The Epic Tale Of The Pumpkin Ball

OK, so, it's not really epic. But I did promise it back in my second post so I figured I'd follow through now.

Once upon a time, I was at the grocery store looking for cake and bread mixes. I came across Pilsbury Pumpkin Bread mix. Nothing spectacular but I grabbed a box anyway. Little did I know that box would become a staple in my holiday baking for years.

On the side of the box was a recipe for Pumpkin, Ginger, Raisin cookies. I had no desire for anything "chewy" in my cookies so I omitted the ginger and raisins but I mixed in cinnamon, ginger powder. I mixed the dough and rolled it into balls. Each ball was rolled in a mixture of cinnamon, ginger powder and sugar. Baked them and ended up with these domed dense bread-y balls.

One of the best cookies I'd ever eaten. So I went a little crazy and bought a ton of bread mix and made these cookies for everyone I knew for the holidays. I was a student at the time and baking seemed the better way to go for holiday gifts.

For the next few years, every holiday season I would clean out several grocery stores of their pumpkin bread mixes and set to work giving everyone on my list tons of pumpkin balls. There was the year I got "creative" and hand painted the baggies that the cookies went into. That happened once. I realized I have neither the artistic talent, nor the space, nor the time to do that ever again. That was just a huge mess.

At any rate, my holiday cookie baskets changed and evolved and the pumpkin ball was made obsolete. I still make them on occassion for my mother-in-law who enjoys them, but I don't make them for the baskets or as my go-to dessert. I still have a soft spot for these pumpkin-y balls of yumminess.

Fast forward to Friday, January 15. I'm puttering around the kitchen wanting to bake but not really wanting to try anything new - what? It was late! - so I pull out a box of pumpkin bread mix and get to work.

One problem. I had forgotten the recipe. Yes, even using boxed mix, there is a recipe. So I made the bread batter recipe. And added flour. A quarter cup at a time, I ended up adding about a cup of flour to thicken up the batter. Even then, I couldn't roll it. It bacame more of a drop cookie as opposed to the normal rolled cookie that I knew. I figured, what the heck? Try and see what happens. Worst case scenario - they look bad.

I sprinkled the dopped cookies with a mix of sugar, cinnamon, and ginger powder and baked them until they were done. They turned out really tasty. I haven't done it yet, but I'm betting some cream cheese icing sandwiched between 2 cookies would be out of this world.

Here is what you need for pumpkin balls:

Add an egg and 1 stick of butter melted and you're set to make the dough.

Add in some cinnamon and powdered ginger to the dough.

In a separate bowl, mix sugar, powdered ginger and cinnamon. This is for rolling the balls in.

The following picture is from my "mistake" cookies (where I made the bread batter and added flour). I have no pictures of "real" pumpkin balls.

Recipe for the "real" pumpkin balls:

1 box Pilsbury Quick Bread Pumpkin mix

1 egg

1/2 cup butter - melted

cinnamon

powdered ginger

sugar

In a small bowl, mix powdered ginger, cinnamon and sugar. Set aside.

In a large bowl mix the bread mix with the egg and butter. Add cinnamon and ginger powder to taste.

Roll the dough into small balls and roll the balls in the sugar/cinnamon/ginger powder mixture. Set on a cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 12 minutes or until the cookies have puffed up and gotten slightly brown. You don't want to burn these.

Let cool and enjoy. Cream cheese frosting is a good addition or a nice powdered sugar glaze would be good as well.

And they all lived happily ever after.

FatCat