Pumpkin Spice Cookies with Vanilla Chai Glaze... YUM YUM YUM

YOU GUYS. This recipe rocks. Because pumpkin is the best!!! and so is pumpkin spice. and chai spice is the same idea- cinnamon overload! combined... AWESOMENESS. The cookies taste more like scones because the pumpkin puree makes them so fluffy but they are so so so yummy. And only 79 calories per cookie and 21 for the dip of glaze! 100 total. LEGEN... wait for it... DARY. I got the recipe from here:

http://www.reclaimingprovincial.com/2011/10/31/chai-iced-pumpkin-cookies/

But I tweaked it a bit.



Cookies

2 ½ cups of all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp cloves
½ tsp salt
½ cup of butter (1 stick), softened
1 ½ cups of sugar
1 cup of pumpkin purée
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat your oven to 350°. 

2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt in a bowl and set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in pumpkin, egg, and vanilla until creamy, then mix in dry ingredients until well-combined.

4. Drop tablespoons of batter onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. 

5. Bake cookies for 15–20 minutes, or until they begin to have just a hint of golden brown around the edges. 

6. Remove from oven and cool complete before frosting.


I added a couple extra spoonfuls of pumpkin, because you know, it rules. :)

I also pressed the cookies with a flour covered fork for the second batch and it worked out a lot nicer because they don't flatten at all when they cook. I also made sure to coat my hands with flour before setting the dough in tablespoons on the sheet because it is VERY sticky. ;)

Icing!

2 cups of confectionery sugar
3 tbsp milk
1 tbsp melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 chai tea bag

1. Melt butter in a saucepan and add milk

2. REMOVE FROM STOVE

3. Steep chai tea bag in the liquid for 5 minutes, then discard.

4. Combine together with sugar, vanilla, and milk, and mix until a smooth icing forms.

For this I realize the recipe was HELLA wrong because the "glaze" was a chunky floury dry mess so i overcompensated by doubling the milk and half-doubling the butter and it got super liquidy so i had to add about 1.5 more cups of sugar... hence this GIANT bowl of leftovers....

Dip the cookies if you have a real sweet tooth, or drizzle the icing over top with a fork if you’d like to dial it back a little. 

The calories per cookie are 79 if you use these proportions and make 40 cookies, which is how many i made. They are smallish. The icing is 21 per cookie and based on these proportions with 40 servings, which is fairly accurate because I doubled the icing recipe and barely used even 1/4 of the frosting and I frosted about 2/3 of the cookies. :) ENJOY :)