Saturday, October 11, 2008

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

These Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies have been in my mom's cookie line-up for years, and deservedly so. They have an unexpected cake- or bread-like consistency, leading my brother and his college roommates to debate whether they were cookies, cake or bread. The recipe surprisingly doesn't call for eggs, and everything on the ingredient list is nonperishable, so it's easy to keep the ingredients on hand for whenever you feel like making them. Mom used to send them to me in care packages at college, and my floormates went nuts over them.

I made these tonight because we have some friends coming over to watch the LSU-Florida game. Brad made a big batch of his killer chili, which we're going to serve over Fritos. That's a great dish for Fall, and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies just seemed to make sense with the cooler weather theme.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter flavor Crisco
2 c sugar
1 15-oz can pumpkin
4 c flour
2 c chopped walnuts (optional)
2 tsp vanilla
2 c chocolate chips
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix all ingredients together. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

7 comments:

sara said...

curious how these are sans chocolate? And what about with butterand reg. crisco?

Cheryl said...

A friend of mine makes them without chocolate chips, and then frosts them with cream cheese frosting. Yummm! If you make them that way, they're really good with chopped walnut.

These work great with butter instead of butter flavor crisco. You could use regular crisco if you want, or I've even heard some people say they make them with vegetable oil (but I can't vouch for that). I say give it a try and see how they turn out!

sara said...

I baked them bar style for 30 minutes and they were gooey. Probably did them for a total of 40 but still too undone in the middle- I never do bar cookies so I felt uncomfortable doing them longer.

Anywho, the taste of these was very nice (the edges are perfect!). Will definitely try them again with the chocolate. You could do them moonpie style with cream cheese filling and I think they'd be money!

Oh and I have been watching my calories for the past month and these are NOT low cal LOL...wanna know how many in the whole batch? LOL

Cheryl said...

Ack! NO! Don't tell me! I imagine with all that shortening and chocolate, they're going to be awful.

Hmmm, I wonder why yours were so underdone. Mine baked 30 minutes in stoneware, which usually cooks about 5 minutes slower than metal or glass cookware. They were very soft when I took them out, but once they cooled, the center was fine. Try them in regular cookie form next time, and I'm sure they'll turn out better. I love these cookies!

Anonymous said...

I do a pumpkin cookie and pour a warm frosting of powdered sugar and milk and dash of vanilla over the top.. simple and yummy.

Anonymous said...

I think the recipe is missing eggs. This is a recipe my mom makes everything Thanksgiving, and she couldn't find hers. We googled it and came across this one. She noticed that it was missing eggs...we added the eggs, and they came out perfectly.

Cheryl said...

We've always made it without eggs, but I have seen other recipes that include them. The eggless recipe gives them a cool bread-like texture.