Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I’m SO sick of my own cooking. After almost 7 straight months of nearly eating my food exclusively, I couldn’t hate it more. Sure we’ve had a few pizzas and takeout dinners to support our neighbourhood restaurants, but, for the most part, we’ve been cooking and eating our own homemade meals together. I didn’t realize how nice it was that my husband usually grabbed his breakfast on the way to work and ate lunch at the office. Even more strangely, Scarlett eating her lunch at school now seems like a blessing. By having all our meals together put more pressure on those meals–set the table, make them compete meals . I finally had to suggest everyone make their own breakfast and lunches save for the weekend. This brought back a more normal rhythm to our home. But it still didn’t help with the dishes.

Eating all my own recipes and dishes has another unfortunate side effect. It made me tastebud blind. I used to crave certain foods and get excited to eat them. I’d shop, plan and prep with a certain amount of eagerness. It wasn’t quite the same anticipation of something like Thanksgiving, but it made you drive a little faster to get home for dinner. Now I “feel” like nothing most of the time and, while I get hungry, I can never think of anything I want to eat. I now make my family a dinner that I don’t want and just craze across a bunch of things in the refrigerator because I can’t land on one dish I want to scarf down.

The only exception to this new eating low is baking. I absolutely still love my baking. I can eat a banana bread or cookies without tiring of them. Maybe it’s the comfort of the sugar but it has made me sharpen my baking skills. These cookies were a recipe I came up with last fall, but I can make them in my sleep in 2020. The pumpkin makes them gooey and soft and they offer the perfect fall twist on a cookie classic. I highly recommend making a double batch: one to bake right away and the other to store as un-cooked balls in freezer bags. I’ll pull two or three from the freezer and bake them after dinner. You’ll want to let them rest on the baking sheet for 20 minutes before baking, but you’ll have a warm, just-baked treat every night. It’s the one thing that keeps me going through a dinner I don’t want.

Print Recipe

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you've never added pumpkin puree to chocolate chip cookes then get ready for a moist cooke times 10.

Prep Time45 mins

Cook Time10 mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cookie, cookies, pumpkin, baking

Servings: 18 cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 1/2 cups spelt flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

• In a medium bowl, whisk melted butter, sugar and brown sugar until combined. (There may be some lumps.) Whisk in the vanilla and pumpkin puree until smooth. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, whisk flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cloves and nutmeg. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix together. Stir in the chocolate chips. For best results, cover the dough and chill for 30 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 350. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silcone baking mats. Roll the dough into balls, about 1.5 tablespoons each. Place balls 1" apart on your prepared baking sheets. Gently flatten the tops of the dough with the back of your spoon.
• Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges look golden brown and crisp. Cool cookies on baking sheet for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
• Store cookies in an airtight container for one week.