Silas and Kathrynne helped me make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies tonight. We had a blast making them together — and enjoying taste-testing the batter before baking the cookies.
These cookies were very easy to make. I substituted raw sugar for both the brown and regular sugar. And I subbed melted butter for the oil.
Oh and I didn’t see that I was supposed to mix the baking soda in the milk in time. I’d already mixed the baking soda into the dry ingredients, so I just went with that and left the milk out. I’m assuming the purpose of mixing it in is to prevent it from clumping and making a nice bitter bite in a cookie? But truly, that’s just a guess. Anyone know a better reason?
The final result was pretty good. I wouldn’t say they were fantastic. And they were not anywhere near as good as our family’s favorite Whole-Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies.
But they weren’t bad. Just different… I think most of that was because the pumpkin makes them more cake-y and softer than a typical cookie.
Vanessa says
My husband loves pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, but I personally don’t really care for the cakey texture of the cookies. In my search for the perfect pumpkin cookie, I noticed this Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookie recipe and I can’t wait to try it. The cookies don’t look to be cakey. I haven’t tried this yet, but I just found some $.99 pumpkin yesterday and this recipe is next on my to-try list. 🙂
http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/pumpkin-oatmeal-cookies/
Ellen says
Hello! Thanks for linking back! I’m really enjoying your site…that article about how to make some extra money before Christmas is just what I need right now. I’m sorry the cookies weren’t quite what you expected! They’re definitely meant to be more like cake bites than a traditional cookie. I hope the kids enjoyed making them!
Carolyn says
Mixing the soda in with the milk in advance gives a better lift. It’s fun to watch if nothing else 🙂 because the milk will foam up. Kind of like a famous baking soda and vinegar volcano science project!
Sarah says
I think that’s the key. I did a web search and found this explanation:
“Baking powder is a combination of baking soda and an acid. When you add baking
powder to water or milk, the alkali and the acid react with one another and produce
carbon dioxide bubbles.”
The carbon dioxide bubbles are fun to see, and the bubbling is part of what helps with leavening, I think.
Shari Lynne @ Faith Filled Food for Moms and Grandmothers says
Yum, we LOVE Pumpkin..and I’ve never tried it with Chocolate..who wouldn’t love that!
Blessings!
Allyson @ All Our Days says
I might need to play around with these to make some pumpkin breakfast cookies. No one complains about cookies tasting funny when they get to eat them for breakfast 🙂
Crystal says
Yes, that’s a great idea! 🙂 Let me know what you come up with!
alissa says
We make these alot in the fall. This year we have been making them using applesauce or pureed zucchinni instead of the oil, and maple syrup for the sweetener. We have even used butternut squash in place of pumpkin! They are very moist, but I havn’t had any complaints on the taste!
John says
You cannot substitute for the brown sugar if you are using baking soda and there are no other acidic ingredients in the recipe. Baking soda requires an acid in order to activate, and brown sugar is slightly acidic. Otherwise, the baking soda has nothing to activate the leavener, and you get a product that does not rise and may even have a slightly metalic flavor to it.
Julie@teachinggoodeaters says
Your comment has really given me “food” for thought! I play around with recipes all the time, but don’t really understand food chemistry. This inspired me to do some research…
Here are two articles I found:
http://www.wikihow.com/Activate-Baking-Soda
http://www.finecooking.com/item/12173/baking-soda-and-baking-powder
The fine cooking article mentions that you need to not only have acid to activate the baking soda, but you need to have the right balance of acid/ soda. I’m totally fascinated by this now because when I make recipes, I always sub whole wheat flour… when doing this, I noticed that I tasted the baking soda, so I always decrease the amount of baking soda- but maybe I just needed to add some sort of soda… also, I subbed brown sugar for white/ raw sugar in my pumpkin bread once and I noticed that the texture was completely different… didn’t know why until now. Thanks for sharing the tip John… you’ve kind of blown my mind this morning 🙂
Julie@teachinggoodeaters says
oops… meant to say, “add some sort of acid”
Another question… the first article I shared said you could use fruit to activate… wonder if pumpkin has acid— and, if so, enough??
WilliamB says
Pumpkin isn’t acid enough. The classic acids are vinegar, citrus juice, molasses, and buttermilk. One possibility is to add in dry buttermilk. Or you could sub in baking powder, which is a cream of tartar (a dry acid) + baking powder (a dry base), or add cream of tartar; for these you’ll have to do a bit of reserch for amounts as I don’t know the ratios for this.
BTW, traditionally brown sugar was the less refined product than granulated (white) sugar. Nowadays brown sugar is made by adding molasses to granulated sugar. To do this at home the ratio is 1T. molasses + 15 T (=1 cup – 1T) granulated sugar.
Carolyn says
Crystal mentioned subbing RAW sugar… which is simply old fashioned brown sugar or unrefined sugar, which still contains the molasses. I use it as a sub all the time with great results.
SD Deals and Steals Kate says
oh! we love to add pumpkin to stuff! we rarely make cookies/sweets but I do think we could do this! my kids wont mind that they don’t taste like normal cookies – they will just be excited to see chocolate chips!
have you tried freezing them? I think that they would be a good school treat!
Challice says
I can’t believe how grown up your kidlets look! <3 So cute.
Oh yeah, thanks for sharing the recipe. 😉