I love penuche. Penuche is a fudge-like candy made from brown sugar, butter, milk, and sometimes vanilla. The unique flavor of penuche is due to the caramelization of the brown sugar.
I also love pumpkin fudge and pumpkin cookies. Sadly, most gluten-free pumpkin cookies are more like mini muffins rather than cookies because of the excessive water content of the pumpkin.
So I decided to combine both the penuche flavor and the pumpkin fudge flavor into a cookie than is truly a COOKIE, and not just a mini-muffin. And if you want even more penuche flavor, top the cookies with penuche icing. You won’t believe a gluten-free pumpkin cookie can taste this amazing!
See also: Diabetic Friendly Pumpkin Spiced Cookies, Vegan Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey Pumpkin Cookies with Optional Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey Icing, and Penuche Pumpkin Cookies with optional Penuche Icing.
The Inside Scoop
Measuring: When both volumetric and weight measures are provided, the volumetric measures should be considered approximations. The standard measure for a cup of sugar is 192 grams. By volume, this measure will be less than 1 cup. A food scale makes it easy to measure ingredients accurately.
Please note: My recipes are developed using My Gluten Free Flour Mix. Just as one cannot substitute whole wheat flour for cake flour, one should not expect to substitute my gluten free flour mix with other gluten-free flour mixes and expect to get the same result.
“I don’t see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one.” Linus. I grow my own pumpkins and cook them; that way, I can control how much water is left in the pumpkin. If you are using commercially canned pumpkin, you will probably need to drain off the excess water. Too much water in the pumpkin will make the cookies excessively cakey.
To drain the excess water from the pumpkin, fill a jelly bag with the prepared pumpkin and place the bag and bag holder over a bowl. Let the excess water drain off until the pumpkin is no longer watery. I often speed this along by gently squeezing the bag to remove most of the excess water.
If you do not have a jelly bag, line a sieve with several layers of cheesecloth. Place the pumpkin on the cheesecloth and let it drain until it is no longer watery and can hold a shape.
You Trying to Butter Me Up? To maximize flavor, I found I needed to brown the butter first. American butter is 18-19% water. When butter is browned, the water cooks out of the butter and the fat becomes more concentrated. The butter also develops a wonderful, nutty flavor.
To brown butter: Do NOT use a non-stick or dark colored skillet to brown the butter. It is essential to be able to determine the color of the butter as it browns. Once the butter melts and the water evaporates, browned milk particles will begin to appear on the bottom.
“Sugar, Sugar.” As soon as browned milk particles began to appear, I added the dark brown sugar. I found that when I used light brown sugar, the penuche flavor was too faint after it was added to the flour mix. Once the sugar is added, clip a candy thermometer to the saucepan, and let the sugar/butter mix cook to the caramel stage of 250 degrees. One can also use an instant read thermometer, or watch for when the sugar just begins to darken. It is important to stir the butter and sugar mix, especially around the edge of the saucepan, to avoid sugar sticking and burning onto the bottom of the saucepan.
Once the sugar mix reaches the caramel stage, remove the saucepan from the heat and immediately add the drained pumpkin. This will prevent the sugar mix from cooking further and will cook out more of the water from the pumpkin. This mix needs to cool to room temperature before adding the buttermilk and egg, to avoid cooking the egg.
Chill out! To quickly cool the sugar/ pumpkin mix, place the bottom of the saucepan in an ice water bath. To make the ice water bath, pour ice and water in a bowl or pan large enough to hold the bottom of the saucepan. Let the saucepan set in the ice water bath until the mixture cools to room temperature. Be sure to dry the bottom of the saucepan before adding the pumpkin/sugar mix to the flour mix.
Still Chillin’! Once the pumpkin/sugar mix and the flour mix have been combined, cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight until the cookie dough is firm. Gluten free flours need time to absorb moisture. Refrigerate your prepared cookie dough overnight or longer.
When you are ready to bake, line your baking sheets with parchment paper: This increases the likelihood that cookies are uniformly done on the bottom. Parchment paper also makes it easier to remove the cookies from the cookie tray after baking and it makes clean-up a snap- just throw the paper away!
Roll. Roll. Roll Your… To roll the cookie dough into balls, put a small amount of powdered sugar on a flat bowl or a plate. The cookie dough will probably still be sticky. Dust the palms of your hands with the powdered sugar to make it easier to roll out the balls of cookie dough.
Roll the dough into 1-ounce balls and place 2″ apart on a parchment -lined cookie sheet. Flatten the cookies slightly. This will make a more even bake and help remove more of the water in the pumpkin.
Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Or Am I Just Cheap? After all the cookies are baked, if you plan to ice the cookies, slip the parchment paper that was on the baking sheets under the cooling racks. No need to use up more parchment paper! And this will reduce clean-up time by catching icing drips.
