Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

In keeping with the spirit of fall, and the fact that this weekend we have multiple Halloween parties to attend, I have decided to make pumpkin and apple treats this weekend.  The original thought was pumpkin bars, but I didn't feel like cooking with cream cheese today - yes I know I am weird.  So I transfered my attention to cookies.  Now I have already made some wonderful pumpkin spice cookies but they were missing the one ingredient I DID want to work with  - chocolate.  And so, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies were created!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1 c Butter or Margarine, softened
• 3 c Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 2 c Pumpkin Purée
• 2 t Vanilla
• 2 t Cinnamon
• 1 t Nutmeg
• 1/2 t Cloves
• 4 1/4 c + 2T Flour *
• 2 t Baking Powder
• 2 T Baking Soda
• 1 c Chocolate Chips

1. Preheat your oven to 375 F.  Lightly grease your cookie sheets and set aside.
2. Cream together the butter, sugar, eggs, pumpkin, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
3. Add the powder and soda to the mix and blend well.
4. Slowly add in the flour 1 c at a time until all the flour is added and mixed well.
5. Finally add in your chocolate chips - I never actually measure chocolate chips, I just pour :-D.
6. Drop the batter by rounded spoonfuls onto your greased cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes.
7. ENJOY

This recipe makes a LOT of cookies.  If you make them on the smaller side you could easily get 8 dozen.  I got just shy of 7 dozen and they were fairly large.  The calorie count obviously depends on how many cookies you make.  For my 80 cookies the calories came in at 79/cookie.  Not all that bad considering they are a COOKIE made with butter, sugar, flour and CHOCOLATE.  They are pretty good and I will be bringing them to the first of the Halloween parties this weekend.

This is a THIRD of the batch!

*I have starred this ingredient due to the "crazy" quantity.  The recipe that I adapted for this cookie required "cake flour".  I only buy all purpose flour (and the occasional graham).  The difference between pastry, bread, all purpose, etc flours is the amount of gluten present in the flour.  I have a conversion chart that I reference when something like this comes up and I have decided it might be a nice thing to share:

When the recipe calls for:	Substitute:
1 cup sifted cake flour	1 cup minus 2 tablespoons sifted all-purpose flour
1 cup pastry flour	1 cup minus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 cup self-rising flour	1 cup minus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour plus 11/2teaspoons baking powder and 1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour	1 cup plus 1 tablespoon pastry flour

I hope that will help you all as much as it helps me - I just don't have room to keep all the different types of flour in my house!

As always if you give these cookies a try let me know your thoughts!!