Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I can’t believe November is almost over! I mean seriously, where did the time go?

And with the end of November brings the end of pumpkin baking season, at least in my eyes. The only good thing about pumpkin season being over is that gingerbread and maple season starts. Boy do I love the taste of maple.

But to celebrate the end of pumpkin season I bring you these amazing pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Goodness these things are so addicting!

 

In all honesty these have become one of my favorite pumpkin recipes, this cake being my absolute favorite.

These little gems basically taste like a pie shoved in a cookie, especially if you under-bake it just a tad. They are soft, and kind of chewy in a very good way. And the addition of chocolate chips is just a bonus! Whoever thought of pumpkin and chocolate together was brilliant!

Happy Thanksgiving all!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about 50 medium-small cookies
From My Blessed Life

Ingredients
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flours
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup dark brown sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg, room temperature
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
½ cup pumpkin puree
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. In a large bowl, cream together the sugars and butter. Beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until incorporated. Stir in the vanilla and pumpkin puree. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Fold the flour into the pumpkin mixture. Mix until the flour is just incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Use a medium-small cookie scoop to distribute the dough. Bake for about 8 minutes or until the edges are set and the center is still soft. Cool on the pan for about 5 minutes before removing the cookies onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Chip Cookie

 

It's been a real long time since I've posted, whoops. Here is my legit excuse: I moved across the country. Yup, yup. I'm now living in South Carolina so I can be close to family and attend school and not have to worry about traveling. The only sucky part is leaving my friends. About 90% of my really good friends attend school in Colorado and I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to go see them face to face again...

But the cool part about moving is I got to switch my Colorado driver's license over to a South Carolina one. I know this shouldn't matter, but the South Carolina license is soooo much prettier than Colorado's... oh and my picture is like a million times better too, haha.

 

So because I'm way late in posting stuff I thought I would give you all some sweet and simple chocolate chip cookies. I know I have about a million chocolate chip cookie recipes on here, but I still haven't found my perfect version yet, and until then I will keep searching! I've actually been looking into how different amounts of ingredients or lack of certain ingredients affects cookies and I have to say I like the look of adding bread flour into chocolate chip cookies as I don't really like adding cornstarch to my cookies. I feel those cookies turn out way too cake-like.

At first glance these cookies may seem like regular ol' cookies but they have a little something extra added to them: turbinado sugar. The turbinado gives a little bit of an extra crunch to the cookie because I don't think it melts the way granulated and brown sugar melt.

This particular cookie isn't as gooey as I would like, but it indeed soft and lovely when warm. I think I like the combination of milk and semi-sweet chocolate. I used semi-sweet chocolate chips and chopped up milk chocolate pieces. When chopping the chocolate, try not to chop it too small or you wont get the great chocolate puddley goodness that all chocolate chip cookies should have.

 

Chocolate Chip Cookie
Slightly adapted rom The Quixotic Table
Makes about 3 dozen

Ingredients
1 3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. turbinado sugar
3/4 cup + 2 tbsp. dark brown sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
45 g semi-sweet chocolate chips
45 g milk chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a large baking tray with parchment paper.

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In the owl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream the butter and all three sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Turn the mixer speed down to low and gradually add the flour. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Fold in the two types of chocolate chips.

Using a medium-small cookie scoop (mine is about 1 1/2 inches in diameter), scoop out the dough and space them about two inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. Bake on the center rack for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are slightly golden brown and the centers are still soft.

Cool pan on a cooling rack for a few minutes before removing the cookies onto a cooling rack to cool completely. Enjoy as many cookies as you please with a big ol' glass of milk.

Chocolate Chip Cookies for Two

 

There is nothing like a chocolate chip cookie straight out of the oven, seriously. Perfect chocolate chip cookies are ooey and gooey and look like melted cookie dough in the center with firm, golden brown edges.

It’s obvious from the title of this blog that cookies are my kind of treat. I will always reach for the cookie platter on a dessert table when given options. But have you noticed how many dang cookies a single recipe makes? Most cookie recipes make between two and three dozen (I usually end up with about three and a half dozen cookies). Sometimes you want to make cookies but don’t want to make a full batch. Well you could always freeze the dough in portions and then place them in a zip lock bag like I usually do, or you could use a recipe that makes enough cookies for two people.

 

Audra from The Baker Chick came up with a recipe that makes six decently sized cookies or two really gigantic cookies (I also used my normal cookie scoop and got 11 cookies out of it).

These cookies spread out when cooked at room temperature and stay puffed up when chilled and then baked. I personally like the texture of the puffed up cookies, but that’s because of the gooeyness that resulted from it. If you bake these cookies at room temperature the texture is chewier. These are some seriously delicious cookies, and each one baked up like its been “photoshoped” as my sister puts it.

