Molasses Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

The weather's turned crisp and the leaves are growing crunchy, and while I'm no fan of the pumpkin spice craze, when I discovered frozen pumpkin in the freezer, I knew it was time for a batch of cookies. 

I found a recipe online, and then tweaked it by substituting molasses for some of the sugar, replacing a quarter of the flour with whole wheat, and pumping up the spice level. 

My beloved likes her cookies in the style of crisp English biscuits, but once in a while I indulge my predilection for the soft, cakey variety, and that's what you'll get with this recipe. The molasses provides an earthy fullness, the whole wheat offers a bit of texture, the chocolate introduces a melting quality, and you're left with a slight afternote of heat from the cayenne. A thoroughly satisfying, thoroughly fall treat.

Let me know if you like them!

INGREDIENTS

1 cup pumpkin puree

½ cup molasses

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup oil (canola or vegetable)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 large egg

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon all spice

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

½ cup whole wheat flour

1½ cups all purpose flour

½ to 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

Combine all ingredients except the flour and chocolate chips. When well mixed, add both types of flour and continue blending. When the flour has been incorporated, stir in the chocolate chips. 

Plop by tablespoon or a smallish cookie scoop onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Bake at 375 degrees until tester comes out clean; around 10 to 12 minutes, depending on cookie size.

Share Your Kitchen Memories

During this time of pandemic many of us are drawn to the comfort of the kitchen, with all it's scents and memories. As worry and fear threaten to consume us, it's more important than ever to remember happy times with loved ones, gathered around stoves and tables, sharing food, laughter, and love.

Cookbook Love has decided to celebrate the importance of kitchens and family by creating a book full of your memories. Send us a recipe with a picture and a short explanation of how the food fits into your story. We'll collect them and turn them into a book, dedicated to all of you, and to those you love.

We hope the process of sifting through your memories and recipes will be comforting as we all wait out the end of this season of isolation.

Click here to make a submission.

Pancake Races

Flipping flap jacks has never been so much fun!

Pancake races are a Shrove Tuesday tradition.

On Gingerbread and One Humped Camels

My how things have changed.

According to the Food Timeline, gingerbread has been around for centuries, but has shifted and changed with the times, as most things do. 

For example, in the 1930s it was credited with saving marriages.

All Alice had to do was buy a little black satin number and make the dessert her questionably devoted husband enjoyed as a boy in his plantation home. Whoosh! All lustful thoughts of Bonbon Betty Thornton fly out the window!

Here's another happy couple thanking Brer Rabbit for their marital bliss.

The creepy bunny seems to have pulled the kids in too.

Rabbits are not the only animals to be associated with molasses, and therefore, with gingerbread.

Enter the dromedary. 

And not just ANY one humped camel. This one is an angelic dromedary who talks to pictures of the mothers of dead presidents.

Good old George just can't resist Momma Washington's gingerbread.

Apparently Queen Elizabeth  liked gingerbread men, which eventually increased their popularity, and changed the recipe. This waving gingie interested me because of the mysterious holes in his hands:

Why does he have holes in his hands?

Gingerbread houses appeared on the scene after Hansel and Gretel were popularized. What child wouldn't love a book with a cover like this:

(Night terrors anyone?)

Here's a version that I might really try:

It's made from the real stuff rather than the cardboard slabs of "gingerbread" bought in a kit at Le Boutique Big Box. 

Humans could actually consume it.

And that brings us to today. Or at least, to 2006, when the world's largest gingerbread house was constructed.

I brought a plus-sized roll of Pillsbury Gingerbread Cookie dough the other day, with no plans for what to do with it. Maybe I'll create a mini replica. I think Brer Rabbit, the Dromedary, and the Doughboy would all be proud.

Magical Tricks with Flavor!

I just discovered a goldmine! The Minute Rice website offers a collection of vintage recipes, including this one, which I thought was appropriate given the holiday season:

Recipes on the ads include such beauties as Thrifty Drumstick Surprise (made with hamburger), Minute Rice and Tuna Treat, and Hot Diggity Stew.

Yes. I said it. Hot Diggity Stew. 

That's where the magic happens.

Spry! Best Wedding Gift Ever!

Spry Pure Vegetable Shortening did an amazing job with marketing during the mid 1930s through the mid 1950s. They created a character named Aunt Jenny who appeared in print advertisements and hosted a radio show/soap opera.

(In this case, I guess it would be called a shortening opera.)

DiDi found for me a trippy old recipe booklet called Aunt Jenny's Favorite Recipes which of course all demand Spry.

Check out the front cover:

That handsome fella with his arm around Jenny is the ever dashing DH Calvin. For some reason, he's not referred to as "Uncle", which makes me question the nature of their relationship.

The back cover is equally fun.

The book is filled with techniques and tips for the aspiring homemaker. The back cover tips you off that Jenny likes to help newlyweds.

Who wouldn't want a paper advertocookbooklet and an economy sized can of shortening as a wedding present!

Ain't Spry grand?

Valentine's Day Countdown! Heart Shaped Fish Croquettes

It's only a few weeks from Valentines Day, so there's no time like RIGHT NOW to start thinking about VD goodies! Especially all you wives out there.

Wilma said it best.

Apparently Pet Milk agreed that the fastest way to a man's heart was through his stomach, and so they published this booklet in the 1940s.

It was FREE if you can believe such a thing, and apparently contained recipes like this one:

"Love it? Of course he will! It's a man's idea of really good eating."

Check back soon for more Valentines Day meal ideas!