I had a Martha Stewart day today.  I was done with all of my work for the week (finally getting the hang of this lesson planning thing), so I went to a technique class at Williams-Sonoma this morning to learn how to make pie crust.  Well, really because I know that Williams-Sonoma gives free samples at their technique classes, but the pie crust lesson was helpful, too.  Then I put together a slow cooker black bean soup recipe that is currently sitting on my counter waiting for dinner time.  Then I made cookies.  Then I carved a pumpkin.

I’m sure you already knew this, but all pumpkins need ears.  Or so my mom always taught me when we carved pumpkins growing up.

Like I said, only Martha Stewart could rival me in productivity around the kitchen today.  But for all of you, I have my second installment (there will be at least two more, so be prepared) of pumpkin recipes: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies!  I got this recipe from Two Peas & Their Pod, another awesome blog that is much more developed than mine, and changed just a couple of things.  So let’s get to it.

First, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and spices in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl, add sugars and butter.  I love baking with brown sugar, mostly because when you pack it into a cup and dump it into a bowl, you can make some pretty cool sandcastles.

But anyways yes, this recipe does call for a cup of butter, and yes, that is two full sticks.  If that bothers you, cut it into little pieces so it’s not just two sticks in the bowl.  This will also help with creaming it with the sugar.

I use a hand mixer (still waiting on that KitchenAid…) on medium speed for 3-ish minutes, until the batter is all well blended.  Light and fluffy is the goal, but not chunky is all I aim for.  You’ll be mixing plenty later.

Then, add the pumpkin, vanilla, and egg.  I was using leftover pumpkin from last week, so I had a little less than a cup, but if that really bothers you, you could add applesauce to fill the difference.

I just went with it.  Mix until well combined, another minute or two.

Add dry ingredients in small batches, mixing as you go.  I did it in three because I’m not super patient, and it turned out fine.

Stir in the chocolate chunks (always chunks – so much more chocolate!) with a wooden spoon.

Drop by heaping spoonful on a cookie sheet.  I didn’t grease mine, but you could if you wanted to.  Again, remember their are two whole sticks of butter in there.  They basically grease themselves.

Also, my method for dropping by the spoonful is to just take two spoons, scoop with one and scrape off with the other.  I’ve found this works perfectly fine for drop cookies, since part of the awesomeness is having not perfectly round cookies.

Bake at 350°F for 10 minutes, then allow to cool on the sheet for a couple minutes before transferring to a wire rack.  I usually bake two sheets at a time, switching racks halfway through so that they bake evenly.  You’re looking for golden brown edges.

I got about 40 cookies out of this recipe, but obviously that depends on how heaping your tablespoons are.  The cookies are definitely of the cake-y variety, which works well with pumpkin since it’s usually something you put in breads.  I’ll be giving mine out on Halloween on the off chance I get some Trick-or-Treaters, so I stored some in an airtight container on the counter (the rest are going to work tomorrow).  You could freeze them as well, but I actually like my cookies a little crunchy, so I figured the counter would be perfectly fine.

If you’re a purist and still on the fence about messing with chocolate chip cookies by adding pumpkin, here’s another close up to convince you:

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 12 oz bag of chocolate chunks

Directions:

1. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and spices in a medium bowl.
2. Cream together brown sugar, white sugar, and butter in a large bowl with a hand mixer at medium speed for about 3 minutes, or until it looks like batter.
3. Add pumpkin, egg, and vanilla, mixing until well-combined.
4. Add dry ingredients in small batches, mixing as you go, until there are no more streaks of flour.
5. Stir in chocolate chunks with a spoon (your mixer won’t like them, trust me).
6. Drop dough by heaping spoonful onto an ungreased cookie sheet, about two inches apart.  Bake at 350°F for 10 minutes, or until golden brown at edges, switching racks halfway through.
7. Cool on cookie sheet for two minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.