Friday, September 12, 2014

easy chewy pumpkin oatmeal cookies + white chocolate


The school year is officially in motion. The trees are blushing all different hues of red and oranges, fall is upon us. You know what that means right. PUMPKINS! Yay!!! I love pumpkins, pumpkins make me happy, happy happy happy. And you know what I love more than pumpkins, pumpkin cookies, chewy pumpkin oatmeal cookies with white chocolate. To be completely honest I would be perfectly fine with just a chewy spiced oatmeal cookie but when you add pumpkin and white chocolate, God help me. I never told anyone this but I made two batches. shhh.


These cookies are so easy even your kids will be able to whip'em up. If you're looking for something fun to do with the family before the school year gets too hectic this is your recipe. Did I mention they're delicious? They're delicious. 




If you've noticed from my other posts, I don't like preheating the oven until I'm almost ready to bake. To me it's just wasting energy to turn on the oven thirty minutes before you're even close to actually baking. However, for this recipe, because it's a cookie, because it's so easy and quick to put together, the first step is to preheat your oven to 350F. Also line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or lightly greased foil. Notice I bought parchment paper for the first time. now I can call myself a food blogger :-)
In a large bowl beat the butter and the sugar together until pale and creamy. Prior to this step you should leave the butter out to come up to room temperature, which I also did for the first time. You'd think I'd do what I write, but sometimes I don't. Most of the times I don't. Also try to use a comically large bowl, something you know is at least twice as large as you need it to be. This way less sugar flies out of your kitchen when you turn on the mixer. This will save you lots of sleepless nights nightmaring about ants. 


Add an egg, shells not included (not sure why I felt I needed to clarify), and the vanilla. In all my posts I stress vanilla extract discipline. Vanilla is such a strong flavor and if you put too much of it your cookies will taste artificial and cloy. Mix it until well combined and smooth.


Then stir in your all-natural, organic, pure pumpkin puree. You can use either the canned or the fresh variety, but please get the good stuff. Don't settle for some shady pumpkin mash that's 80% off. You know why it's 80% off, cause it's pureed fish bones that's what it is. The more you Chow. The more you know. It's caled a bud pun people. 
Plus you deserve it. Don't tell the kids or the husband (or your brother in my case) this but you deserve it. It can get pretty annoying being trapped in a house with one or all of these people for the entire summer. 


In another bowl, size doesn't matter with this one, combine all of your dry ingredients. These include the flour, oats, baking soda, spices, and salt. The salt is very important to balance the sweetness of the cookies. Plus it's always a good rule of thumb to season anything that is really starchy such as pumpkin or potato. Whisk well to get rid of lumps.


I just wanted to remind everyone to use their whole spices and grind them on the spot. Oh you don't own whole spices. Now I know I'm more exotic than you are. 


Now switch to a spatula and mix the dry ingredients into the pumpkin/butter mixture. Careful not to overmix because that'll work the glutens in the flour which will make the cookies tough. I good rule of thumb is to stir twice after you cannot see anymore flour. 


Cookie/ice cream scoop mounds of the dough onto the prepared sheets and bake for 13-16 minutes. It'll be very difficult to know when the cookies are done because they start out orange, but take it from me you don't even need to look at the cookies until 12 minutes have elapsed. Look for the surface to be dry and the edges to be golden brown. Even orange food turns a noticeable shade of brown. Cool completely before eating and storing. I consider these cookies one of the more tackier types of cookies just because of the pumpkin so be meticulous in how you store these and where they cool. To be safe I literally cut squares of parchment paper and put them in between every cookie. It's not a photo styling thing, I'm seriously worried about them sticking. I saw you roll your eyes at me.


I know many of you have been waiting for this one for quite some time now and I'm sorry about the delay. In my defense I had a really busy week but you can be assured these don't happen often. I'm not a very busy person. I pretty much make cookies and eat them all day sooo...And as always, 
Chow!



Recipe

2 cup flour
1 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
3/8 teaspoon ground allspice
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup white chocolate chips

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