Pumpkin is one of my favourite ingredients in cooking or baking. I’m not really a great fan of pumpkin, but I’m trying to sneak it into my kids’ diet as much as possible

After all, pumpkin is known as a ‘wonder veggie’. It’s high in fiber, and is a good source of minerals including potassium, manganese and copper as well as vitamins A, B (riboflavin) and C.

Like most kids, mine don’t like pumpkin. Being creative with food really goes a long way in helping to add pumpkin to their diet. In this case, I’m adding pumpkin into a cookie recipe that’s already chocked full of healthy ingredients such as dried apricots, wholemeal flour and pumpkin seeds (more pumpkin goodness!).

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Chill batter for another 30 minutes
Shape cutting: 30 minutes
Baking time: 15-20 minutes
Makes 40 cookies

Ingredients:
100g butter (room temperature)
50g caster sugar
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp honey, extra for finishing gloss
1 large egg (beaten)

100g flour (sifted), extra for dusting
150g wholemeal flour
1 tbsp rolled oat
60g ground almonds
100g pumpkin (steamed with a pinch of salt & 1/8tsp sugar, then mashed)

1 tbsp ground cinnamon
80g dried apricot, chopped
30g pumpkin seeds

How to:
1. Beat the softened butter with the sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy.

2. Warm the maple syrup and honey till runny. I heat them in the microwave for about 10-15 sec.

3. Add mixture of maple syrup and honey to the butter sugar mixture. Add in egg and beat well.

4. Add in the flour, rolled oats, ground almonds, mashed pumpkin, and mix well.

5. Lastly add in ground cinnamon, dried apricot and pumpkin seeds.

6. Flour your hand and mix into a firm dough.

7. Wrap in clingfilm or aluminium foil and chill for 30 minutes.

8. Preheat your oven to 180C/350F.

9. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to less than 1cm/1/2inch. Not too thick, as it may take longer to bake.

10. I used WhipNWhisk.com’s supercute 3D mini animal-shaped cookie cutter to cut the batter – making these almost too-cute-to-eat cookies!

11. Brush with a little honey (microwave your honey for about 10 seconds to make it runny and easier to brush) and place them on glazed baking paper.

*Or you may do this step when your cookies are half baked, at about 10th minute, then place them back into the oven. So your cookies surface would not over burnt.

12. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes till golden.

13. Place them on a wire rack to cool.

These cookies are meant to have a soft texture.

My daughter just loved helping me cut the cookies using the easy-to-use 3D mini cookie cutters! It was a fun mother-daughter activity and we had many happy baking memories

Recipe by SC