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 Powerâ„¢ 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!
When I was a child my mother and I spent some evenings cracking various kinds of nuts (mostly walnuts) to use in her holiday baking. We would sit around the kitchen table drinking hot chocolate, singing Christmas carols, and cracking nuts. I miss those days!
As a kid, we never got Oreos or Chips Ahoy like the cool kids, but now I wouldn’t trade those memories of standing on a chair in the kitchen watching my mom make chocolate chip cookies. She always used the classic Toll House recipe and I would “help” by throwing the chocolate chips into the mixer and stealing a few for myself.
my best memory is making rum balls for the holidays–and then watching the family enjoy them. My grandmother always helped with them and since she pasted away in the 60’s they haven’t been the same –guess it was the grandma touch.
My best memory was eating chocolate chip cookie dough and baking cookies with my Mom
I loved baking cranberriy orange cookies during Thanksgiving and Christmas. The scent throughout the house was wonderful
My dad always made the best cranberry orange nut bread. He made it from scratch with fresh cranberries. Alas, I have lost his recipe. He passed away 32 years ago.
My favorite baking memory is baking classic Christmas cookies. It was a whole family affair. My parents, all my brothers, and I would spend hours baking and decorating cookies. As little kids, our treat for decorating all of the cookies was for each of us to then have one cookie that night to decorate for ourselves. We all tried to outdo each other with the most frosting and sprinkles we could fit! Now my favorite baking escapades are me and my mom experimenting with gluten-free and sugar-free brownies and other treats… so different from my childhood memories!
Yummy pumpkin CC cookies, I want to make them!!
My mom baked from scratch but unfortunately I did not pay attention. I bake from a box paying attention to the smallest detail.
As a wedding present, my Mom compiled a recipe book for me, filled with all of our family and friends’ “famous” recipes. Along with each recipe, she added special notes about when the dish was first served, what special memory it is associated with, who loves it the most, etc. It was such a special gift, and It makes cooking and baking so much more meaningful.
My mom never baked anything and I have to admit I do bake but it all comes from a box….kids like it though so that should count for something….lol
My favorite baking memory was when my grandmother finally gave me her top secret, super moist, chocolate decadance cake recipe and showed me how to make it. I was just 10 years old. We were standing in her kitchen and I had been begging her to teach me the recipe. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was a warm summer day and you could smell the honeysuckle bushes right outside the window. She pulled out all of the regular ingredients, cake flour, cocoa powder, eggs, etc. Then she got onto a stepstool and reached into the very back of her cupboard and pulled out a small tin. She told me it was her special mix of ingredients. She told me what they were and told me how to make it. We finished up the cake and promptly sat down and ate some. I remember thinking that my grandmother was always going to be there because she was so young at heart. She died a few days later, but I always have that memory of her acting like a young girl while we were making her top secret, super moist, chocolate decadance cake.
I love making fresh rosemary bread with rosemary from my aunts garden. It goes so fast there are rarely leftovers for the week.
My favourite baking memory is entering the competitions at the A&P show in New Zealand as a child, which is I guess the equivalent of a state fair. I always loved beating people older than me!
Would love to win!!!
When I first married the only thing I could cook was chocolate chip cookies, It was also the only thing my mother could not turn out perfect. So I was thrilled when my brother was overseas and she would get the care packages ready and then ask me for a batch of chocolate chip cookies. they were his favorites 50 years later my brother is still eating my cookies and still loving them.