Fit Fare

When it comes to dessert, one of my oldest and dearest loves is pumpkin pie. I’ve been known to polish off whole pies in the past (sans the crust, who needs it?). Well, these days I try to avoid eating more than a slice at a time. Pumpkin still remains a foremost enjoyment of mine.

Upon hearing months ago that WellFed would be celebrating a week of harvest fun, pumpkin was a natural choice. Experimenting with food is exciting, so I scoured recipe sites, blogs and my own collection of cookbooks for something new to me. I spied soups and pies, muffins and pastas. But it was the chewy cookie recipe that struck my fancy.


Pumpkin is a gourd. The sugar variety is good for recipes like this one. One of the nice things about this recipe is that it’s lower in fat and calories. Plus, you can either use canned pumpkin puree or fresh, homemade puree. I chose to use organic canned puree just for the ease of it.

The results were fantastic - everyone raved. There were kids swiping them from the tray one after another too. That is always a good sign.

Pumpkin Cookies
yields 2-3 dozen

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 tbsp applesauce
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of a mixer, combine butter and brown sugar until creamed together. Add pumpkin, applesauce, egg, vanilla extract, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda and baking powder and mix well. Gradually add flour, mixing well.

Drop by the spoonful onto a baking sheet.

Cook in the oven for 10-15 minutes until slightly browned. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack.