Food You Can Eat: Jack-O’-Lantern Cookies

First things first:  I have no idea why there is an apostrophe and two hyphens in Jack-O’-Lantern.  I thought for sure that it would be Jack O’Lantern, or, Jack-O-Lantern, or maybe even Jack-O’ Lantern, but not Jack-O’-Lantern.  But, as we all know, the Internet does not lie, so when I searched for the term I found that even the Merriam-Webster Dictionary lists it with the apostrophe and the two hyphens.  That’s the way it is.  It’s stupid, but that’s the way it is.

A caveat before we get started:  I asked Mrs. Butcher to help me with this recipe because no way would I be able to cut out the faces without them looking like an actual chainsaw murderer had tried to make them.  I thought she would do the standard triangle eyes and smiling mouth, but she got flummoxed by the oatmeal in the dough, so she went with circles cut with a cookie cutter and a metal straw. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

Filling:

1 Cup Canned Pumpkin

½ Cup Sugar

½ tsp. Cinnamon

½ tsp. Ginger

¼ tsp. Nutmeg

Cookie Dough:

2 Cups Flour

1 tsp. Salt

½ tsp. Baking Soda

½ Cup Brown Sugar

¾ Cup Shortening, softened

1 Egg

¼ Cup Molasses

1 Cup Rolled Oats

Mix pumpkin, sugar, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg together and set aside.

In a separate bowl sift together flour, salt and baking soda. Or, be kick-ass like me, and set it up in your sifter attachment.

In a separate bowl cream shortening while adding brown sugar slowly and beat until fluffy.  Add egg and molasses and beat well.

Add rolled oats, and flour mixture and mix well.

Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface until ⅛ inch thick.  Using a 2 ½ inch round cutter, cut out circles, kneading scraps together and rolling out again until all the dough is used.

Place half the circles on an ungreased cookie sheet and spread 1 teaspoon filling on each. 

Cut faces into the other half of the circles, lay over the top and seal the edges.  Cut stems from the scraps and place on top.

Bake in a 375-degree oven for 12-15 minutes. 

These cookies are…fine, I guess.  I’m not a fan of molasses so the flavor doesn’t give me the tingles like a good old fashioned chocolate chip cookie does, and I would probably up the filling amount to a tablespoon per cookie because the filling was quite good.  Either way, this is not a repeat recipe for me, but if you like eating molasses (and God have mercy on your soul if you do) then these cookies should fit the bill.