I have fond childhood memories of baking chocolate chip cookies with my my mom and sister. When my sister and I saw our mom’s circa 1972 split pea green KitchenAid Stand Mixer come out, we knew we were in for a treat.
The process of helping my mom in the kitchen and being her little helper was almost as good as the cookies we’d bake together.
My dad always knew if my sister and I had been in the kitchen that day helping out as evidenced by the eggshells in his cookies, which we’d proudly present to him and that he’d never turn down. They simply added a delicious crunch.
As a helper, I learned early on not to crank the mixer to high speed immediately after adding the flour. A good way to make my mom mad was to spray her kitchen with flour.
The best part of cookie making came when adding the chocolate chips to the dough.
I’d always sneak a handful of chocolate chips that were supposed to make it into the cookie dough, but made it into my mouth instead.
With this cookie recipe, I wanted to embrace the classic chocolate chip cookie I grew up eating, but also incorporate everyone’s favorite fall ingredient: pumpkin.
Plenty of recipes exist for soft, cake-like, pumpkin whoopie pie cookies, but I wanted these cookies to have the traditional chewiness of a true chocolate chip cookie, but infused with pumpkin.
After testing and experimenting with so many recipes and creating everything from cakey, soft, pumpkin mounds to pumpkin-laced hockey pucks, I finally found the texture and flavor I was in search of with this recipe.
The resulting cookies are soft, tender, light and have just a touch of cakiness, but they are also chewy with some heartiness. Soft pumpkin cookie meets chewy chocolate chip cookie. The edges crisp up and the centers remain pillowy soft.
They’re packed with the warming flavors of fall, including cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, cloves, and a dash of molasses.
The chocolate chips pair nicely with the pumpkin and the flavors complement each other so well. Then again, chocolate pairs so well with most anything for me.
A few cook’s notes:
The dough is soft and a bit tacky to work with, courtesy of the pumpkin puree. Pumpkin does a beautiful job of tenderizing baked goods, but it makes the dough a bit sticky. Counteract the stickiness by chilling the dough before scooping it into balls. In my trials, I chilled the dough ranging from 90 minutes to 4 days. The longer the dough is chilled, the easier it is to work with.
Prior to baking, rolling a ball of dough through a cinnamon-sugar mixture not only creates a extra bonus of texture and flavor in the finished cookies, but it does double-duty by taking the edge off some of the dough’s stickiness.
I found the best cookies result from using 1 1/2 tablespoons of well-chilled dough, scooped using a cookie scoop, dredged through cinnamon-sugar, and flattened slightly before baking.
The cookies spread very little while baking and I recommend flattening the dough mounds slightly before baking otherwise the base will cook through and become too well done before the top sets.
The cookies keep beautifully, and paradoxically, get softer over time. The brown sugar and molasses attract moisture from the air so there’s little worry of them drying out.
Then again, I don’t think you’ll have too many extra cookies just lingering around.
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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about 3 dozen medium-sized cookies
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened (1 stick)
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 tablespoon unsulphered molasses (I use Grandma’s Original)
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, ground ginger, salt – all optional and to taste
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups Nestle Tollhouse Semi-Sweet Morsels
Cinnamon-Sugar Mixture, for rolling
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter, brown sugar, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, and beat on medium-high to high speed for 3 to 4 minutes to cream ingredients; stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the egg, vanilla, and beat on high speed for 3 to 4 minutes until mixture is light and fluffy. Add the pumpkin, unsulphered molasses (blackstrap molasses may be substituted but it’s bolder and more intense), 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, cloves, optional spices, salt, and mix until incorporated, about 1 minute. (All spices should be added to taste and use more or less, depending on how robustly-flavored you prefer your cookies. As written, the spices are nicely balanced and the cookies are of average intensity. Adding ginger, additional cinnamon or cloves, will give them a stronger punch and kick, rendering them more like a pumpkin-ginger-spice cookie)
Add the flour, baking soda, and mix until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips by hand. Dough will be thick and dense yet soft, and must be refrigerated and chilled before it’s suitable for scooping out and baking off. Cover mixing bowl with plastic wrap or transfer dough into an airtight container and refrigerate dough for at least 90 minutes, overnight, or up to four days.
Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare baking sheets by lining them with Silpat liners, parchment paper, or spray them with cooking spray; set aside. Make the Cinnamon-Sugar Mixture by combining 1/3 cup granulated sugar and 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon in a small bowl and stir to combine; set aside.
