not-so pumpkin cookies

Is it really that time of year? The leaves are turning and the lunch bags cross my counter every morning. The kids' backpacks are strewn throughout the house and school projects are the talk of the day.

I am tickled to be back in the brown bag lunch season, where I dig deeper for new ideas and recipes, and try to rally my boys to try new snacks, dips and sandwiches.

One recipe that I reach for each fall is our pumpkin cookies; though the irony is that they are made with cooked carrots: not pumpkin. Don't be fooled, though, even though carrots are front and center for these cookies, the kids will scarf them down. They are called pumpkin cookies for two reasons: 1. they are orange, and 2. you can decorate the tops of them to look like jack-o-lanterns.

With mini chocolate chips and ideally some kids to help decorate, these cookies look like small reminders of Halloween. Though I must confess, the last time I baked these I only made a few pumpkin faces; the rest of the cookies were adorned with mini-chocolate chips in a happy clump on top. Pumpkin faces or not: the kids gobbled them up in true goblin style.

Carrot Jack-o-lantern Cookies, or
Iced Carrot Cookies, or
Wannabe Pumpkin Cookies... what to call these?

1/2 cup butter (room temp)
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup mashed cooked carrots
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp lemon extract
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
topping: mini chocolate chips

icing
2 T orange juice
1 cup confectioners sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter and sugar; mix in egg, carrots, extracts. Blend flour, baking powder and salt; mix just until blended. Drop onto cookie sheet, bake 12-15 minutes (makes 15-18 ping pong ball size cookies). Meanwhile, whisk together orange juice and sugar to make icing. Let cookies cool, then ice and adorn with chocolate chips.