ARRRRRR…’TIS ALL HALLOWS’ EVE! If ye manage to escape the ghouls and goblins, might I recommend a bit of baking?  Halloween always marks the “official” start of fall for me, and the pumpkins everywhere…well, it’s time for these cookies. The recipe is from Susan Spicer’s cookbook, with adaptations, of course, to make it galley-friendly.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts.

First adaptation…definitely soften the butter…you’re going to be working by hand here. But you’re on a boat in fall and warm spots are scarce: put the sticks of butter in a bowl, cover them with the sugars and put the bowl on the back vent of the oven while you preheat it to 350 degrees.

Second adaptation: yeah, sifting dry ingredients onto parchment paper isn’t going to happen, and I’d just as soon not dirty another bowl for no reason. This 4-cup plastic measure is one of my favorite galley implements. Put the flour, spices, salt, and baking soda in and sort of muddle it with a whisk or fork.

Third adaptation: here, the recipe directs me to cream the butter and sugars thoroughly in a stand up mixer with paddle attachment. This is a galley…I AM the stand up mixer, and this paddle-esque wooden spoon is my paddle attachment. Work at it until there are no more butter globs like the last one above.

Add egg…blend thoroughly…

And cup of pumpkin puree, plus dry ingredients.

Mix thoroughly to combine, but not more. Over-mixing from here on out can make the cookies cardboardy. The batter will be pretty fluffy.

Add a cup of raisins and walnuts…

Mix well and drop by tablespoons on a greased cookie sheet. Sure, in a galley oven the cookie sheet holds like eight cookies at best. It’s a boat…everything takes three-times as long.

Bake 12 min at 350 until browning at the edges. Here the recipe tells you to cool them thoroughly and drizzle them with a glaze made of 1 cup powdered sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1 tablespoon water, but I find they don’t need it and it makes them soggy faster.

Happy Halloween! I shared this batch with our marina friends and they got high marks. I’ll expect comments from those scalleywags!