Gingerbread Cookies

Happy Wednesday, everybody! The work/school week is officially more than halfway over, and most certainly you are planning on having an "it's-the-second-weekend-of-the-fall-season" party, right? Hehe, okay, stretching it, I know. But, I must create these little holidays so I can continue with my baking addiction guilt-free :) In the proper spirit of  the Autumn season, I made something I've never even attempted before: Gingerbread Cookies. And by some blessing from the baking gods, I discovered a winning recipe on the first attempt! Seriously, (at the risk of sounding like I'm tooting my own horn) they're awesome. They're gone. Between four of us. In less than four hours. Yes, these are certainly something people will gobble down at your next get-together! They're soft and pillowy, melt-in-your-mouth cookies. Making vegan and gluten-free look sexy since September 2012. The recipe:

Ingredients:

2.5 cups quick-cooking oats, blended into a flour in a food processor or blender

1/2 cup (1 stick) vegan butter/margarine

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 cup Splenda, or sugar

1 teaspoon vinegar

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350.

On the stovetop in a saucepan over medium heat, melt the vegan butter and stir in the pumpkin puree and vinegar. Allow to come very close to a boil, and then whisk in the brown sugar. Stir constantly for 2 minutes, then remove mixture from the heat and set aside.

While the hot mix cools for a few, make a flour out of the oats by pulsing several times in a blender or food processor. Sift all dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl.

Pour the pumpkin-butter mixture over the dry ingredients, and stir everything together very well.

Grease a cookie sheet, and shape 12 large cookies onto the sheet. These puff up in the oven, so feel free to squash the dough down a little bit on the cookie sheet before baking.

Place cookies in the oven and set the timer for 15-17 minutes, until the tops have browned slightly and are firm to the touch.

Remove from oven, let cool for at least 5 minutes, and enjoy! If you share, everybody will want to be your friend :) Hehe...the power of baking...