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Tis’ the season for pumpkin everything. Don’t be fooled by all the fake-o flavors out there, most of the stuff doesn’t even have pumpkin in it! But rejoice, these do. And on top of that, they are layered with more fall flavors and happen to be vegan too! I don’t really aim to bake vegan, but these were a favorite cookie at the old coffee shop I worked at in college and they stood up to the chocolate chip heroes valiantly. I made some tweaks to the original and what came out was a super moist, cake-like and spicy cookie. Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients

• ¼ coconut oil (melted)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ½ cup chai concentrate
• ¼ cup almond milk
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• ½ tsp dried ginger
• 3 cups flour

Mix wet ingredients until well blended. In a separate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Mix the dry ingredients in stages until everything is incorporated.  Scoop onto a greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350° for 10-15 minutes or until tops rise and crack.  Cool and top with glaze.

GLAZE:

Mix until smooth:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp maple syrup flavor
• 1/2 Tbs almond milk
• 1/2 Tbs chai mix
• ½ tsp ginger

I think the cookies are great without the glaze so if you want to keep it simple, omit it, the cookies will still shine. If you do want to go for the glaze, you can play with the  amount of powdered sugar. If you want a glaze that will sort of crystalize and stay on top of the cookies, make it thicker (add more powdered sugar).

Good spices make all the difference! We use spices from our local Savory Spice shop. They are fresher, cheaper and the shop has a huge variety. The picture on the right is nutmeg before I grated it on the microplane. I didn’t like nutmeg until I had it fresh!