Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Day 7: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I tire quickly of health food... thus, my model good looks, that I referenced earlier.

I mean seriously, who really wants a whole wheat muffin, when you can have two sticks of butter and a cup and a half of sugar (I'm pretty sure we call that a cookie)?

I used to babysit a kid who liked to gnaw on sticks of butter.

Now before you contort your face in disgust, judging this baby's mother mercilessly, and consider shutting down your computer to fix yourself a wheatgerm and spinach smoothie (just so you can feel better about yourself) consider this...

There are approximately 91 grams of fat in a stick of butter. Yes, I know... that's a hefty number (in more ways than one).

BUT...

A hot dog has approximately 18 grams of fat. Times that by 8 in the package... you do the math. I'm tired. A side note: On Halloween, Sonic had their corndogs for 50 cents... (yes, you read correctly; a whole 50 cents cheaper than normal!!!) Do I really need to go into detail about how excited I was, or can I leave it to your imagination?

And a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (which I ate for lunch today -- what AM I? A five year old?) has 14 grams of fat (average sandwich). Times that by 5 school days...

Suddenly, a stick or two of butter doesn't sound so bad. So the next time you're in a hurry and have to get little Johnny off to the school bus... consider sending him out with a stick of butter, wrapped in festive saran wrap... all the other kids will be jealous, and it's really quite a time saver.

OR....
Send him with half a dozen of the best cookies EVER! I give you...Pumpkin Chocolate Chip.














What you'll need:

2 Sticks of butter (room temperature) -- stealing from little Johnny is bad, but it's totally worth it to make these cookies.
1 Cup white sugar
1 Cup light brown sugar
2 Eggs
1 Teaspoon vanilla
2 Cups pumpkin puree
3 Cups all-purpose flour (none of that whole-wheat patooey, here!)
2 Teaspoons baking soda
1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon ginger
1/2 Teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 Teaspoon ground cloves (Yuck. Left this out.)
2 Cups mild chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350*. Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper. For the love of Pete... do this. I didn't. I thought, "parchment paper is for sissies." Well, as it turns out, I'm a sissy. I spent the greater part of the morning, trying to get 12 cookies off of my favorite cookie sheet, and was left with a pile of lifeless cookie parts and crumbs which, thankfully, my dogs devoured. So, line your pans with parchment paper. And I promise not to call you a sissy. Moving on.

Beat butter until fluffy, adding sugars until the mixture is light in color. Beat in the eggs then mix in vanilla and pumpkin. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and spices. Slowly beat the flour mixture into the batter. Fold in the chocolate making sure to set aside a handful for yourself. Just sayin'.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the cookies have browned around the edges. Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and let the cookies "rest" for about two minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack.

These cookies will turn out nice and soft... almost cake-like. I give them an A, and my husband shared them with church folks last night... and considering they ate all the cookies AND the containers they came in... I'm assuming they'd give them an A as well. They're full of flavor and simply yummy. So wrap a few up in festive saran wrap and call it day. Your job, as a parent or caregiver, is done.

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