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!
My favorite baking memory is from just a few years ago. My paternal grandmother has always been known for her bread, buns, cinnamon rolls, whatever. I asked her one day if I could look at her recipe book. She laughed and said “Oh Krissy” (note – she is the ONLY one on the face of this earth who has ever gotten away with calling me that!:) … Back to the story … “Oh, Krissy. I don’t need a recipe book. I have all the recipes right here.” And she tapped her temple. We went on to make bread that day and I forgot completely about it. Grandma’s health started to fail about a year later and when I walked into her kitchen one day and saw her kneading bread dough in the old Melamine bowl, I knew what I had to do. I asked her to teach me. And teach me she did. She didn’t measure anything, so she’d “measure her way” into a seperate bowl, and I’d take it out and measure it and write it down. Sadly, Grandma is gone now, but everytime I bake I think of her and if I’m making her bread … there’s a special angel watching over me, saying “Oh, Krissy, it’s beautiful.”
My favorite memory is the year that my husband’s whole family got together to make pork pies. The little ones cut out decorations from pie crust with any mini cookie cutter that they wanted to use. My mother-in-law was in charge of making the pie crust, my father-in-law cooked and stirred the filling while two of the guys ‘taste tested’ to make sure the correct amount of sage and salt were added. My husband was the pie crust roller, one brother-in-law was the pie filler, I inserted the bottom crust, topped the pie, and crimped the edges, my sister-in-law helped the little ones with the decorating and placing. It was the most fabulous day spent with the entire family all baking, laughing, eating and having a grand time!! I still smile remembering it…our little ones are now 22, 17, & 17 and have 2 younger siblings who are each 12…but it was the best day EVER!!
My favorite baking memories are of my three children when they were little. As soon as they were able to crawl they figured out that if they came “running” to the kitchen when I got out the mixer they would get to help Mom with the baking. They were always rewarded with the job of taste tester. I remember those litlle ones crawling and toddling to the kitchen on their little legs! So cute! PS Now that they are teenagers they still love to taste test!
My favorite baking memory would have to be last Christmas. My baking memories don’t go too far back, as I only started really getting into it in the last couple of years. Last Christmas I decided to bake gifts for both my and my bf’s coworkers (total of something like 25 people). It was an all weekend affair and it was amazing. Music blaring, singing along, stirring things, baking things, dipping things in chocolate (not to mention tasting things!). :D
When I was a little girl, I used to always bake with my mom because she loved cookies as much as I did. One year for Mother’s Day, I decided that I wanted to bake cookies for her, and she was conveniently out of town right before Mother’s Day. My father I suppose was supervising, and I baked these terrible terrible tasting cookies. I’m not entirely sure what went wrong or what I left out. I had to start all over, and I got it right the second go around! I was SO excited 3 days later to give my mom the cookies (which were of course not exactly very fresh at that point!), and that’s when I realized that baking was something I could do to make other people happy.
thankx for the ricepe
My favorite baking memory is making Christmas cookies with my Mom when I was little. It was a basic spritz cookie dough, flavored with a little bit of almond extract. She had this ancient cookie press that was her Mom’s in the 50’s, and it could make a bunch of differently shaped cookies, but we always made Christmas trees. She would squeeze the dough out onto the pan, and I was in charge of sprinkles. We had every color sugar sprinkle imaginable, and I would always mix colors to make fun, funky cookies. We still do it every year, and it’s one of the reasons Christmas is still my favorite holiday!
My favorite baking memories are revolve around thanksigving because that is when my mom and I go ALL OUT baking/cooking up a storm – we always have a ton of people, usually 25+, so my mom and I spend the days before looking through cookbooks, magazines, and blogs and finding recipies and then the craziness begins! She usually makes 3 or 4 turkeys and we probably have more desserts than any other side dish so its a crazy few days in the kitchen but so much fun and I love that I get to spend the time with my mom:)
Cool Giveaway!
