pumpkin chip cookies on the first day of school

photo credit

Me blogging recipes is something like Donald Trump blogging knitting patterns.  

Enjoy this post because it's probably the only one you'll ever see of its kind.  I bake twice a year -- Christmas Eve (one of my favorite days in the whole  year) and the first day of school.  It's all a carefully planned campaign to brainwash my kids' memories of me.  I picked the two most memorable days of each year in their childhood and hand them baked goods like I'm Donna Reed.  So far this strategy is working quite nicely.

My mom made these cookies for us when I was growing up.  They are my all-time favorite cookie in the universe and a perfect complement to the coming of fall.  Please don't try to eat them without a glass of milk or mug of coffee.  

Pumpkin-Chip Cookies

1 cup pumpkin                         1 tsp. cinnamon

1 beaten egg                            1 tsp. soda

1/2 cup vegetable oil                1 tsp. milk

1 cup sugar                              1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups flour                              1 cup chocolate chips

2 tsp. baking powder                1/2 cup crushed walnuts

1/2 tsp. salt

Combine pumpkin, egg, oil and sugar; beat well. 

Sift flour with baking powder, salt and cinnamon; stir into pumpkin mixture.

Mix soda and milk together; add to mixture.

Add vanilla, chocolate bits and walnuts.

Drop from teaspoons onto greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

a couple important notes:

1.  I can't imagine baking these without the walnuts.  They provide a little bit of crunchy texture to the otherwise super-moist and melty cookie.

2.  My original recipe says you could substitute 1 cup of raisins. Sounds horrible to me, but whatever floats your boat.

3.  When I got married, I hand-copied several of my mom's recipes into a cookbook.  For some reason I wrote to bake these for 5 minutes.  As a good rule-follower, for several years I made extremely gooey cookies because the recipe couldn't possibly be wrong!  I've come to the conclusion that the cookies take at least 10 minutes to get toasted just the right amount.  They're still moist, I promise!

4.  There's probably a whole bunch of ways to health 'em up by tucking in some extra whole food type ingredients.  I'll leave that up to all you earthy types.  (feel free to add your ideas in the comment section)

Enjoy!