RECIPE: Pumpkin Spice Pillow Cookies
Pumpkin spice is everywhere these days, and with good reason--the warming spices combined with decadent sugar is the perfect complement to cooler weather. The problem is that many commercially produced pumpkin spice-flavored foods are artificially colored and flavored, something that many home gardeners prefer to avoid. But you can easily grow pumpkins (our Pumpkin Growing Guide is helpful with this) in the EarthBox® gardening system and preserve their sweet flesh for use in many recipes!
These fluffy Pumpkin Spice Pillow cookies are easy to make, delicious, and are so soft–just like little pillows! Just in time for the holidays–whip these up when you're expecting a crowd, participating in a cookie swap, or need something to bring to a party.
RECIPE: Pumpkin Spice Pillow Cookies
Makes approximately 5 dozen
What You'll Need:
Cookies:
- 4 sticks Butter, softened (2 cups)
- 2 cups Granulated sugar
- 2 tsp. Baking soda
- 2 tsp. Baking powder
- 1 tsp. Salt
- 1 tsp. Cinnamon
- 1 tsp. Nutmeg
- 1 tsp. Pumpkin pie spice
- 2 eggs
- 1 Tbsp. Vanilla extract
- 2 cups Pumpkin purée (or 15 oz. can - NOT pumpkin pie filling)
- 4 ¼ cups Flour
Frosting:
- 16 oz. Cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 stick Butter, softened (½ cup)
- 3 cups Confectioner’s sugar
- 1 Tbsp. Vanilla
- Milk
Topping:
- Pumpkin Pie Spice
- Pecan Halves (optional)
Let's Get Cooking:
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- In a small bowl combine: baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and nutmeg. Set dry ingredients aside.
- Using either a stand mixer or a large bowl with a hand mixer; beat butter and sugar together on medium speed until well incorporated. Sift in dry ingredients on low speed.
- Beat in eggs, vanilla, and pumpkin purée.
- Remove bowl from mixer. By hand, stir in flour and mix well.
- With a teaspoon, drop dough in small heaps on ungreased cookie sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Do not overcrowd the cookie sheet, as cookies may spread when baking.
- Bake 11 minutes, and transfer cookies to a wire cooling rack.
- Using either a stand mixer or a medium bowl with a hand mixer; combine cream cheese, butter, and vanilla. Beat on medium-high speed, gradually adding in sugar. Add milk 1 tablespoon at a time until frosting is desired consistency. For a glaze add more milk, for a spreadable frosting add less milk.
- Spread frosting over top of each cookie, or drizzle with glaze. Sprinkle with pumpkin pie spice. If desired, place a pecan half in the middle of each cookie.
- Let frosting or glaze set overnight before storing in a tin. Place wax paper or parchment paper between layers when storing.
Enjoy!
If I plant a blueberry bush in the Root and Veg Earthbox, what is the method and schedule to replenish fertilizer? What about replacing the plastic cap as it inevitably wears out? How would one do this without disturbing the plant too much or making a huge hole in the next plastic cap to fit down over the bush?
I’d love to also know the same for planting blackberry bushes in the EarthBox Original?
You'd follow our instructions for the initial set up, except do not add dolomite to the blueberry bush. When you have to replace the cover, the only way for these plants is to create a big hole in the cover and then tape it back up after you have it in place. We'd recommend adding another pound of our 7-7-7 fertilizer (or another equivalent, slow-release fertilizer) every 3-4 months. That generally lasts 1 growing season, which for the majority of crops grown in the EarthBox is no more than 120 days. Blueberries and blackberries are one of the few perennials that can be successfully grown in the EarthBox.
Which size is best for blueberries the orginal size? Or the deep root n veggie size?
Can nursery recommended acidic soil/ Azelia soil be used in earthboxes for blueberries?
You can grow blueberries in either of those EarthBox sizes, though we recommend the Root & Veg since its depth is more conducive to the plant. You can forgo using dolomite with blueberries, but ensure the pH is somewhere between 4.5-5.5. We still recommend following our growing media recommendations listed here: https://earthbox.com/learning-center/recommended-growing-media
I have my SEASCAPE Day-neutral strawberry seeds in hand. These will be planted indoors, in a grow tent, under LED quantum panels in the EarthBox. I have never planted strawberries of any kind, so Im eager to get this party started. Will provide updates. Too bad we can't attach pics.
~Kbore
NEWS FLASH from Kbore about Seascape seeds: Hybrid strawberry seeds are NOT true to the variety, if they sprout at all. I may have seascape seeds in hand (rip-off) but they will not produce the same plant as the seed donor. To grow the true variety, you must have live/ dormant plant starts from that variety.
On the subject of plant starts, it's too hot to ship live plants in the middle of July (in Zone 6A where I live), so don't expect to buy strawberry seedlings mail-order: It's not going to happen.
Looks like mid-September-ish for me. As the late Tom Petty wrote: " Waiting is the hardest part".
~Kbore