Que pasa calabaza?

September 7, 2008 4:21 PM

I love ginger snaps. I love pumpkin. How can I make pumpkin snaps?

Most pumpkin cookies I have had are big and soft. I like thin and crisp cookies. For reference, my favorite cookies are ginger snaps or thinthinthin sugar cookies that are crisp around the edges.

Perhaps a ginger snap is close enough to the pumpkin-pie flavor, but I seem to have a finely-honed snap sensibility-- I want the rounder and more organic flavor of the pumpkin.

Any recipes or ideas?

posted by oflinkey to food & drink (9 comments total)

Pumpkin powder along with the powdered ginger?
posted by letourneau at 4:39 PM on September 7, 2008

Here's a breakdown of cookie techniques from Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen

For chewy cookies, add melted butter.
For thin, candy like cookies add sugar.
For cakey cookies, add more eggs
For a fine tight crumb add baking powder (vs baking soda for a more craggly top and loose crumb)

I'm lazy so I won't type up the explanations of why for each of these. But it sounds like you want less eggs in your pumpkin cookie. The biggest problem I think would be the moisture in canned pumpkin. For a pumpkin cheesecake recipe Cook's Illustrated called for spreading the pumpkin puree on several layers of paper towels to soak up a bunch of the liquid.
posted by O9scar at 5:06 PM on September 7, 2008 [2 favorites]

You might try drying the pumpkin, as shown here.
posted by maudlin at 5:39 PM on September 7, 2008 [1 favorite]

From Ms. Vegetable:

This may take some experimenting. You want to replace some of the shortening/butter/molasses/other liquids/fats with pumpkin puree. But not all of any one thing - I'd maybe halve each of those ingredients and replace them with pumpkin puree. The total volume of your gingersnap batter and your pumpkinsnap batter should be the same, and your goal should be roughly the same consistency, too. You also might want to increase the amount of dry ingredients in the batter - probably the sugar, spices, or both. I'd suggest chilling the dough thoroughly (preferably overnight) before baking. When you form the dough into balls, make sure they are pretty small - maybe an inch in diameter or so - and don't forget to roll them in something (sugar, cinnamon, other spices) before baking, as that adds more of the crackling/crisping to the cookies.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 5:44 PM on September 7, 2008

Thinking about it more:

1) A lot of the flavour of pumpkin, for most people, comes from the mixture of spices in pumpkin pie. Try pumping up the spice to trick the palate.

2) It looks as if a few people are selling cookies made with dried pumpkin (these guys, too). They aren't thin and crispy, but following O9scar's tips from Cook's Illustrated should steer you in the right direction.
posted by maudlin at 5:46 PM on September 7, 2008

Have you tried a gingersnap recipe minus a little ginger, plus some pumpkin pie spice? I haven't tried it, but I'd rather start with a gingersnap recipe than a pumpkin cookie one -- I've only found pumpkin cookies that are not just chewy, but downright cakey.
posted by booksandlibretti at 6:00 PM on September 7, 2008

Ginger and pumpkin go together really well - they are one of my favorite ice cream combos - so you may want to add pumpkin to a gingersnap recipe without subtracting out too much ginger.
posted by ikkyu2 at 7:09 PM on September 7, 2008

I'm wondering... what if you shaved some raw pumpkin, gave it a bit of a soak in some gingered water, and then tossed those into to your thin ginger snap recipe.

If that would not be sweet enough, you could add some brown sugar to the pumpkin shaving soak - the only problem would be exposed sugar in the pumpkin shavings burning.

Or what if you made a pumpkin puree, something like what would be in a pie, and made a cooke that was like a cookie with a melted Hershey kiss, but put a dab of the pumpkin goo in that dent? You would have a crisp cookie, with a soft spot in the middle.

Or not. Just thinking out loud. Could be wrong. These are half-assed ideas, not recipies.

You know what I do like, though: sliced pumpkin rubbed with ginger and baked on a greased baking sheet until a little sweat comes between the meat and the rind. If you are feeling fancy, drizzle a little brandy on it before you eat it.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 8:21 PM on September 7, 2008

Cook ordinary ginger snap cookies, and use them to scoop up pumpkin butter?
posted by BrotherCaine at 2:36 PM on October 6, 2008