To Ice or Not to Ice? That is the Question. These cookies have a wonderful penuche pumpkin flavor and chewy texture without any icing. However, if you want to bump up the penuche flavor even more, you can ice the cookies by either piping the icing on or dipping the top of the cookies into the icing. Also, the icing can be made with either light brown sugar or dark brown sugar. Although the penuche flavor is stronger with the dark brown sugar, the light brown sugar creates a beautiful contrast in color.
Please Note: The gluten-free cookies are lighter than the original cookies due to the buttermilk added to the gluten-free cookie dough.
The pumpkin should be thick and able to hold a shape. If your pumpkin is watery, line a sieve with cheesecloth and let the water drain out. OR: Place the pumpkin puree in a jelly bag and let the water drain out. Place the dark brown sugar in a small bowl; set aside. Once the water has drained, measure out 127 g./ 5/8 c. of pumpkin puree. Place the pumpkin puree in a small bowl; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together My Gluten Free Flour Mix, xanthan gum, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Make a well in the center of the flour; set aside. Have an electric hand mixer equipped with flat beaters ready to use. In a small, light-colored saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Cook over low heat until brown milk particles just begin to appear. Stir in the dark brown sugar. Clip a candy thermometer to the saucepan or have an instant-read thermometer at hand. Continue cooking over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the candy thermometer or an instant read thermometer reads 250 degrees. If a thermometer is not available, cook until the dark brown sugar just begins to darken. Remove from the heat. Immediately beat in the pumpkin puree until the mixture is smooth. Let mixture cool to room temperature. (See Note 2.) Once the mixture has cooled to room temperature, beat in the buttermilk and egg until smooth. Pour the penuche pumpkin mixture into the well in the flour mixture; fold until there is no dry flour. With the electric mixer on medium speed, beat the cookie dough for n2 minutes. Cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight. The Next Day: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. (Convection setting works well.) Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Measure out 28 g./ 1 ounce of cookie dough (about the size of a walnut) for each cookie. Roll the cookie dough into a ball and place on the prepared cookie sheet, placing cookies 2” apart; flatten slightly. (See Note 3.) Place the prepared cookie sheets in the oven and bake for 25 minutes, until cookies are firm to the touch. Once cookies are baked, place the cookie trays on cooling racks; cool for 1 minute. Remove the cookies from the cookie trays and place directly onto the cooling racks. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough until all cookie dough has been baked. Cool completely. If you plan to ice the cookies, remove the parchment paper from the cookie trays and place under the cooling racks to catch any icing drips. To Make the Optional Penuche Icing: In a small saucepan, cook the butter on low heat until the water cooks out and brown milk particles just begin to appear on the bottom. Stir in the light or dark brown sugar. Clip a candy thermometer to the saucepan or have an instant read thermometer nearby. Cook the browned butter and sugar on low heat until the thermometer reads 250 degrees or the sugar begins to darken. Stir frequently, scraping the bottom and sides of the saucepan to prevent the sugar from burning or sticking to the saucepan. Once the thermometer reads 250 degrees, remove the saucepan from the heat and immediately add 3 tablespoons milk. With an electric mixer, beat until smooth. Add the powdered sugar; stir by hand until no dry sugar remains. Then beat with an electric mixer until icing is smooth. Add additional milk, if needed, for desired consistency. If small particles of burnt sugar appear in the icing, pass the warm icing through a fine mesh sieve. If the icing begins to set before it has all been sieved, warm the icing slightly. Fill a piping bag with icing and the desired tip and pipe the icing onto the top of the cookies, letting drips fall onto the parchment paper below. OR: Dip the tops of the cookies into the icing and place the cookies on the cooling rack to cool, allowing the icing to drip onto the parchment paper. If the icing begins to set before you are done, warm the icing slightly. Enjoy! Note 1: Use 2- 2 ½ T. milk if piping the icing. Use 2 ½ - 3 T. milk if dipping the cookies into the icing. Note 2: To cool the pumpkin mixture quickly, place the bottom of the saucepan with the pumpkin mixture in an ice bath. To make an ice bath, place ice cubes and water into a bowl or pan large enough to hold the bottom of the saucepan. Let the pumpkin mixture cool until it is safe to touch. Be sure to wipe any water off the bottom of the saucepan before adding the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture. Note 3: The cookie dough may still be sticky even after chilling overnight. If so, place a small amount of powdered sugar onto a flat bowl or plate. Dip the palms of your hands into the powdered sugar to keep the dough from sticking to your hands and to make it easy to roll the dough into a ball.Gluten Free Penuche Pumpkin Cookies with Optional Penuche Icing
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Instructions
70 g./ 7 T. White Rice Flour
35 g./ 3 1/2 T. Brown Rice Flour
24 g./ 2 T. Potato Starch
15 g./ 2 T. Millet
11 g./ 1 1/2 T. Tapioca Flour
This equals 155 g. per 1 cup.
To make a large batch at once, I multiplied the above amounts by 8:
560 g./ 56 T. White Rice Flour
280 g./ 28 T. Brown Rice Flour
192 g./ 16 T. Potato Starch
120 g./ 16 T. Millet Flour
88 g./ 12 T. Tapioca
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