Pumpkin Raisin Bites

The recipe I used called these cookies, but nobody who tasted them agrees. The words "fluffs" and "puffs" were suggested, but one person pointed out that fluffs sounds like lint and I think puffs is too much like cream puffs or puff pastry - both things with a lot of air and these certainly leave no room for that. They are light and fluffy, but solid.

Don't tell the house, but I snuck something healthy into their diets for my Saturday treat-making duties. The other day I saw that there was a giant thing of pumpkin. And raisins. And many cans of evaporated milk. And whole wheat flour. I thought about pumpkin pie, but it's so much nicer to be able to grab something as you walk past instead of getting a plate. (And I ended up making crustless pumpkin pie a few days later so the pumpkin wouldn't go bad.) As I started looking for pumpkin raisin cookies, I came across one low-fat vegan recipe on many different sites. It looked good, but I doubted its ability to fly in a rather non-vegan environment. After the addition of fat and animal products, and replacing some of the wheat flour with white since I didn't have pastry flour, I thought I had a great recipe.

I mixed everything up and when it came out, they were super tasty. Not at all cookie-like. And not that sweet. Being a person who doesn't need super sweet, I was ok with that. I think they'd be a great treat just the way they are. I also know my audience, though, so I mixed up some glaze that I used on about 3/4 of them. Perfection! I think that the recipe should be really easy to play with - if you want to omit the butter, just use 1/2 cup skim milk. If you want to use soy milk, like the original, go for it. Prefer splenda? That's ok, too. Like any low-fat recipe, these are best eaten the same day or frozen.

Pumpkin Raisin Bites
Makes: 24 3-inch cookies Time: 35 minutes

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup pumpkin
1/4 cup skim milk
1/4 cup butter (unsalted preferred)
1 cup raisins (or use 1/2 and replace other 1/2 with nuts)
Spray oil

- Preheat oven to 350ºF and grease a baking sheet
- Place raisins in a small bowl and cover with HOT water to plump
- Mix dry ingredients (first 8) in a large bowl
- Add remaining ingredients, including raisins, and mix completely
- Drop by tablespoons onto greased baking sheet. They can be close together since the low butter content means they will hardly spread, if at all.
- Bake 15 minutes or until lightly browned
- Remove from sheet and let cool on a rack
- Eat like that, or add the glaze

For the glaze (optional):
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk (whole milk gives the thickest glaze, skim the thinnest)

- Mix powdered sugar and milk in a medium bowl
- Dip each bite, upside down, into the glaze. Dip only the top as the glaze will run down the sides on its own. The glaze will harden if you don't eat them all first.
- NOW you can eat it! :)

Nutrition info (1 bite, no glaze): Fat - 2.1g Calories - 94 Carbs - 18g Protein - 1.5g