Paleo-ish Pumpkin Breakfast Cookies

Well…Thanksgiving has come and gone, leaving behind bittersweet feelings of being completely in love with Fall’s colourful foliage as it grabs the soft light pouring over the horizon, yet dreading the impending seemingly unrelenting slush and ridiculously sub-zero temperatures of Winter.  It doesn’t help that I’m also in school, which means that midterms are about to start (hence the slightly later post this week), and that final projects, assignments, presentations and more exams will follow before I can bring my head up for air.  Thankfully,  I’ll have the best holiday of the year (*cough* Christmas) to keep me motivated…I hope.

In the mean time, I hope all you Canadians had a lovely Thanksgiving and that all you Americans had a lovely Columbus Day long weekend.  For those of you who didn’t watch my Instagram page over the weekend, I had an absolute blast.  I got to see my boyfriend for the first time in over a month (long distance sucks), eat tasty tasty food, play in my Mum’s kitchen, and I got 40 WHOLE minutes to JUST sit on the couch (also for the first time in over a month).  I even played with Instagram stories for the first time and (I think) posted a series of videos of my Mum and brother assembling our Pumpkin Ravioli for dinner (more on THAT below).

I’m a lucky soul in that I got to spend a good part of my weekend in Niagara-on-the-Lake taking in the beautiful reddish-pink sunsets, as well as the clean air and soft morning light streaming in through the windows.

My Mum made her classic Thanksgiving dinner that I raved about last week in my deliciously decadent Sour Cherry Cranberry Sauce post.  In that post, I told you all about the turkey with madeira cream sauce, the stuffing with sausages and madeira-soaked prunes, the potatoes with unknown amounts of butter and leeks in it, and the three different cranberry sauces.

What I forgot to tell you about (and it was a HUGE oversight on my part) was her Pumpkin Ravioli.  Pulled straight from the Saveur Italian Cookbook, the clincher of this recipe is the pumpkin puree with sage, prosciutto, (LOTS of) parmesan cheese, and just enough red chili flakes to give each bite a bit of pep.  All of this is then slathered between two sheets of freshly made pasta, and topped with brown butter sauce and crispy sage.  It’s pretty much THE BEST pasta recipe on the planet.  Soooo good, and sooo worth the dose of Benadryl I took that night to avoid the itchies.

And, as if that wasn’t enough, the next day, my entire family packed itself into two cars and drove 3 hours to get to Northern-ish Ontario for some more classic Fall colours, crisp air, and chilly breezes that make you want to nuzzle into a chunky sweater on a couch and clasp your favourite seasonal hot beverage to your chest for warmth.

Now…while I would like to say that we drove all that way for the picturesque sunset, we really went there for turkey and honestly, some of my favourite stuffing ever.  You see…we were visiting my Dad’s friends’ who we will call Penny and Paulo, or P&P for short.  Both artists (the crazy-fun kind of artists), their house is always an adventure to visit.  Following the ‘birds of a feather principle’, P&P always invite completely off-the-wall family members and guests who dredge up hilarious stories and dirty jokes that leave everyone in stitches.  (The alcohol helps too.)  I will never forget the year where there were so many guests at this party, Paulo had to pull the turkey (which was nearly half his size) out of the oven, and waddle it to the wood shop in a wheelbarrow for carving!

There is also always something to look at on their walls.  At one point, they had lime green in one half of the kitchen and cobalt blue and bright red in the other half.  If you look at their walls and shelves, you’ll see anything from Dawn of the Dead figurines, dolls’ eyeballs, and nude photos of the artists themselves to narwhale tusks, antique hunting rifles, Native American art and taxidermied squirrels in sombreros.  Not kidding.

Penny is also the best because she knows how much I love her butter tarts (and butter tarts in general).  This year, she didn’t disappoint, pulling a HUGE tupperware (I actually think it was one of those clear storage bins for children’s toys) FILLED with butter tarts.  Runny, maple-coconut-and-walnut-filled and surrounded by a flaky lard-based crust. I was a pretty happy camper.  And, as I was taking Benadryl that night anyway, I didn’t think twice about eating more than one.  It’s only once a year, right?

The other thing I did over the holiday, and this is the part where you all come in, is that while I had access to my Mum’s fairly-newly renovated kitchen and had my Dad around to provide his artists’ opinion/be my minion at 8 am while I took pictures, I took the time to work on a recipe idea that had been bouncing around in my head for a few weeks…Pumpkin Breakfast Cookies!!!  It took a couple of iterations, but I finally got the texture, sweetness, and flavour worked out, and greatly appreciate that there were plenty of folks running around my parents’ place to be able to provide feedback.  In other words, this recipe has been taste-tested by more mouths than my own!

