Softest Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hey, ya’ll. I promised I would bring you a pumpkin recipe and look, I followed through, not that I don’t try to darndest to keep every promise I make.

I think I may have mentioned it before, but I’ll say it again anyway. I do not like the smell of pureed pumpkin. For some reason, too much of the stuff just irritates my senses and I don't find the smell pleasant. Now you’re probably wondering, “Why the heck is she promising us pumpkin this and pumpkin that?”. Well, despite the smell of pumpkin, I absolutely love the flavor of it. There is this pumpkin farm just down the road from my house that sells the most amazing pumpkin bread ever. I wait all year for their bread. Last year, I purchased their pumpkin pancake mix and I probably made those pancakes every weekend last October...

Like I was saying, I love the taste of pumpkin, so I find it a just sacrifice since I will be rewarded in the end. And these cookies are certainly worth holding my breath and plugging my nose for. These have got to be the softest cookies on the face of the planet. I don’t mean just for a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie, but I mean of all the cookie recipes I have ever tried. I wish I knew a better way to describe these cookies other than perfect pillows of orange and brown. I think I may have to experiment with this recipe without the pumpkin to see if it yields the same results, and if it does, then I may have found my perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe.

By the way, sorry if my reaction to pumpkin is strange. I think I may be the only person that hates the smell of pumpkin, but loves the smell and taste of pumpkin in baked goods (and candles/lotions). If I’m not, please speak up, it’s nice to know I’m not totally abnormal.

Softest Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Picky Palate

Ingredients
½ stick (4 tbsp) unsalted butter, soft
¼ cup sugar
3 tbsp light brown sugar
1 egg white
¼ tsp vanilla extract
¼ cup canned pumpkin puree
¾ cup unbleached all purpose flour
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp cinnamon
3oz semi mini semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, set aside.
2. Cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy (this will take between 5 and 10 minutes). Beat in the egg white and vanilla (the mixture won’t seem to want to come together, but it will in the end). Finally, beat in the pumpkin. The mixture will look lumpy, but it will lose all of its lumps once the dry ingredients are added in.
3. Whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon. Add to the pumpkin mixture. Beat until just combined and scrape down the sides of the bowls when necessary. Pour in the chocolate chips and beat for another 30 seconds to 1 minute until the chocolate chips are distributed all the way through.
4. Using an ice cream or cookie scoop, scoop out the dough and place on the lined baking sheet. Space the dough 1 inch apart from each other. Bake for 11-15 minutes depending on the size of the cookies. I found that no less than 11 minutes was perfect for the 1 inch diameter cookie. Once baked, cool on the sheet for 5 minutes before removing onto a cooling wrack. These cookies will remain soft for days as long as they are kept in a container.