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!
one of my favorite baking memories was helping my grandma make peanut butter cookies.
Wow, what a giveaway! When I as little I used to bake with my grandma a lot. She made really tasty pineapple bars, pistachio cake, kugel… I was young enough that I didn’t realize she’s kind of crazy, hehe… oh how age changes our perspective!
For Christmas every year my mom would bake Christmas cookies, sometimes enlisting my help. Not just one or two kinds of cookies, mind you…more like 24 kinds; dozens and dozens; all kept in large tins in the cellar; then later divided into smaller tins for gifts or put out on trays for dessert every night. We had Mexican wedding cookies, Rum balls, Coconut Haystacks, Pecan Dreams, Lacy Oatmeal, Spritz Butter Cookies, Meringue Cookies, the list went on and on. Most of them melted in your mouth :). She doesn’t bake them any more, and it was sad for her to give this up, although I don’t know how much she remembers all that now.
*lady
My favorite baking memory is the first thing that I can remember baking all by myself. Or mostly by myself. I made peanut butter and jelly thumbprint cookies when I was in elementary school, probably to take in for my teacher or for a classroom snack. Anyway, I still have the recipe card that I wrote in my not so neat and very large handwriting for the cookies. I’ve been baking ever since.
A favorite baking memory:
A very sweet last at my boyfriend’s church always makes him these incredible chocolate chip cookies. She doesn’t use a recipe, though, so she couldn’t tell him how she makes them. So, we decided to try a whole bunch of chocolate chip cookie recipes and make our own changes to them to find the one most like the lady’s from church. One particular time, we were baking and my boyfriend was in charge of stirring in the chocolate chips. After he had mixed in the amount that the recipe called for, he apparently decided that it wasn’t enough chocolate chips so he “spilled” the rest of the bag into the dough and even said, “oops.” I remember laughing at the look on his face, and they were some of the best chocolate chip cookies we’ve ever made together. :)
My favorite baking memory is that my mother had memorized the Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe and I thought it was the coolest thing that she could just whip up a batch of cookies for my friends and I without looking at a recipe. As a mother now, and having made a few 100 chocolate chip cookies I understand how she did it and find it cute that my kids thinks it is “cool” too!
I also have one funny memory of wanting to make Divinity candy (which can be quite messy) so I was in the midst of making it by myself when a friend called to “play.” I decided that I would much rather play than mess around with this Divinity stuff any longer and left the mess in the kitchen and off I went to a friend house. Let’ s just say my mother was none to pleased and I will always remember my Divinity making experiment!
My mom used to make cakes for weddings and birthdays, so learning how to bake a decorate cakes was my favorite memory.
for my sister’s birthday this year, her two daughters (aged 4 & 6) and i made her favorite dessert – strawberry shortcake.
My favorite baking memory is baking carrot cake with my mom for Thanksgiving. We always have such a great time and I just love that cake. Plus, we would whip up cream cheese frosting and eat a ton of it along the way. I will always have a special place in my heart for carrot cake and thanksgiving :)
I would love love love these!!!
My mother always bakes with a kitchen aid mixer!! My favorite memories involve letting me lick off the mixers and the bowl. The first time she let me bake on my own in junior high was with her kitchen aid… I remember I kept running up and down the stairs asking her questions every step of the way. It was a lemon blueberry cake… In the end she ended up helping me because I was so nervous I was doing it wrong and got upset. I love all my memories of coming home to a delicious smelling house, all thanks to her kitchen aide!
When my husband and I were in college we barely had two cents to rub together. When it was time for Christmas we couldn’t afford to buy traditional gifts, so we cooked ours. We made infused olive oil, strawberry jam, and three different types of cookies. I remember staying up until the wee hours to finish all the cookies, there was cookies cooling all over the kitchen. I was a little bit nervous about giving food as a gift, but everyone loved them. And every Christmas that has passed people are still talking about those homemade gifts. So, last year we made them again and gave them right along side store bough gifts. Everyone let me know how much they loved our homemade goodness. It was heartwarming to know that those cookies ranked up there with the likes of Chanel perfume and the iPod.
My favorite baking memory was helping my grandma make apple pies and rolling out the dough for the crust!
First and foremost, I have to say I really enjoyed this post, and everyone’s comments about their memories.
My favorite memory was a little over a year ago. I didn’t have a mother to teach me how to cook, so no good childhood memories of it. However, I am making sure my daughter doesn’t miss out like I did! Last year we set out to make homemade gluten-free oreo’s because of her celiac diagnosis. There wasn’t as many packaged gluten-free foods a year ago as there is now. So we spent the day together creating them. I documented the experience here http://whatsfordinner-momwhatsfordinner.blogspot.com/2011/09/gluten-free-chocolate-sandwich-cookies.html It is one of my favorite memories that I will cherish forever. Baking with my daughter. <3
Growing up, my Mom, sister, and I would spend one entire weekend during the Christmas holidays baking cookies! We’d start early on Saturday making every kind of cookie dough imaginable and all day Sunday was reserved for the baking. Dozens upon dozens if cookies would fill our kitchen and that’s all we would eat the entire day! The last cookie was always the cut-out molasses cookies because they needed frosting and sprinkles, which was our favorite part!
My absolute favorite baking memories are the first baking memories I have: with my grandma. I even have a picture of the experience framed and on my dresser. I can’t be older than 3 or 4 in the photo. Grandma would mix up a batch of buttermilk biscuit dough from scratch, and we would make “biscuit cookies.” We would use her vintage cookie cutters (I loved the little rooster) and cut out all different shapes from the dough. I would love to roll mine in either cinnamon and sugar or rainbow sprinkles. Then we’d bake them up and enjoy our “biscuit cookies” all day long. Love it!