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!
The baking memory is of my now 9 yr old niece and I making zucchini bread together when she was a bout 2 1/2 or three. She loved the stuff and he mother(my sister) asked me to make it with her. We spend all day together. She saw how I used her mother’s food processor to shred up the zucchini and her mixer to blend the ingredients. SHe really got into it because she was the one who made sure that the three bread pans were greased and that there was enough raisins in the batter. SHe loves to find the raisins in the piece of bread.
When it was baked and we were cleaning up she kept racing over to the table where the breads were cooling to smell them and then she came back and “helped” clean up but she would tell me that is we didn’t eat them soon then the smell would be gone. I told her that the smell would still be there we would just have to heat a slice up in the toaster oven and then we could put some butter or honey on them and the smell would come back.
apart from loving my ez bake oven as a kid, i always remember christmas time- my mom would make lots and lots of cookies to give away plates to friends and family. i loved getting in on the action, whether it be mixing ingredients, dipping things in chocolate, or my favorite– taste testing :)
My favorite baking memory is of me, my mom and my nephew baking a cardamom spice crumb cake when he was about two or three. I remember making the streusel crumbs with my nephew and his crumbs were shaped like his little fists. That cake tasted great and the crumbs were extra special because my little nephew helped make them.
My favorite baking memory definitely comes from baking with my mom. Whenever I knew I was having friends come over after school or sleepover on the weekends, my mom and I would make special treats. We usually went for the classic chocolate chip cookies, but sometimes we would get super fancy and make chocolate chip brownies. Oh so good. That extra time in the kitchen with my mom was always so special to me, not to mention the results were delicious!!! In fact, I still ask my mom to bake for me when I bring guests back home :). Gotta love mother/daughter baking
My mom never did much baking when I was growing up, but the one time that I could always count on her to be in the kitchen was around the holidays. Her assortment of Christmas cookies are actually legendary with all of my friends and one of my favorite baking related memories is helping her roll balls of cookie dough into sugar, sprinkles, powdered sugar, etc. Growing up, I always looked forward to the holidays and spending this time in the kitchen with my mom!
My favorite memory was baking schneken (rugalah) for the Jewish holidays with my mom. They were the most delicious cookies filled with nuts, chocolate, and raspberry jam. Pure love in every bite!
Growing up I was the only girl in a house full of boys. My brothers loved to eat and I loved to feed them. I made batches of chocolate chip cookies that never made it to the oven. They would steal all the dough! Now my kids are the dough eaters, but we usually get a few cookies out of the deal.
When I was younger (we’re talking elementary school young!) my mom used to make cookie dough while my sister and I were at school. We always loved forming little cookie balls and then watching them flatten as they cooked. Many an hour was spent crouched by the oven together, watching them bake.
My favorite baking memory was the first time I baked with my grandmother. She and my great aunt were always in charge of making all our family dinners during the holidays and I loved to sit in the kitchen and watch them work together and laugh and tell stories. She would always make this texas sheet cake for holidays as one of our desserts. One day I pulled up the stool to the counter and watched her pouring ingredients into her Kitchen Aid (mint green) and I was so excited when she let me help. Then she showed me how to pour on the chocolate icing and let me add the walnuts on top. I remember this vividly as that was the day I realized how much I loved baking and helping her in the kitchen. From then on, she would always have me come help her as she was preparing meals for our family.
These look like your best cookie yet!! I love this -> The resulting cookies are soft, tender, light and have just a touch of cakiness, but they are also chewy with some heartiness. PERFECT. They incorporate my favorite flavors too – molasses, spices, pumpkin and CHOCOLATE!!
My favorite baking memory is from Christmas. I used to go with my mom to my aunt’s house on a Saturday right after Thanksgiving and we would spend ALL DAY baking and making candy. We made toffee, sugar cookies, peanut butter balls, peanut clusters, almond crescents, cornflake balls, christmas wreaths….it was heaven. My favorite part of the day was getting to eat the scraps of sugar cookie dough after it was rolled out. Something about the rolling process made it taste so much better than a clump from the bowl. :D
I remember sitting on a wooden chair making blackberry cobbler with my grandmother! We picked the berries right outside of the house! I was only a few years old, but I can still remember the delicious taste of that cobbler! The blackberry bushes have came and gone, but the memories last forever (:
The only time I bake is with my grandma when we make her famous Christmas cookies. I remember when I was in elementary school and we made them together and it amazed me how she never measures anything and they turned out amazing! I was always taught with baking to weigh and measure. Grandma’s just have the magic touch:)
One of my favorite baking memories is while making chocolate chip cookies I realized how much sugar was in them!
I asked my mom “are we really going to add this much sugar?”
She answered “if we want them to taste good!”
Once they were done I quickly forgot how unhealthy they must be.
My favorite baking memory is Christmas cookie baking. My mom and I would bake literally all day. Every year, we would choose some new recipes. It was a great time to hang out in pj’s, drink hot chocolate and sneak cookie dough. I loved frosting the cut outs and took a lot of time to do detail , sprinkling and color. We made a wide variety from Italian inspired to classic. I also loved being able to share the finished product with family.
With memories like that no wonder you love baking! Sweet story! I can’t enter I’m in Australia- I just wanted to say that was a nice post.
My favorite baking moment was when I was maybe 9 or 10. That’s really the first time I can remember helping mom make cookies and candy for Christmas. It seems like it was late at night, which made it seem more special that we were able to stay up past bed time. There was no TV on and the only lights on were in the kitchen. Mom was playing Christmas music on an old Stereo/Record player they had and my sister and I sang along as we made chocolate chip cookies, chocolate covered pretzels, fudge, and peanut brittle. How my mom ever managed to do all that with 4 kids AND keep her sanity, I’ll never know.