Recipe: Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I hate when things go to waste. I had this partial can of pumpkin leftover from the pumpkin fudge I just made, and I really wanted to put it to good use. But I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to use it for. I wanted to make cookies, so I started looking up pumpkin cookie recipes, but nothing really tickled my fancy. So, I decided to make up my own pumpkin cookie recipe. I started with my chocolate chip cookie recipe. I added oatmeal and pumpkin.

orange you glad i added pumpkin to the batter?

I also used mini chocolate chips instead of the regular sized ones. I’d like to say this was a conscious decision, but in reality, the mini chips were all I had in the house, and I didn’t feel like running out last minute and picking up a bag of the bigger ones. Thankfully, it seemed to all turn out ok.

mini chips to the rescue.

They turned out soft, chewy, and not at all flat. So, the experiment was a success, and the leftover pumpkin definitely did not go to waste. All is right in the kitchen. 🙂

happiness is a pumpkin cookie.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.

What you’ll need:

5 oz.   shortening

8 oz.   sugar

.25 oz.  salt

3 oz. (about 2)  eggs

.25 oz.  vanilla

12 oz.  flour

.25 oz.  baking soda

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 cup cinnamon flavored oatmeal (about 2 of the pouches)

6 oz. mini chocolate chips

What you’ll do:

Preheat the oven to 375. In a large bowl, cream together the shortening, sugar, and salt. Add the eggs and the vanilla, and beat until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda, and slowly add it to the wet ingredients. Add the pumpkin and the oatmeal, and mix well. Fold in the mini chips. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and scoop dough into rounded tablespoon sized balls, at least an inch apart onto the sheet. Bake for 8-9 minutes, or until edges start to brown.

Recipe Sunday: Oatmeal Cinnamon Chip Cookies.

Today it rained – a lot. I’m not complaining. It gave me the chance to stay in, relax, and do my favorite thing: bake. Truthfully, I would have baked anyway, but there’s something extra comforting about baking on a cold, rainy day – maybe it’s the warmth of the oven…who knows. But it is, what is, and I bake, therefore I am.

Anyway, this Sunday’s dessert of choice was Oatmeal Cinnamon Chip Cookies. My recipe is based on  this one, but I modified and tweaked it over the years, and I feel it’s finally reached cookie enlightenment. The reason I chose these for this Recipe Sunday was two-fold: I was planning on sending a long-distance friend one of my creations, and it had to be something both that he liked, and could be shipped. He loves cookies, and cookies are easily shippable. And so it was written. Hopefully he likes them, and you do, too!!

delivered to your doorstep!!

Oatmeal Cinnamon Chip Cookies

What you’ll need:

1 cup minus 1 tbsp butter

1 cup dark brown sugar

1/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 cups oats

1 1/2 cups Hershey’s Cinnamon Chips

What you’ll do:

Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter, brown sugar, and sugar together until fluffy and well-mixed. In a small separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and vanilla, and add to the butter/sugar, mixing well. In another bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda, and add, mixing until everything is just combined – do not over mix! Fold in the oats, then fold in the cinnamon chips. Spoon into heaping spoonfuls (or use something like this – it really makes it so much easier and they turn out looking much cleaner) onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. I fit about 15 on a sheet. Bake for 8-9 minutes, until the edges are golden-brown. Makes about 4 dozen.