I'll eat pumpkin any day chocolate chip cookies

In college, I lived an two hours away from home in beautiful Bellingham, Washington. I worked as a resident advisor to put myself through school, and I fell in love with the people who lived with me and who I got to take care of (essentially). Eventually, I became notoriously known as "Mama K" --baking my residents cookies, inviting them over to dinner, and hosting movie nights.  I found myself constantly calling my mom asking her how to make my favorite foods and recreating them in my small dorm-room kitchen. One day I bought a notebook to write down recipes from home so I could keep track of everything for myself. I'd add in some of my own creations too. You could say, this notebook has been the foundation for starting this blog. 

Today, I'm going to share one of those recipes I have written in that old notebook, which I still constantly use when I want to make certain treats from growing up. I'm still not adult enough yet to have a recipe box....

One of my all time favorite desserts is pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. As a kid, my sisters and would go bonkers for these cookies. Mostly because we could eat the dough without my mom freaking out since there is no egg. Then, when I started making them for my friends in college, they went nuts for them too!!

It doesn't have to be fall to enjoy pumpkin. Indulge yourself in this gooey treat -- I dare you. You will be having pumpkin all year round after this. Look at the notes, you can make these cookies vegan too! 

INGREDIENTS: 

1 cup white sugar

1 cup canned pumpkin (or you could puree your own)

1/2 cup butter  (use one whole, ripe, banana instead to make it vegan!) 

1 tablespoon vanilla 

2 cups flour (I like to use 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup white flour)

1 teaspoon baking powder 

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon 

1/4 teaspoon salt

A dash of nutmeg

1 1/4 cup chocolate chips 

DIRECTIONS: 

0. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and get out a cookie sheet. Cover your sheet with parchment paper for easy clean up! And I swear, the paper makes the cookies rise better.

1. Cream together the wet ingredients: sugar, pumpkin, butter and vanilla using a mixer in large bowl. You should see small clumps of butter. 

2. Sift or stir together the dry ingredients: flour, powder, soda, spices and salt in medium bowl.

3. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet using your mixer on a low setting. Once all combined, kick your mixer up a couple notches to make sure all the ingredients have melded together. Turn off, and lick your beaters if you like. Or just wash them... 

4. With a spatula, stir in your chocolate chips. Some people like to add walnuts too. 

5. With a spoon or cookie scoop, get your cookies on the pan! You can choose how big they are just know that the bigger the ball is the longer they need to cook. 

6. Cook for 8-10 minutes. They should look a little gooey. Trust me, they get firmer as they cool on the rack.