Pumpkin-spice cookie

( Laurie Skrivan/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/MCT )

Annie's pumpkin-spice cookies with cream cheese frosting

Yield: 36 cookies

The pumpkin adds moistness to these soft, cakelike cookies, which will keep fresh for days although they never last longer than a couple of hours in our house. Premade cream cheese icing can substitute for the cream cheese icing recipe if short on time. Annie, 12, loves this recipe so much; she used it in a school project that shows how things are made from start to finish. -- Patrick Judd

For cookies:
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt

For frosting:
6 tablespoons (¾ stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups (1 pound) powdered sugar
2 to 4 tablespoons milk
Ground cinnamon, for dusting

1. Make the cookies. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large mixing bowl, beat granulated sugar and ½ cup butter until smooth. Beat in pumpkin, egg and 1 teaspoon vanilla.

3. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Add to butter-sugar mixture.

4. Drop cookies by spoonfuls onto parchment-covered or lightly greased cookie sheets. Bake 15 to 18 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly pressed with the end of a spatula. Let cool completely on wire racks.

5. Make the frosting. Combine 6 tablespoons butter, cream cheese and 1 teaspoon vanilla in a medium bowl; beat until fluffy. Add powdered sugar gradually, beating well. Beat in milk little at a time until frosting is spreadable.

6. Spread frosting on top of each cookie with a spatula or squeeze out of a pastry bag fitted with a star tip. Dust the frosting lightly with cinnamon.