Fall Harvest: Apples & Pumpkins

Pumpkin Cookies, Part Deux

By Heidi Lee

Recipe from Joy of Joy the Baker

Pumpkin Cookie Batter | Photo by Heidi Lee

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup canola or corn oil
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375° F

Sift the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and cinnamon together. In a separate bowl, whip the eggs and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the oil, pumpkin puree, and vanilla and mix until blended. Mix in the dry ingredients until incorporated, then stir in the chocolate chips.

Scoop 1tbs sized portions of the dough onto an aluminum lined cookie sheet, spacing the cookies 1 inch apart. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the bottom of the cookie is lightly browned.

Pumpkin Cookies | Photo by Heidi Lee

So this is the second batch of pumpkin cookies that have been made in our little apartment. A few days ago, Emily baked up a batch of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies that turned out to be more scone-ish than cookie-ish. They got devoured regardless. Somehow, she managed to lose the pictures taken of her baked goods, so off I went to whip up another batch of cookies.

Now, I don’t know what recipe she used, but I can guess from the texture of them that she used a mixture of spelt flour, pastry flour, and brown sugar, making her cookies healthier than mine. Her cookies turned out very cakey, like English scones. Their cakiness could be attributed to the use of spelt flour. Because spelt flour is gluten-free, the flour doesn’t bind as well as wheat flour, creating a pastry that is more crumbly and fluffy. Hers had a more earthy flavor from the brown sugar that I enjoyed. While both cookie types were quite similar, I must say that the pumpkin flavor was bolder in my version of the cookies. I’m not a big fan of the extra soft cookie consistency of both recipes. The extra soft sponginess of these cookies was probably caused by the use of oil instead of butter, and the use of too much leavening. I like my cookies denser and chewier, with more texture. So while the flavor of my batch of cookies was spot on, I am still in search of the perfect pumpkin cookie recipe.

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