Pumpkin Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cookies

It’s officially fall and you know what that means? PUMPKIN SEASON! There are few things I enjoy more in life than pumpkin-inspired baked goods so you can imagine my delight when stores start stocking pumpkin purée and farmers’ markets have baskets full of sugar pumpkins and assorted squash! I decided to kick off my pumpkin habit this year with some pumpkin cookies that have a kick of chocolate and butterscotch in them.

These are pretty basic chewy pumpkin cookies that have butterscotch and chocolate. According to my roommate, the butterscotch and pumpkin go really well together – or as she put it “it’s like they’re copulating in my mouth”. Pumpkin cookies tend to be a little moist because pumpkin purée is so wet, so I highly recommend spreading them out on a large plate rather then trying to stack them as they will stick to each other.

This is only the first of what I imagine will be many many pumpkin related recipes that I expect to bake in the coming fall months. Today, I went to the local farmers market and bought mini-pumpkins to hopefully bake tomorrow with some squash soup. I also bought some indian corn to add to my the cornucopia-esque center piece in our living room. I’m big into the fall decorations 😉

PUMPKIN BUTTERSCOTCH CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

(Adapted from Joy The Baker)

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup canola or corn oil
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup butterscotch chips
• 1 cup chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:

1) Position a rack in the middle of the oven . Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and butter the paper.

2) Stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together in a medium bowl and set aside.

3) In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the eggs and sugar until smooth and lightened in color, about 1 minute.  Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing.

4) On low speed, mix the oil, pumpkin, and vanilla until blended.  Mix in the flour mixture to incorporate it.  Mix in the chips.

5) Using an ice cream scoop with a 1/4-cup capacity, scoop mounds of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing the cookies at least 2 1/2-inches apart.

6) Bake the  cookies one sheet at a time until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, about 16 minutes.

7) Cool them on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then use a wide metal spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

8) Enjoy!

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September Daring Bakers’ Challenge: Sugar Cookies

I love sugar cookies. They’re pretty easy to make, you can make them in any shape or size you want and if you have the time and patience, decorating them is very fun. The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

I had a lot of trouble with this dough recipe. I’m not sure if it was a mistake I made, or I just wasn’t used to my dough being this dry, but I had a hard time getting the dough to roll out properly. I ended up more or less handshaping a lot of discs from which I cut out pieces.

I settled upon some fall themed cookie cutters – apples, acorns, and leaves. Fall in  New York is one of my favorite seasons, although the recent rain/humidity spell has not been all that pleasant. I love walking through Central Park when all the leaves have changed and cannot wait to start wearing my jean jacket and boots more often.

I spent a lot of time decorating these cookies, for as you can see from the photos, my lovely roommate decided to make a paper-maché tree to hang them on. It’s possible that the tree was more complicated than the cookies, although it did take me about 2 and half hours to do all the cookies. I’m most proud of the apples, I think they’re just so cute. I had a hard time deciding on colors for the leaves but when it was all set up on the tree, they looked good. Perhaps this new ”fall tree” will be the new fad!