Form 1 1/2 tablespoon-sized balls of dough using a cookie scoop and dredge each ball through the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place balls on baking sheets; cookies spread very little and can be spaced about 2 inches apart on baking sheets. Flatten balls slightly before baking to ensure cookies cook through evenly. Bake for 12-13 minutes or until the edges near the bases of the cookies are golden and set, and tops have just set; cookies will continue to firm up as they cool. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheets for at least 10 minutes before moving them. Cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Cookies can be kept vegan by using vegan margarine such as Earth Balance and replacing the egg with a flax egg. Cookies can be made gluten-free by using a gluten-free flour blend such as Bob’s Red Mill.
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And now, onto the Giveaway portion of this post. You can enter to win:
a $200 gift card from Williams-Sonoma
and a KitchenAid Stand Mixer
Yes, one lucky person will win both.
The mixer is from the KitchenAid Custom Metallic® Series | Tilt-Head Stand Mixer | Flour Power™ Rating – 9 Cup
It’s a 5-Quart size with a 10-speed Solid State Control
It comes with a flat beater, wire whip, and dough hook
It retails for $649.95
I’m sure I don’t need to sell you on the benefits, workmanship, and high quality nature of a KitchenAid Stand Mixer or twist your arm to pick out $200 worth of items from Williams-Sonoma.
Although Tweets, Facebook mentions, or Pinterest Pins about this post are appreciated, they are not required for entry.
Simply answer the following question by leaving a comment below to enter the giveaway:
Please share a favorite baking memory. (Please be detailed and specific)
Contest ends Monday, October 8, 2012 and winner will be chosen randomly. Open to continental U.S. residents only. Complete contest rules can be found at the bottom of this page.
This post is sponsored by Nestlé® Toll House® Morsels, the perfect special ingredient for all of your family’s favorite treats!
When I was about 10, I thought I’d make cookies–I just dumped ALL the ingredients in the bowl and started the mixer up. Mom rescued the batter somehow and that was my first lesson in creaming butter and sugar together. Great looking cookies! I didn’t ever think pumpkin and chocolate would go together until I tried it a few years ago and I’m glad I did!
My favorite baking memory is definately watching my son Alex bake pies with my grandmother, and I’m pretty sure she would say that is one of hers as well!
I would love to win! one of my favorite baking memories is growing up with my mom when I was maybe 4. We would always offer to ‘help’ and then proceed to spill the flour, crush the eggshells into the mixer, and probably just make a mess all in the process of trying to learn how to make the devine cookies that she did. We were only allowed to lick the beaters if we helped. But it was fantastically fun, my mom was always patient and now I can make cookies myself…and always let my mom lick the beater.
Growing up my mother and two sisters would spend the week leading up to Christmas making two types of cookies! My favorite memories were rolling the cookies in sugar and gently flattening on the tray. My mother was always so patient and wonderful teacher! I am looking forward to having children to cook with in the kitchen and going to Grans to cook with as well!
Years ago when we first went vegan, I discovered the hard way there was a learning curve. The week our vegan lives began I was preparing for a family camping trip. I tried to make the things we usually enjoyed and pack them to go. After all, why should giving up meat and animal products change our life radically? So there was marinara sauce, vegan chili and …..oatmeal cookies. However, I had not yet tried to master vegan baking. So I was faithful to a recipe, thinking someone else had mastered it before me. I spooned the little darlings out of the bowl and onto the sheet. They weren’t quite mounded up like un-vegan cookies would be, but oh well, this was a new world. In the oven they went and when the timer went off, proud me, the woman who was determined our family wouldn’t suffer if they went along with my “veganness”, opened the door to find a solid sheet of …something. There wasn’t even a clue of where one “cookie” might begin and another end. With no time to spare now, when they cooled, I cut the pan like you would a pan of brownies and loaded the squares into a container. The next day, camped out, surrounded by nature, far from hope of a rescue supermarket, my family enjoyed the chili and said they couldn’t wait to see desert, that this vegan lifestyle thing wasn’t going to be so bad. I pulled out the “cookies” only to find that they had melded into some sort of soft oatmeal block. My husband, ever forgiving and flexible, said “Cool, spoon cookies”. Any time I made cookies after that, the question always was “Do we need a spoon?”
I had no idea that leaving pumpkin cookie dough in the fridge for up to 4 days was even kosher–thanks for the helpful handling tip! We almost *never* turned on the oven in our house when I was young, so it was really fun reading about your baking experiences. Almost makes me impatient to start my own household where the oven will be on 24/7, and lots of eggshells will make their way into our batter! (And not enough chocolate chips, probably.) Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe/story!
Every Thanksgiving and Christmas, my mom and I get up early to cook a ridiculously large meal for family. Inevitably, there are at least three pies, homemade rolls, one or more cakes…did I mention there are only four of us? We enjoy each other’s company, take our time, drink mimosas, and each put a lot of love into each dish.
