her name was Kirsten. with each doll, you could purchase outfits, furniture, books, and cookbooks. while i was making these cookies a childhood memory came flooding back to me. now, i'm not like most girls- i don't have a bunch of memories of baking with my mom or helping in the kitchen. although i'm sure i did it more than i remember, i was mostly and still am very independent. but i specifically remembered this- its funny how a scent can do that to you-- i had gotten kirsten's cookbook and there was a recipe in there for ginger snaps or snickerdoodles one of the two. regardless, it called for cinnamon and i'm sure it called for pumpkin pie spice, no doubt and until i started making these did i remember making those with my mom. i smiled at the thought. comforting, really.

i never ate baby food as a baby- seriously did not. i wanted what my big brother was having: REAL FOOD not mashed up peas and turkey. blech. pumpkin puree reminds me of baby food. i almost gagged. i had never cooked with it before nor had i ever helped mom or grandma make a pumpkin pie. so i was unaware of what the pumpkin puree looked like pre-baking. BARF. but man does it taste great baked!!!

okay, enough reminiscing about my childhood....

let's talk about what i've learned recently: splenda, while it may be sweeter tasting, is not necessarily a good sugar substitute when it comes to baking. so, my friends, i no longer bake with splenda. its strictly for coffee. there's something about the moisture of sugar that makes baking with it easier than baking with splenda. this was the first time i have baked since learning this and guess what? i'm sold. love me some sugar!!

the same blog that i got the cookie oreo brownie bars from is where i got this recipe from. and i pinned it to pinterest for her. anyway here's her blog ...

you can follow her recipe pretty well, i didn't make any changes, except well, there was one thing ....

the last ingredient calls for 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice for rolling. well....ya see...i added that to the dry ingredients so the dry ingredients had an extra 1/2 cup of sugar and 1tsp of pumpkin pie spice ... i tasted the batter before i started rolling the balls and it did not taste overwhelmingly sweet. in fact, i think i'll do that every time. hahaha! i added the dry ingredients to the pumpkin puree, vanilla, egg, sugars, and butter in sections. i felt like it was easier to work with.

when it came time to roll the dough, i pulled out a small bowl and put 1/2 cup of sugar and 1tsp of pumpkin pie spice to roll the balls in...like she had originally said ... and like i said, it doesn't make it taste much sweeter, i don't think. its not too sweet. definitely does not take away from the pumpkin taste, which is all i'm after.

it makes about 5 dozen. i think i ended up with 58? i'm not very good at making every cookie the same size. hahaha, but hey! that way you can have a bunch of little ones instead of 2 big ones :)

she said hers baked in 12 minutes... i was expecting mine to be done in 10 because i have a mega oven. seriously, it needs to be calibrated ... but for whatever reason, these were ready at about 13 and a half minutes...

SO YUM! and i'm VERY ready for fall and i'm going to enjoy going to sleep tonight to a pumpkin spice smelling house.

my pumpkin scentsy warmer is warming pumpkin roll and my kitchen smells of baked pumpkin spices. I LOVE FALL.

now if only the weather would make my dreams come true ....

yours truly,
dauphin gal