Pumpkin Cake Cookies
Among the millions of pumpkin recipes I have accumulated over the past few weeks, I can't even count the number of cookie recipes I have marked as a "must try" based on the pictures alone.
Despite all of these recipes I couldn't find the perfect recipe for cake-y pumpkin cookies that had the right amount of spice to them. Every recipe I saw only called for cinnamon, which was not sufficient for my taste buds. Then I figured if I was modifying a recipe that much that I might as well come up with my own, just to have something of my own, plus I could use ingredients like unsweetened applesauce to make it slightly better.
These cookies were light and fluffy like cake, studded with both semisweet chocolate chips and white chocolate chunks for a gooey contrast in chocolate-y goodness (and mostly because I couldn't decide which I'd rather have with my pumpkin). For one sheet of cookies, I pressed each cookie slightly more flat against the cookie sheet and they cooked more evenly in terms of texture. I actually preferred the batch of cookies that I left as rounded balls on the sheet because they had a doughiness to them that I am partial to, but most normal people will probably like the more consistent texture. Either way, these cake cookies are delicious.
Pumpkin Cake Cookies
yields 2 dozen
- 3/4 cup pumpkin pie filling (I would have used pureed pumpkin, but Whole Foods was out)
- 1/2 cup cane sugar
- 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 cup white chocolate chunks (or more!)
- 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (or more!)
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Cover cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Combine pumpkin pie filling, sugar, applesauce, canola oil, vanilla, and the egg in large mixing bowl.
- Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves into medium mixing bowl.
- Slowly add flour mixture to wet ingredients and mix until thoroughly combined.
- Mix in chocolate.
- Using a cookie scoop, place the dough in balls on the cookie sheet and press down slightly to achieve a more even consistency throughout the cookie.
Even though I'm normally a soft and chewy cookie person, I think it would be really interesting to make a thin and crispy pumpkin cookie. I'll have to add that to my never-ending pumpkin recipe list. Maybe that will happen someday, but until then I will stick to my cake cookies.
MMMM, pumpkin!