How to Make Yummy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I didn’t think it was possible, but it seems that we might have gone overboard with making our fall pumpkin donuts. We have been buying cans of pumpkin for weeks now, and since the donuts are so easy and so good, we made them a lot. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot. So, when I brought out the donut forms last night for a quick dessert, my Dad had the nerve to suggest that I come up with a different way to celebrate pumpkin season. Since no one wants me to make chocolate chip cookies either (I may have made those too many times also), I decided to merge my habitual baking and make some yummy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies instead.

Pumpkin Changes the Cookie Game:

When looking for recipes, I just assumed that I would follow the trusted chocolate chip cookie recipe that I always use and throw some pumpkin puree in there. How hard could this be? But it turns out that adding that much moisture into a cookie can create some problems.

We started with mixing our dry ingredients, like always. But we added a few of those wonderful fall flavors with pumpkin spice.

Next, we softened our butter and added it to the mixer with the sugar. So far, easy. We let that beat in the mixer for longer than usual until it was light and fluffy.

And then we added the pumpkin and mixed it on low to really blend it in for a couple of minutes.

This was feeling like a breeze. We folded in the dry ingredients and chocolate chips and were set to start cooking.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies Require Timing:

That’s when we came to a screeching halt. We were just about to start the oven when we read about the chilling part. Comon! I thought about skipping it and rushing through, but it turns out that if you let your butter cool it will spread less in the oven and make for more of a chewy cookie. Fine. I followed the directions and waited.

After plopping my dough onto the cookie sheet, put them in the oven and set the timer to the suggested 13 minutes.

Well, maybe they didn’t need that long. And I will say that chilling worked really well, maybe a bit too well, because these did not flatten in the oven at all! They were like little cookie balls. I thought I had read something about how to flatten them after cooking, but I already closed the website so I just took a spatula to them.

This wonderful plan of mine stopped working when they cooled.

Dad was not impressed. But he still had no problems eating them.

2nd Try at Pumpkin Cookies:

In my world, making a batch of 8 cookies is like making a half batch. And I still had a ton of pumpkin puree left, so I wanted to see if I could fix my mistake and try again.

This time, after I cooled the dough, I flattened the cookies a bit before cooking.

I also paid close attention to them while they were baking and pulled them after about 10 minutes.

Even though they were better shaped, I did tap the cookie sheet a few times on the counter to help them flatten even more.

While I wouldn’t necessarily call them chewy, they were very yummy!