So my memory… When I was a child I lived on a very quiet dead end road. I was a couple years younger than all the neighbors so when it was time for softball my fi e year old self was never chosen. But I never minded I’d walk down to Tina rudolph’s house because she was ALWAYS cooking. I’d pop off my shoes and stand on her cold white tile floors until she lifted me onto a stool next to where she was cooking – Tina was from Italy so we would make goodies such as biscotti and marinara and home made pasta. And right about the 9th inning I’d walk back warm cookies in my belly and a lifetime of memories in my heart
When I was little, I use to spend the summers with my grandparents…they lived about 5 hours from us. My grandparents were amazing people! They had a huge garden and grew just about everything they consumed. They also had a compost bin, and this was back in the 70’s! One of my favorite baking memories was watching my grandmother bake candy. She used to make everything from scratch, Everything! One day she decided to bake up a few treats. I watched in awe, for the next 5-6 hours, as she made peanut brittle, salt water taffy and divinity… all from scratch! The house smelled so good, she was like Super Woman in the kitchen! She was the best cook and baker I have ever known. I aspire to be like her. <3
My little brother begged me to make cookies — he was 12 and I was 18. I mixed the dough and he promised to bake the cookies. Alas, instead of shaping round balls of dough — he spread all the dough on the cookie sheet for one BIG cookie. Smart Kid but bratty.
My Mom is a wonderful cook and baker. At Christmas time she really went over the top with 10 to 20 different kinds of cookies and breads. I remember the whole family rolling out the springerly dough and the cookies turning into the mosamazing shapes from the molds.
My favorite baking memory is from when I was just starting out baking in college. I decided I would try to make Orange Velvet Cake cupcakes to take to a tailgate for a Clemson game (Go Tigers!). I had to use my boyfriend’s apartment since I didn’t have an oven and I was trying to look like I knew exactly what I was doing. Unfortunately I burned the cupcakes to the point where they were barely edible, but I didn’t have the time or ingredients to make another batch. So I slapped some purple icing on top and took them anyway hoping that someone would eat them. My boyfriend, his roommates, and all my friends at the tailgate RAVED about how good they were. I was sooo happy that a little burned bottom didn’t keep my friends from showing their support for my baking efforts and I was reminded how much I love them and should cherish them :)
My favorite baking memory would be when my siblings and I would bake chocolate-chip cookies with my mom (it was best when my older sister was in school and just my mom and I would bake – my sister was never good at cracking eggs – shells every single time). I remember she didn’t care if we made a little bit of a mess & nothing had to be perfect. The best part was fighting over who got the lick of beater with the most dough. Then of course…sneaking spoonfuls of dough before the uncooked cookies went into the oven. I recently baked cookies with one of the kids I babysit & I asked him if he wanted to lick the beater with the delicious looking cookie dough. He replied “ohhh noo – it has raw egg in there that’s not good for you!” BLAHH BLAHH live a little kid!!!!
My favorite baking memory is with my grandmother. Every Christmas she’d make these italian lemon cookies that were dipped in icing then dipped in sprinkles. For as long as I can remember my sister and I were always involved in the process of balling up the cookies, baking, dipping and sprinkling the cookies with her. It was a really great time. And I think it’s why to this day I love anything with sprinkles on it.
My favorite baking memories come from baking with my mom at Christmas. We always made tons of different cookies and her favorite fudge recipe to leave out for Santa and to bring to friends and family. I loved baking, mostly because it meant sneaking chocolate chips and cookie dough while my mom wasn’t looking.
Every year, we made sugar cookies, and my brothers and I got to be in charge of decorating them. The sugar cookies weren’t my favorite to eat, but I always loved decorating them, and going overboard with frosting and sprinkles. One year, I begged my mom to let me make the sugar cookies by myself. I got through the recipe fine (with lots of help) and got the cookies in the oven. But, I forgot to turn the timer on! While the cookies, were in the oven, we all went outside to play in the snow. Everyone forgot about the cookies, until we heard the smoke detector going off! We ran inside and found my cookies in the oven, burnt to a dark brown crisp. Luckily, we had enough ingredients to make another batch, but it was a while until I wanted to bake cookies by myself again.