Baker Thursday

Just when you thought this was not really a blog...

Pretty fall colors

As I moved them to the cooling rack,

one got squished...

So we put it out of its misery.

Bakery-Style Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
(from allrecipes.com, with some tweaks...)

1 cup + 1 tablespoon canned pumpkin pie mix
2/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
red food coloring (optional)

Directions:
Beat together pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, vanilla and egg. Dissolve the baking soda in milk and beat in, along with two drops of red food coloring. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture, stirring with spoon and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 365 degrees F for approximately 12 minutes or until lightly brown and firm. Cool on rack. Serve warm.

Substitutions:

• If using 1 c. plain canned pumpkin, change sugar amount to 1 c.
• If pumpkin pie spice is unavailable, use 1 tsp. cinnamon, and 1/4 tsp. each: nutmeg, ginger and cloves.

Note:

• The red food coloring helps brighten the color of the cookie, so it looks more golden orange, as opposed to brown.
• If possible, use light instead of dark cookie sheet. I tried both and the cookies baked darker on the dark sheet. Also, if you need to bake at 350 degrees, check cookies after 14 minutes.
• And I bet buttercream or cream cheese icing on top would be a fantastic addition.