Pumpkin Cookie-Cakes

I spent a good deal of time this week thinking about what I should do with the two enormous cans of pumpkin in my pantry. To be more precise, I spent the time thinking what I should do first. Quick bread? Cookies? Pie? Soup? There are countless uses for the versatile vegetable puree.

I decided on chocolate-chip pumpkin cookies for today, influenced not the least by the scrumptious photos on this post by Joy the Baker. Since I've lost the recipe I used to use, and Joy's was much healthier than most butter/sugar traps out there, I piggy-backed.


I made the batch pictured here according to the directions on her site with a few modifications: I halved the recipe, replaced half the all-purpose flour with whole wheat, and nixed the powdered sugar at the end. The batch produced ten very large fluffy cookies.

Joy called the cookies "super soft"--I think that's an understatement! They're basically single-portion cakes, tender enough to flake apart at the slightest touch of a fork. You'll get no complaints from me. I enjoyed my first one tonight slightly warmed with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream.


Next time I make these (and there probably will be a next time soon, since I only used a half cup of puree out of the 29oz can) I'll cut back on the sugar a smidgen. My sweet tooth has been fading recently. I'll also experiment with stronger spices. The cookies smell divine, but they're a little...tame. Some ginger will take care of that.