Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie Butter Cookies


I have participated in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap since it's inception so, seeing that this is the fourth annual swap, this is my fourth time baking for three fellow food bloggers. This is always a bit stressful because cooking for other people who blog about cooking is a bit of pressure. What if my cookies are terrible? What if they got lost in the mail and sit on a shelf at some post office in Kapuskasing  for a month and get all stale and hard? What if the recipient thinks they taste like dust and cobwebs, dipped in chalk?



No matter, it's the holiday season and so we bake.
This year, I knew I was going to be away right up until December 1st and the mailing deadline is December 3 and I would really be cutting it close. If I made the cookies and they didn't turn out the way I planned, I would have to send them anyway. I had already decided on the recipe before I left on my trip but I had also never made them before. I woke up, jet lagged and groggy and got to work, hoping for the best.

I adapted a recipe that seems to be very popular out there in blogland to use some more of my Trader Joe Spekulas Cookie Butter and a can of Trader Joe pumpkin puree as well as a bag of semi sweet chocolate chips. How have lived all these years without Trader Joe in my life? Trader Joe is like the holiday baking bonanza store.

 I thought they turned out just fine, but I am not the final judge in these matters. The Kid has eaten all of the leftover cookies and, when asked for his opinion,  gave them two big thumbs up, unable to speak due to a mouth crammed full of cookie so I'll take that as a yes.


Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie Butter Cookies

adapted from Ambitious Kitchen

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg white
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 1/2 cup AP flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup chocolate chips
Trader Joe Crunchy Spekulas Cookie Butter
a big pinch of sea salt

Melt the butter in a pan over med high heat , swirling as it foams and turns a nice, nutty, golden brown. Take off the heat and let cool a bit, for about 5 minutes.

Mix the melted butter and sugars in a stand mixer or a bowl with a hand mixer until combined well and then beat in the egg white, vanilla and pumpkin on med high speed until nice and creamy.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.

Turn the stand mixer on again to low and slowly start adding the flour, little by little until it's just mixed and then fold in the chocolate chips. Put the jar of cookie butter and the bowl of cookie dough in the fridge for at least one hour.

preheat oven to 350F

Using about 1 1/2 tbls of cookie dough at a time, roll a ball, flatten it out and then scoop about a tsp of cookie butter onto the center of the circle. Fold the dough around the cookie butter, re roll into a ball and put it on a parchment lined cookie tray, leaving about 2" of space between cookies. Flatten them all a bit and bake them for 13 minutes.

Remove the tray from the oven, sprinkle a little bit of sea salt on each cookie and let them cool in the pan for a few minutes before removing them to a cooling rack.
Makes about 15 big cookies.

Comments

  1. La Cuisine d'HeleneDecember 19, 2014 at 5:32 PM

    I wanted to participate but was away 3 wks in vacation in Asia. Love your cookies because I can't get enough of any baked goods with pumpkins!

    ReplyDelete
  2. TeresaDecember 19, 2014 at 9:49 PM

    I really want to participate next year. I was just too swamped this time. Your cookies sound delicious - I bet your recipient was thrilled!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Carole Nelson BrownDecember 20, 2014 at 2:39 PM

    Actually, I went out for dinner with a group of Canadians who participated this year and we discussed doing our own, smaller exchange next year. It is much more expensive to mail packages in Canada so it costs all of us at least $40 to mail out the 3 parcels and much of the time, they get crushed in transit. I think we should try to do a series of exchanges where groups of bloggers get together and do an exchange and we all donate some money for a local charity. Do you think that might be something that would work?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. TeresaDecember 23, 2014 at 6:24 PM

      It's discouraging how expensive and unreliable Canada Post has become. A series of exchanges under one umbrella, then a day when everyone can post about their experiences and give a shout out to the charity they chose. That sounds like it would work really well. I'd definitely be in.

      Delete

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