Thursday, October 9, 2014

Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip Cookies

I blame facebook. And Sally's Baking Addiction!!!


The minute word gets out that you love cooking and baking, everyone sends you STINKIN' AMAZING RECIPES and you're so hungry already, that what else can you do besides want to make every single one of them????

My friend Sherrie just sent me one for Stuffed Pepper Soup.... all rich and tomato-ey and rice-y and delicious looking and the wind's blowing and the clouds are scudding and the birds are chirping here and there, the hearty ones that don't leave me behind every September!

Here's a gander at Taste of Home's version because I couldn't find a link to Biker Chick's version on facebook. But Biker Chick's version is in my facebook feed, so trot over there and check it out because it looks m-a-r-v-e-l-o-u-s.... And I may or may not be starving at this moment.

So these cookies started the same way. Jennifer, one of my cute young moms sent me a pic of cookies on facebook.... So instead of writing the great American novel, I went and checked out the picture and right next to it, I'm not even KIDDING it was that close was a chocolate chip version....

HOOKED.

She had me at hello.

Doomed.

Here's the link to "Sally's Baking Addiction" and with a name like that we could be BFFs already!

First, I roasted my own pumpkin and then stewed it on top of the stove during a busy morning so it would thicken a little. I have a bajillion pie pumpkins and I had no canned pumpkin, so it was holistic-by-necessity!



Like Sally, I've discovered that not using eggs in some recipes gives you a really fun different result, so this eggless recipe was a fun surprise!  Here are Megan and Mary Ruth helping me....And Joslyn's fingers!!!! (We did not put the fingers in the cookies!!!! Eeeewwwww......)



I didn't melt the butter, but the pumpkin puree was hot, so it kind of melted the entire butter/sugar mixture with no ill effects!  I doubled the recipe (Well, duh!!!) and then wished I'd tripled it! I used 1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg and a dash of cloves. A little clove goes a long way.



But here is the interesting part: When baked on an air-bake cookie sheet, the cookies puffed more and had a delightful chewy inside and a crisper shell.



When baked on parchment paper, they had a store-bought look to them, very professional looking and no crispy outside....


And I rolled some in cinnamon/sugar just to give them a Snickerdoodle type feel, and then dipped them in melted Ghirdelli chocolate.

OH MY STARS.

OH MY STARS.

OH MY STARS.

The melding of spice and chocolate was legendary!  Delightful. Habit forming! Addictive! And yet, still safe to drive with!  :)  (This is clutch when caring for children. I'm just sayin'....)

Changes I made to Sally's recipe (on link above):


  • I didn't use melted butter and it wasn't unsalted. I like salt as a background for sweets.
  • I used twice as many Hershey's milk chocolate chocolate chips, so a full cup/batch so two cups when I doubled the batch
  • I rolled half the cookies in cinnamon sugar before baking and they were delicious but next time I'll bake them all on parchment paper.
  • I dipped the cinnamon sugar cookies into melted Ghirardelli dark chocolate and let them cool in the fridge.
  • I used 1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg and a dash of cloves per batch and they were just nicely seasoned!


Our favorite? The dipped chocolate variety with the extra cinnamon and sugar, but the regular ones done on parchment paper were amazing. I would do them exactly the same way and (shh... don't tell Sally!!!) dip them in chocolate.



Because everything is better with chocolate!  :)



This is exhausted Libby our standard poodle after I had to brush a gazillion burdock seeds out of her hair....  Poor Libby!!!!

28 comments:

  1. Well, they sure look delicious! But I'll skip the chocolate with pumpkin. Still, I'd love to make them plain! With some nuts maybe. :)

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    1. yum nuts! but I want chocolate too - you can dip them and I'll eat the chocolate side and you can have the plain side!
      Susanna

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    2. Seriously amazing. Better with the parchment. If I was with Sally right now, I'd be KISSING her!!!! Missy, I first had the chocolate chips with pumpkin bread and banana bread and loved it... but then I had Tina Russo's mother's Italian chocolate spice cookies, and if the blend of chocolate and spice is just right, oh my stars, they are to die for! Mandy was our only one who shrugged them off, but we mocked her. :)

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  2. "First, I roasted my own pumpkin and then stewed it" Sigh, of course you did. Sigh. Mercy but I want just one ounce of your energy! :-)

    I'm going to try these this weekend too. Perfect because it's Canadian Thanksgiving. Intrigued by the mix of spices and chocolate. Usually when you're given an option of adding chocolate to the recipe they tell you to omit the spices. Excited for a new way of making chocolate chip cookies...only I'm using canned pumpkin!

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    1. Happy Thanksgiving, Kav!! Wow, that really does make me realize fall is here. We'll have our Thanksgiving before you know it.

