A Fall-Flavored Chocolate Chip Cookie
These pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are like a pumpkin-spiced version of my worst chocolate chip cookies. They’re soft, chewy, full of flavor, and infused with just the right amount of pumpkin and pumpkin spice–there’s a lot to love about them! It took a lot of testing to achieve these results though. Baking with pumpkin can be a bit of a science; pumpkin contains a lot of water, and incorporating water in your baked goods produces cakey results. This isn’t necessarily a problem if we’re making something like pumpkin cake, but if you’re trying to make a chewy cookie, it’s definitely not what you’re looking for. To compensate, I’ve made a few careful selections with my ingredients, which you’ll see below. The end result is perfectly chewy and NOT cakey–just how cookies (especially pumpkin cookies!) should be!
What You Need
Several key ingredients come together to make these pumpkin cookies soft and chewy instead of cakey:
Melted butter. I am a huge fan of using melted butter for chewier, buttery-er cookies. Melted butter also means we avoid the creaming process, which creates air pockets that puff up cookies and make them more cakey. Just make sure to let your butter cool until it’s no longer warm to the touch before adding your sugars! Brown sugar. I use a blend of light and dark, but all light brown sugar would work too! I don’t recommend using all dark brown sugar.Pumpkin. To reduce the amount of water in our pumpkin, we’re going to blot it. If you’ve made my pumpkin scones before, you’re already familiar with this process. To do this, you’ll simply measure out your pumpkin and use a paper towel to blot it until most of the water has been removed.Egg yolk. Another way to cut the water in this recipe is to use a single egg yolk and leave out the egg white. Egg whites contain a lot of water, so removing the white in this instance helps to yield a more chewy, tender, and less cakey cookie.Chocolate chips. I like to use a blend of milk and semisweet chips, but you can use whatever you prefer.
SAM’S TIP: If you don’t have enough pumpkin pie spice, make your own! My recipe for homemade pumpkin spice is simple and uses spices you already have on hand. Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
SAM’S TIP: For a pretty finished look, I like to press a few chocolate chips in the tops of my cookies just after removing them from the oven. This is optional, but it does make a difference appearance-wise! Most of you know that pumpkin isn’t really my thing, but I can assure you the pumpkin lovers in my house love this recipe! Enjoy! Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
Related Recipes