 

Chocolate Chip Cookies for Two

Recipe from The Baker Chick

Makes 2 gigantic cookies, or 6 3-inch cookies, or 11 normal sized cookies

Ingredients

½ cup unbleached all-purpose flour

¼ tsp. baking soda

pinch salt

3 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and warm

¼ cup + 2 tbsp. dark brown sugar

1 egg yolk, room temperature

½ tsp. pure vanilla extract

¼ cup chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, combine the warm melted butter and brown sugar until combined. The mixture will look very thick. Whisk in the egg yolk and vanilla until creamy. Fold in the flour until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Divide the dough in half or into 6 equal portions. Space the cookie portions about 2 inches apart. Bake for 12-15 minutes. The insides will look like its not baking but it’s much better to underbake than over bake, so once the tops of the cookies have firmed up, take them out of the oven. Cool on the sheet for 5 minutes before removing to cool completely on a cooling rack (as if you would really follow this step, psh)

Double Chocolate Cookies

I can’t believe it’s already the 6^th week of 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats. The weeks are quickly passing by and I don’t know where the days are going. All the papers I have to write, all the exams I have to study for, and all the homework I have to do isn’t helping either.

I do have Double Chocolate Cookies though, and that’s helping a little bit. Earlier in the year I shared another recipe for Double Chocolate Cookies, but you can never have too many recipes for chocolate cookies, right?

Like in my last post for double chocolate chip cookies, I was a little apprehensive when baking these. I wasn’t sure if the dough would turn into a puddle as it baked or if it would be rock hard. For some reason I don’t trust melted chocolate going into cookies.

These cookies turned out pretty nice though. They did not turn to sludge, but puffed up nicely. The chocolate was a little bitter for me, but I think if I had added just a little more milk chocolate chips or maybe substituted some of the melted semi-sweet chocolate for some milk chocolate, these would have been perfect.

Many thanks to Brenda for hosting this year's 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats. Take a look at the bottom of the page to see the wonderful sweets other bloggers decided to share this week.

Double Chocolate Cookies

Adapted from The Willow Blog

Makes 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients

4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

1 ¼ cups (150 g) unbleached all-purpose flour

6 tbsp. (30 g) cocoa powder

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

1/3 cup (75 g) brown sugar

¼ cup (50 g) sugar

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 egg, cold

1 cup milk chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set it aside.

In a double boiler (or a heat proof bowl set on top of simmering water) melt the semi-sweet chocolate. Once melted, set aside to cool.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set the mixture aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the bugger and sugars until pale and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Pour in the melted chocolate and beat until incorporated. Add the egg and vanilla; beat until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.

Slowly add the flour mixture to the creamed chocolate mixture. The batter will become very thick. Fold in the chocolate chips. Portion out the dough using a small cookie scoop (mine was about 1 ½ inches in diameter). Space the cookie dough about 2 inches apart on the lined cookie sheet. Bake for 9-10 minutes. Cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

These taste great straight out of the oven, but if you are eating them after baking and want a nice warm cookie, place in the microwave for 12-14 seconds.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Guess what? I’ve got another cookie recipe for you! Yes I know, another cookie recipe. I think that’s a little over 40 cookie recipes I have shared you y’all. Hey, this blog can’t be called Cookie Jar Treats without cookies right? Exactly.

Let me tell you a little bit about these chocolate chip cookies. This is probably the best recipe I have made for a plain old-fashioned chocolate chip cookie. I know everyone says that about their chocolate chip cookies, but I’m saying these are the best so far. Here’s why:

1. No grease. The past few cookies I’ve made have had a little bit of sheen. The grease on the cookie doesn’t mean it’s a bad cookie it’s is just a little off-putting is all.

2. Abundance of brown sugar. I have trouble detecting brown sugar in chocolate chip cookies, which is my favorite component of chocolate chip cookies. I hate when a recipe calls for half white sugar and half brown sugar or slightly more brown sugar to white sugar. Give me at least 80% brown sugar darn it! (P.S. I have a cold, and for me to say that I can taste the brown sugar while not being able to taste anything is pretty darn impressive)

3. The combination of semi-sweet and milk chocolate. I am not a fan of milk chocolate. If someone told me there was a table piled with dark chocolate and a separate table piled with milk chocolate, my little feet would automatically start meandering towards the dark chocolate table. The person I got the recipe from suggested combing the two types of chips, so I did. Turns out I had more milk chocolate chips than semi-sweet, so that’s what I went with.

