First Post and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies!

For the past few months I have been spending a lot of my time searching through cooking and baking blogs. I first came across the Pioneer Woman a few months ago and immediately indulged myself in every food blog I could come across. I have no culinary training but cooking and baking are very near and dear to my heart. The fact that I can put time and effort and produce a product and present it to a loved one and watch them enjoy the end result is a feeling I can't explain; pure happiness. I am not really expecting anyone to read this blog but wanted to see if I could actually make one on my own and keep photographs of favorite and new recipes that I come across.

So, who am I?
I'm a housewife stuck in a small Michigan town (a culinary wasteland, my husband and I like to call it). I did the college thing and now I'm 25 and I believe I was put on this earth to bake and cook :)

So, shall we begin?

My mother in law is (in my husband's opinion) the super mega awesome baker. My first trip to meet her, she taught me how to make pie crust from scratch. For years my husband has been asking me to make these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies that his mom used to make. Well, it took about three years but I finally got a hold of the recipe and managed to get him to hang up some shelves in exchange for cookies! So, if by chance you have a can of pumpkin in your cupboards left over from the holidays, this would be a good time to use it!

-Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies-

1/2 cup of butter (1 stick, I used unsalted)

1 cup cooked or canned pumpkin (I used the kind without any spices in it)

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 1/2 all purpose flour

1 cup of chocolate chips (I used just plain milk chocolate)

1 egg

1 tsp of the following ingredients-

baking powder, baking soda, vanilla extract, cinnamon and yes, a whole teaspoon of nutmeg!

1/2 tsp salt

Cream butter and sugar till fluffy.

Add egg, pumpkin and vanilla to mixture - mix well.
In separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon.
Slowly incorporate dry ingredients into wet and then add in chocolate chips.
Bake at 350 for 12-15 or until golden brown. Makes about 30 small cookies.

Ingredients- (minus one egg! oops)

With a hand mixer, cream together your butter and sugar until it becomes fluffy. If you have planned ahead and have a stick of butter that is room temperature then I would skip dirtying the mixer  and just use your muscles and a wooden spoon. Add in your 1 egg pumpkin and vanilla. 

In a separate bowl, combine your dry ingredients, the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and sugar. Here is where most recipes would say to sift all your dry ingredients but normally I just put all my dry ingredients into a bowl and use a wire whisk and mix them all together.

Slowly incorporate your dry ingredients into your wet bowl mixture. Stir until everything is combined well and then add in your chocolate chips. The original recipe calls for a 1/3 roasted almonds (which you would add now too) but my husband and I aren't huge nut fans so I omitted them.

      I covered my bowl up with some tin foil and threw it in the fridge for about 15-20 minutes to let the dough firm up a bit. I used a small sized cookie scoop on my non-stick cookie sheet (sprayed with a little baking NOT cooking spray) and baked them for 12-15 minutes at 350. If I had to endorse a baking utensil, it would definitely be the cookie scoop. All of my cookies are the same size and my hands aren't all messy after having to fuss with spoons and sticky cookie dough. I bought mine at the local grocery store for about $8, definitely worth it. These cookies do not expand/spread out like a normal cookie so you could definitely fit more than your usual amount on a normal sized cookie sheet. They puff up and look like little cute muffin tops!

The end result-

Happy Eating!

<3