Pumpkin, in cans or the real thing, is widely available in supermarkets for a relatively short period of time. Americans (and some Brits) carve pumpkins for Halloween which renders them useless as food. But they can be cooked and eaten like any other squash. Canned pumpkin is hidden away in the back corner of American supermarkets except for the run in to Thanksgiving when its ubiquitous. Pumpkin pie is a given for most Thanksgiving tables.

The Davinator was very surprised that pumpkin pie is a dessert. Of course, many aspects of American food have bemused him over the years. I sympathise with his desire why pumpkin pie is a dessert and sweet potato and marshmallow casserole is not. Again, a topic for another day and another blog.

I wanted tinned pumpkin without paying for the stuff imported from the USA and sold in our local garden centre in the American speciality food section. Because I didn’t want to have to take out a mortgage to buy it. I think I may do a separate blog on garden centres because this is a retail establishment that I don’t think you find in America. Back to the pumpkin quest. I went on line and found a UK based brand. Then I had to buy a dozen cans to make the shipping reasonable. And there I was with 11 more cans of pumpkin than I really wanted.

What to do with excess pumpkin? Not a huge problem as pumpkin is lovely in bread, rolls, muffins and cupcakes. More of a storage issue as it’s not going to expire until 2021. These pumpkin chocolate chip cookies were the biggest hit of the various ‘things I did with pumpkin’.

Now on to the real problem. The recipe below makes 30 to 36 cookies. Unless you double the recipe you will only use half a normal can of pumpkin. Readers will know I hate to throw out food. So, I made a loaf of pumpkin bread that nicely used up the rest of the can. The pumpkin bread is coming in a separate blog and I will link to it from here.

This recipe can be easily adapted for vegans. The pumpkin does the job of eggs so none needed. You can replace the butter with margarine or unrefined coconut oil. Both are solid at room temperature and so give the ‘spring’ that butter will.

Time to get baking.

Recipe – makes 36 cookies

Ingredients

• 225 grams unsalted butter, melted and cooled (USA two stick) (substitute as discussed above for vegan friendly)
• 100 grams brown sugar (light or dark)
• 200 grams caster (white) sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 185 grams pumpkin puree NOT pumpkin pie filling (a bit less than half of a standard 15 ounce can)
• 380 grams plain white flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice or allspice mix
• 180 grams dark chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 60 grams of pecans, chopped small (optional)

Instructions

1. Whisk together the butter and the sugars until lump free. Add in the pumpkin and vanilla, beat until smooth.
2. Whisk the dry ingredients: flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and spice together.
3. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Add in the chocolate chips and then the nuts if using. The dough will seem very wet.
4. Cover the dough and then chill for at least 45 minutes. I left mine for a couple of hours and went to spinning. (Ignore the virtue signalling here).
5. Preheat your oven to 175C or 350F. Get your baking sheets ready. I’m newly converted to ‘silimats’ or silicone baking mats instead of parchment. They work well and seem to last for ever.
6. Scoop out the dough with a small trigger scoop or a tablespoon. I weigh mine – with each scoop of dough weighing 35 – 40 grams. Please feel free to eyeball these at about a tablespoon and a half. Precision has limited benefits to cookies – it makes me feel better though.
7. Roll your scoops of dough into balls. Place on the baking sheets and flatten the tops with a spoon or your fingers.
8. Bake for about 10 minutes. The cookies will look set on the outside and wet in the middle. Take out of the oven. Leave to cool and set on the baking sheets for another 10 minutes. Then move to a rack for final cooling.
9. If you want to make these a little more chocolatey you can press a Hershey’s kiss or a big chocolate drop on the top of the cookies when they first come out of the oven.

• 

• 

• 

I really like the consistency of these cookies – I’m a chewy cookie kind of person not a crunchy cookie biscuit person.

Please leave comments, please share photos if you’re baking from the recipes: @mamadolson on Twitter and Instagram, Mama Dolson’s Bakery on Facebook. Requests always welcome.

Tags: chocolate chip cookiespumpkinpumpkin chocolate chip cookiespumpkin cookiesthanksgiving