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    2. Kav, happy thanksgiving!!!!! Oh how fun, and this is a much better time (shh, I'm still a patriot!!!) to have Thanksgiving because the crops are just finishing in fields and trees. By the end of November everything around here is sloppy-mess-a-roni and it's pretty much winter. But I guess if you love singing "Over the river and through the woods, to Grandmother's house we go! The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh through the white and drifting snow, oh!" I'm going to guarantee that song wasn't written by someone who wasn't a Yankee!!!! Unless maybe UP or Minnesota!

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  3. You have a standard poodle? How did I not know this???? I keep telling ManO if he goes to the great beyond, I am replacing him with a standard.

    And chocolate dipped pumpkin cookies? I am there abet GF.

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    1. Libby is the best dog ever. So sweet, so gentle, she had a bunch of puppies for us and is now retired and should be the standard of amazement for all standards, LOL! Such a good girl! Jeter is her son. And he's still got a lot of puppy in him!!!

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  4. You know, if you like....use a can opener on a can of pumpkin...you can cut two hours off the time it takes to make this recipe.
    Just in case we're NOT all over achievers. (Over achiever was the best spin I can put on Ruthy's pumpkin roasting madness)

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    1. I was home, I didn't want to go to the store and there are a bajillion pie pumpkins in my yard right now. Strictly a question of availability. Or I wanted to impress youse!!! :)

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  5. Missy, bake ONE cookie with the chocolate chips in it and see if you like it.

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  6. Better yet, bake one with and one without...taste them both. Repeat until you're SURE...and then bake a panful of them.

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    1. Yeah, it make take a dozen or so before I make up my mind. ;)

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    2. I do that all the time. I split up a basic recipe (my 3-in-1 Snickerdoodles are like that) well, I split it up after I quadruple it because cookie recipes just don't make enough cookies anymore! Anyway, then I test adding this or that or how I bake them.... Those nut covered raspberry cookies last year were an experiment, and I still think they're one of the best cookies ever. (Hungry... hungry... hungry....

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  7. The dog was a surprise to me too, Julie. I knew she had one but....is he BLUE? Ruthy have you been taking that poor dog to the beauty shop and letting them experiment on her again?

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    1. She looks blue. I miss my little camera, I must buy one. The phone camera isn't as good. She might have turned blue because I was fussing at the 4,000,000 burdocks in her coat. You know she's actually chocolate but poodles have hair, not fur, so in the sun they bleach out like we do. Her hair in the fall is lighter and in the spring she's darker. But we can go with blue!!!

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  8. Be still my heart. This recipe has so many of my favorite things. However, I'm confused. Where exactly am I supposed to find this recipe. Ruthy, you'd obviously had too much caffeine when you wrote this. Or not enough, which I'm sure would be your take.

    Julie and Mary, why are you confused by the poodle? If you're going to breed labradoodles, you must have a lab and a poodle. Makes perfect sense to me. Then again, I'm blonde.

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    1. Never mind. After a second glance I figured out where to get the recipe. Apparently I'm the one who hasn't had enough caffeine.

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    2. You know, when I readjust a recipe for myself and change it a lot, I just post it, but I think Sally's is like perfection and I didn't have time to get permission from her and I didn't want to look like that person who goes and STEALS SOMEONE'S HARD WORK.... so I linked to it TWICE, Mindy. 2x. Like 1 x 2. :) Glad you found it!

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  9. Mindy, girl, that is so efficient, to get confused, seek out your own answers and get unconfused without any help from anyone.
    Maybe you should teach a class on that. If I could learn it, it would save the people I badger with questions so much grief.

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    1. LOL, Mary. You just need to go blonde. Then you'll be good. :)

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    2. It's a rare occurrence, Mary. Confusion is a state I visit frequently.

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    3. Hey, Mary's more blonde now than she used to be! And I love it, Connealy!

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  10. Libby and Mick make the labradoodles! :-) (not sure what Jeter does...) I miss Maddie the retriever :-( she's playing with my lab Kayla I guess.

    I have to say I DID see a pie pumpkin at food town last night but they're little- I'd be cutting and scooping for a week just for one pie's worth! nuh uh ain't happening!
    Susanna

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    1. Susanna, just grab a can of solid pumpkin.... and then freeze the rest for next time! I did make a really fun Meal in a Pumpkin thing while I was roasting pumpkins. I think you'll like them in a couple of weeks!!!

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  11. I love Libby. She's poodle-perfection. And so patient. I'm sure I wouldn't look like that after you had gone after me for a burr removing session!

    The cookies....be still my heart. BUT, I'd keep the chocolate and pumpkin spice separate. That's just me. The rest of my family loves the combination :)

    Okay, I'm out of here. Heading to 1877 Deadwood for the rest of the day. Revisions for the next book.....

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    1. And I'm off to finish my revisions and then back to cowboy land. See youse later!

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