Food and Recipes

pumpkin molasses cookies

Growing up, almost every year my family traveled to Camilla, Ga., for our Thanksgiving family reunion. With more than 100 relatives in attendance each year, we had ample second and third cousins to entertain us as we swang on an ancient tire swing and played truly southern games of Kick the Can and Ain’t No Boogers Out Tonight. (Don’t ask me to explain!) Since most family reunions center around the food, it’s no wonder that the adults had cook-offs for the best Brunswick Stew and Caramel Cakes. My great grandmother, Granny Keadle, was famous for her Caramel Cake. And many a great uncle taught me how to slice my piece so that I got the largest amount of icing possible.

After a massive Thanksgiving potluck lunch of true Southern food, we went out to a sugar cane farm several years for an up-close look at how cane syrup was made. Each year, we walked away with a case of syrup, and out of those trips, a Thanksgiving homemade biscuit dinner was born. After all, we had to have something to sop up our syrup. One year, when I was in fifth grade, we took home a sugar cane pole and I asked my mom to come to my class and help explain the cane syrup process, and of course she brought a tray full of homemade biscuits so my classmates could sample the syrup.

This may seem like quite the introduction to a recipe for pumpkin molasses cookies. But, you see, molasses is a cousin to cane syrup, since it is also traditionally made from sugar cane. So when I bought a bottle of it last week and sampled it on my paleo pancakes, back flooded the memories of Thanksgiving and sugar cane fields in South Georgia. I only hope that I have deep memories like this to share with all future Hobsons.

On Friday night, James had planned a cookout at the gym after the workouts. Gym-goers have come to expect me to bring paleo treats to these cookouts, so I wanted to try my hand at something new. I settled on pumpkin molasses cookies and paleo cobbler. For the cobbler, I based mine off a recipe by Paleo Mama, except for the filling, I used peaches, raspberries and strawberries, maple syrup in place of honey and xanthan gum in place of tapioca starch. Others in attendance seemed to like the cobbler, but after one bite, I couldn’t eat any more. There was some sort of taste I can’t quite describe that repulsed me. Maybe it’s my pregnant tastebuds talking here, but I wasn’t very happy with the outcome. Not to Paleo Mama’s discredit though. After all, I changed up the recipe quite a bit.

Thankfully, I also tried my hand at a paleo version of this recipe for Pumpkin Molasses Cookies, and from all the feedback, they turned out splendidly–even if they were better suited for a fall cookout 🙂

Pumpkin Molasses Cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 cup coconut flour
  • 1/4 cup almond meal
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tbsp cinnamon
  • 3/4 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 can of pumpkin puree
  • 1/2 cup molasses
  • 1/3 cup coconut oil

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Add first 7 dry ingredients to mixing bowl.

3. In small mixing bowl, stir pumpkin, molasses and oil.

4. Fold wet mixture into dry mixture.

5. Roll dough into balls, place on baking tray use fork to mash down. You can use a crisscross pattern traditionally used for peanut butter cookies.

6. Bake roughly 10 minutes.

Though I forgot to take pictures, I served these with a dollop of icing on top. Simply blend 8 oz. of softened cream cheese with molasses and maple syrup. I’m not sure of the amounts, but add them slowly until you reach a smooth, but thick consistency with a caramel-like hue. I think this icing really made the cookies!

Copyright The Hobson Homestead 2010 at hobsonhomestead.blogspot.com
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Haley

I'm a full-time wife and semi-stay-at-home mom to four young kids. Day to day, I help my husband with his small business, but when I have any extra time, you can find me cooking or being active outdoors with my family. We live at the foothills of the North Georgia mountains and are embracing modern homesteading month by month.

1 Comment

  1. Loved those Thanksgiving reunions and biscuit suppers for 100+ relatives with cane syryp, grits and Stripling sausage – no finer times in all the world!

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