Orange and White Pumpkin Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 2 ½ sticks (1 ¼ cups) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 3 tablespoons molasses
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cups canned pure pumpkin
- ½ cup buttermilk, well shaken
- 2 recipes Chef Gail’s Easiest Vanilla Buttercream Ever, one dyed orange and the other left white
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, spices, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together molasses, vanilla, pumpkin, and buttermilk. Set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy.
- On low speed, add one egg at a time to the butter mixture, incorporating each egg before adding another.
- On low speed, add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture, and blend well. Add ½ of the liquid ingredients, and blend well.
- Add another 1/3 of the dry ingredients, followed by the remaining liquid ingredients, and blend well.
- Add the remaining dry ingredients, and blend until combined.
- Line 2 large sheet pans with parchment paper and using a small ice cream scoop (approximately ½ ounce), drop scoopfuls of dough onto the lined sheet pans, spacing 2 inches apart.
- Bake cookies for approximately 13-15 minutes or until a small sharp knife inserted into the middle of a cookie comes out clean. Repeat scooping dough and baking off cookies.
- Place cooled cookies on a sheet pan lined with wax paper and set aside.
- Cut a ½ inch opening in two pastry bags: fill one of the pastry bags with the orange buttercream and fill the other pastry bag with white buttercream. Secure the top of each pastry bag with a twist tie.
- Place both pastry bags, side by side, into a third pastry bag fitted with a large star tip. Decorate each cookie with swirls of frosting. If one color comes out alone first, don’t worry – they will both come out together eventually as swirls, as you keep frosting.
Notes
Makes approximately 4 dozen