4. Perfect distribution of chocolate. I use Ghirardelli chocolate for anything that calls for chocolate or chocolate chips. To me they are simply the best, and quite affordable. For some unknown reason though, Ghirardelli makes their milk chocolate chips about 100% bigger than all their other chips. It’s weird, but I deal with it. So I got this notion instead of just pouring in the full disks of milk chocolate and chips of semi-sweet, I decided to roughly chop the chocolate up. I’m doing this with every cookie from now on because it yields the best cookie to chip ratio.

5. Crisp edges. I like cookies with a crisp outer ring. I am a man-handler when it comes to food. Seriously. I take my granola bars apart and eat small chunks at a time; I tear off little sections of my peanut butter sandwiches and eat it in a circle; I eat the tails of goldfish first and then et one side of the fish and then the other. I know I’m weird… what was I saying? Oh yeah, crisp edges. Crisp edges allow me to putt apart the cookie and let me eat it that way I like to eat the rest of my food. Plus the edges of these cookies actually brown! I’ve never baked a cookie where the edges turned brown before. It was very exciting.

6. Finally, the soft and chewy center. It’s still kind of missing the gooey factor, but I’ll take what I can get. The center really is very tender and squishy and I just love it.

Wow that’s a lot of things to love about a simple chocolate chip cookie, right? Wrong, chocolate chip cookies are very complex when you think about it. Try not to think about it too hard, it might hurt your brain.

So please enjoy these cookies. Especially with a glass of milk (who wouldn’t?). The crispy edges hold the milk ever so nicely.

Oh and I forgot to mention something! This post is apart of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats hosted by Meal Planning Magic. So if you have a special little sumtin’ sumtin’ that would be great on a holiday treat table, talk to Brenda to find out how to join the blog hop!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from Hip Foodie Mom

Makes 2 ½ dozen cookies

Ingredients

1 1/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. baking soda

¾ tsp. baking powder

7 tbsp. unsalted butter, soft

¼ cup sugar

¾ cup dark brown sugar

1 egg, room temperature

1 tsp. vanilla extract

30g semisweet chocolate chips, roughly chopped

60g milk chocolate chips, roughly chopped

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder; set aside.

In a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars together on medium speed until soft, fluffy, and light in color. Beat the egg and vanilla in well. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Turn the speed down to low and slowly add the flour mixture in, making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Fold in the chopped chocolate.

Using a small cookie scoop (mine is about 1 ½ inches in diameter and I think it’s 1 tbsp. worth) divide the cookie dough onto the parchment lined baking sheet. Space each cookie about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges turn slightly golden. Allow the cookies to cool on the tray for a few minutes before removing onto a cooling rack. 

Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hey, I know it’s been a while since my last post. I used to do two updates a week, but that was during summer and had nothing to do. Now I’m in school and I’m starting to get used the rhythm of things. I think now that I’m used to when I get out of class and how much homework I have, I’ll probably (hopefully) will start updating once a week.

Another reason I haven’t been posting is because I haven’t made anything worth blogging about. Like I said in my last post, I made cookies, but they weren’t all that great. Then I made some kind of chiffon orange muffin, but that had no flavor and then developed a soapy taste after just one day. I also tried making granola, but I burnt it. I have just not been having much luck in the kitchen, until these cookies.

My dream chocolate chip cookie includes a soft, gooey middle with a slightly crisp outer ring. The cookie has to have not too many chocolate chips and be slightly puffy so I can get a good sense of the actual cookie’s taste.

These cookies have a slight crisp outer crust, the center is perfectly soft, and the chocolate chips melted beautifully and didn’t overwhelm the cookie. I wish the cookie had a little more volume and a little more brown sugar flavor but other than that this batch was really great.

Oh, and you know how some cookies get kind of stale after sitting on the counter for just a few hours? Not a problem with this recipe. I left them on the counter for several hours and they were still soft and chewy.

Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Slightly adapted from Penguin in the Kitchen

Makes about 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

¼ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. baking soda

6 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled

½ cup brown sugar

¼ cup sugar

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 egg, room temperature

½ cup (75 g) semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

Sift together flour, salt, and baking soda into a small bowl; set aside. In a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment mix the melted butter and sugars together until creamy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix on a low speed until all the dry ingredients have been incorporated. Scrape the sides of the bowl as needed. Mix in the chocolate chips.

Using a small cookie scoop (I believe mine is a 1.5 oz.), portion the dough out, spacing each cookie about two inches apart. Bake dough for 10-12 minutes or until the edges begin to brown.

Cool on a wire rack for a few minutes before removing the cookies to cool completely.