My most meaningful baking memory was the first time I got to bake with my grandmother. Every christmas my family and I go down south for a family reunion. My grandmother makes her special red velvet cake (my absolute favorite dessert of all time!) and everyone looks forward to it. When I was five she let me into the kitchen and actually help her make the cake rather then just watch (which i loved doing anyway). Just being in the kitchen alone with my grandmother while she bakes is one of my all time favorite things to do because we are both so passionate about it and it is a wonerful bonding opportunity. That first red velvet cake that I made with her happened to be the best cake in my opinion. I look forward to every christmas for her red velvet cake and hope that she asks me to help make the cake with her :)
My favorite baking memory is a giant fail. I woke up at five to make a carrot cake for my Dad’s birthday. Everything was going smoothly until I pull the cake out of the oven and it’s a custard like mess. I looked over the recipe to see where I went wrong and found nothing. So I started over…same result. One more fail later and lots of wasted ingredients I realize my mom doesn’t label her dry mixes and the “flour” I had been using was powdered sugar. Oops…
My favorite baking memory is with my Mom and Grandma as a child. Every Christmas, we would all be in the kitchen decorating my Mom’s famous sand tart cookies with festive sprinkles. We would try and sneak eating some of the dough–it was so good! Then, we would place some of these cookies (and milk of course) by the fireplace for Santa. It was such a magical time spent with family, baking.
One of my favorite baking memories is in the kitchen with my mom…helping her bake sugar cookies and then frosting them with my sister. My mom would let us put all the sprinkles we wanted on those cookies, which I imagine was a lot! She never discouraged us though and it was her encouragement that has made me enjoy baking as much as I do today.
Thanks for the opportunity to win these items…both are items that would be greatly appreciated.
One of my favorite memories of baking is also one of my earliest and that would be using my Easy Bake Oven….my chance to ‘bake’ just like mommy. From every moment of mixing together the ingredients to spying on it while it to while (impatiently) waiting for it to cool so it could be decorated. That was truly my first step towards the baking world.
My mother was a wonderful, old-fashion cook. She had dinner ready every night at six o’clock sharp. I thought that everyone’s mom cooked three meals a day for their family. Little did I know, what a labor of love it was for her. However, mom did not “bake”. She told us that she tried to bake for one of our birthday’s when we were little and it was a traumatic disaster. It must have been, for never a baked item emerged from her over again. However, every year on our birthday, she picked up beautiful cupcakes from the top bakery in town, and brought them into our classroom, for all to share. It was very nice. Oh and so we were not totally deprived from the home baked experience, we got the slick and bake cookie dough from the grocery store. Awesome. I was allowed to eat the raw dough from each of the ends. Of course, I sliced the end super big. I still love the taste of that pre-made dough. Yum.
Those look SO good lol..I love ANYTHING with pumpkin in it! yumo! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Being from the South, my family always had big holiday get-togethers! I have many baking memories growing up..I think it’s what fueled my passion for baking….I especially love making fudge with my Aunt every Christmas(technically not baking I know lol). I also have vivid memories of baking cookies and other treats with my Mom growing up! (R.I.P.)
Actually, I still have THE very 1st ever recipe I got/made from her friend June…It was when I was 10. It is called “apple crunch” and it’s basically an apple cobbler..I still have it in my own handwriting lol…Thanks for helping me go down memory lane!
I have never been able to afford a nice Kitchen-Aid stand mixer, but it’s always been my dream to own one! Thanks SO much for the chance to win!!
ajoebloe(at)gmail(dot)com
wow, I’m lucky #1 haha..hope my # comes up:) I also love your blog btw!! Glad I found you!
one memory i will never forget is when I burned a whole batch of granola to a dark, dark, crisp. I cried I was so upset and my dad thought i was crazy. I had to throw it all out and did not make another batch right after because i was so mad. it is not a happy moment but i laugh looking back on it!
The first time I baked chocolate chip cookies without a recipe! I felt so accomplished, like I actually knew what I was doing!
I remember baking with my grandmother. She made the best cobblers. We would go out to the back yard and pick blackberries. Then we come in and wash them and make the dough. Roll it out and put it n a baking dish, She would then add sugar and butter and make a lattice top. It was always best warm right out of the oven topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. MMMMM!
My two younger sisters were making snickerdoodle cookies once. I’m not sure ow which one was measuring the lard for the recipe, but instead of 2 T of lard, she put in 2 C of lard! They were a little greasy to say the least! Now when someone in our family mentions ‘Larddoodles’, we all get a good laugh!
wow