So without further ado, and presented to you from my mother’s kitchen and the harvest table that my Dad and brother built for our back patio, I bring you Paleo-ish Pumpkin Breakfast Cookies!!!!

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Now, time for some tips and tricks!

• Thankfully, this is yet another ‘add ‘n’ stir’ recipe, so it’s super easy to make.  That being said, the first thing I want to say is that you should definitely get a real pumpkin and bake it (unless you’re like my Mum and already have a good portion of your freezer dedicated to storing pumpkin puree).  Pumpkin puree in a can just does not taste right. I honestly think it reacts with the tin; not so much that it would harm you, but enough that it changes the taste.  Also, if you can, try to get your hands on a Cinderella pumpkin.  Named as such because they legit look like slightly flattened versions of the pumpkin that Cinderella rode to the ball in, they have a really lovely flavour and texture for baking.  You wouldn’t find them at your average supermarket though.  They are definitely something you would have to scour a farmer’s market for.  If you’re in TO, hit up Willis at the St. Lawrence market.  That man has every pumpkin and gourd under the sun!  But you have to go to the Farmer’s market on Saturdays, not the regular market.  When you get there, just look for the stack of gourds.  That will be Willis’ stand.  If you can’t find a Cinderella pumpkin, a standard cooking pumpkin will do the trick and will always be better than pumpkin from a can.
• Also, make sure that you re-hydrate the currants.  If you don’t, they will soak up the moisture from the cookie after a day or two and your cookie won’t be AS moist.
• Now…again, this recipe is Paleo-ish in that I use oats, but otherwise use paleo ingredients.  As I’ve mentioned before, I eat a lot of oats because if I didn’t, my activity levels would require that I eat an inhuman amount of bananas or sweet potatoes to get the carbs that I need.  If you’re strict strict paleo, this may not be the recipe for you.  If you generally eat paleo to avoid gluten, then I have good news for you!  As I’ve mentioned several times between my Chocolate Chip Cookie, Blueberry Oatmeal Waffle and Maple Walnut Granola recipes, oats, on their own are gluten free.  Where they can get a bad rap is the fact that they’re often grown beside wheat fields and can be contaminated with gluten. Therefore, if you’re REALLY sensitive to gluten, I would recommend getting certified gluten free oats such as: Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Rolled Oats or Only Oats Pure Whole Grain Rolled Oats.
• When it comes to oat flour, you have two options.  You can just grab some of your normal oats and run them through the blender until they’re as fine as flour.  Or, you can buy oat flours such as Only Oats Pure Whole Grain Oat Flour or Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Whole Grain Oat Flour.
• Still somewhat on the note of these cookies being Paleo-ish, some die-hard folks would tell you that molasses, originating from the sugar cane plant, is not paleo.  However, the reason sugar gets a bad rap nutrition-wise is because of its glycemic index (i.e. how much it spikes your blood sugar and therefore stresses your pancreas).  Molasses has a lower glycemic index than honey, which IS considered paleo.  I therefore personally include it in my list of paleo sweeteners, and I’ve definitely seen other Paleo bakers use it too.  Ultimately, whether you use it or not, it’s up to you.  The cookies taste WAY better with the molasses, but the 1 tbsp of molasses can be replaced by honey if you would like.
• Now…the question of whether to use a Silpat, parchment paper, or greased baking sheet for this recipe is completely up to you.  I used a greased baking sheet at my Mums and they turned out great.   If you’re gung ho about trying a Silpat though, and were looking for an excuse to get one, be my guest!
• Finally, I’ve played around with adding unflavoured protein to this recipe to make it a more complete meal, but considering protein powder gets de-natured when it’s baked, I decided against it in the end.  It wrecks the texture and the de-natured protein isn’t absorbed as well by your body, so I figure it’s a lose-lose situation, and would rather have a breakfast sausage on the side or something.  If you DO want to add protein powder, I wouldn’t add more than 1 scoop and if you do add it, you’ll probably need a bit more coconut oil to keep some hydration in the cookie after you bake it.

Ok…that’s it for this week folks!  I am planning my recipe for next week as we sit here, but I can’t guarantee when it will be posted as I’m entering midterm hell.  I will post it next week though, so stay tuned!!!!  I will be making my first foray into Asian tastiness on the blog!  Woot woot!

If you have any questions about the recipe, or would like to leave a comment, you can do so below or by contacting me through my Contact page!

Happy baking!

Ciao!