Pumpkin Oat Cookies (Low Sugar, Low Fat)

Meet the inspiration for today's post:

In August I was lucky enough to win this beauty from Rachel Cooks through a giveaway she ran on her blog.  Since then I have been obsessed with using it!  Combine that with my current pumpkin fixation and you get cookies!! :)

Earlier today I was browsing my addiction, massive time suck, favorite place on the internet Pinterest looking for a good, healthy pumpkin cookie recipe and could not find anything that spoke to me.  So instead I decided to try my own.

You start with placing all your wet ingredients (pumpkin, honey, almond extract, egg) in a bowl and mixing well.

Then you mix all your dry ingredients in a bowl (oats, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, salt, baking powder, baking soda.)

Then place the wet ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer, followed by gradually adding the dry ingredients and mixing until you get something that looks like this.

Now I know it doesn't look like much right now, but trust me it tastes delicious!!

At this point you get to have a little fun, it's time for the mix ins!  I used 1/4c chopped pecans and 1/4c shredded unsweetened coconut, but you can use just about anything.  Some things I plan to try in the future are dried cranberries, raisin, pumpkin seeds, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and almonds...that's all I can come up with right now :)

Next my little helper and I used our cookie scoop to place balls of dough on the baking sheet.  One thing to note at this point is that since there is no butter or oil in the cookies they will not spread when baking.  What means is they will come out of the oven looking exactly the same as the do going in, so if you want a flat cookie you need to flatten them a bit with a spoon before you bake them.

Then you bake and enjoy!  These smelled so good my sous chef was eating them hot off the baking sheet (he wears the shades to keep his star status in check haha)

I am having a hard time not eating them all myself!

Hope you like them as much as we do!  Happy Eating! :)


Pumpkin Oat Cookies (low fat, low sugar)

Ingredients:
2c oats
1c white whole wheat flour
1tsp baking soda
1tsp baking powder
1tsp cinnamon
.5tsp ground cloves
.5tsp ground ginger
.5tsp ground nutmeg
.5tsp salt

2c pumpkin puree (I used fresh, but canned will work just don't use pumpkin pie mix)
.25c honey
1 egg
1tsp almond extract

Mix-ins: .25c chopped pecans, .25c shredded unsweetened coconut. other mix-ins of your choice

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Mix the first 9 ingredients in a bowl.
Mix the next 4 ingredients in a separate bowl.
Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer.
Gradually add in the dry ingredients to the bowl of the mixer while mixing on low speed.
Once thoroughly mixed, add you mix-ins.  Then mix on low speed for an additional 30 seconds.
Scoop the dough onto a baking sheet (flatten the dough if you want flat cookies, it won't spread while baking!)
Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Makes ~24 cookies.

*Notes: These cookies are soft and chewy, not crunchy.  Because there is not butter or oil they will not get crispy no matter how long you bake them.  If you want a crunchy cookie you can try cutting out .5c of pumpkin and adding in .5c of a fat such as coconut oil or butter to add a bit of crunch to the cookie.


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