Pumpkin Coookies with Brown Butter Icing... Oh my!

People up here assume that, being a southerner, I must LOVE Paula Deen. However, that's not really the case. It's not that I have anything against the woman, I just don't follow her show or make many of her recipes. If there is one woman in cooking that I truly adore, it would have to be Martha Stewart. Okay sure, she's had a couple oopsies, but her recipes are just FANTASTIC.

One of my favorite cookbooks is Martha Stewart's Cookies. Everything I've ever made from that book has been scrumptious. I had my eye on the recipe for pumpkin cookies with brown butter icing for years now, so when I decided to do a month of pumpkin recipes I knew I just had to make them!

 What you need for the cookies:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (I was lazy and used ground)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin (14 oz)
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg in a bowl.

Put butter and brown sugar in the bowl and beat on medium speed until pa.e and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in eggs. Reduce speed to low. Add pumpkin, evaporate milk, and vanilla; mix until well blended, about 2 minutes. Add flour mixture; mix until combined.

Transfer 1 1/2 cups batter to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 plain tip. Pipe 1 1/2 inch rounds onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Bake cookies about 12 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. They're done when the tops spring back. Cool on baking sheet for five minutes and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Note: I didn't have a pastry bag when I made these so I just used a gallon sized ziploc bag with the corner cut off. However, this batter was thin       enough that you might not even need to use a bag. It's up to you whether you decide to use one or not.

What you need for the icing:
4 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon evaporated milk, plus more if needed
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Put confectioners sugar in a bowl. Easy enough.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, swirling pan occasionally, until golden brown. Immediately add butter to confectioners sugar, scraping any browned bits from sides and bottom of pan.

Add evaporated milk and vanilla; stir until smooth.

Spread about 1 teaspoon icing onto each cooking. If icing stiffens (which it will), stir in a little more evaporated milk.

Ta da! These cookies are incredibly delicate and delicious. You can only store them in single layers (which is a bit of a pain considering this recipe made almost 50 cookies) and they need to be in an airtight container. However, these are well worth the trouble. They're not too sweet and they are almost like miniature cakes.

Good luck and happy baking!
Rosie

Source: Martha Stewart Cookies