Pumpkin Spice Cookies

It’s fall! You know what that means; it’s pumpkin and apple season! While I don’t have any new apple recipes yet, and you can expect at least one in the next few months, I do have a new “pumpkin” recipe. I use the quotation marks because these cookies have a slight pumpkin flavor, but there is no pumpkin used, and the cookies are more about the flavor of the spices and of course the chocolate.

Now, this recipe is fairly easy, it is a traditional chocolate chip cookie recipe, but it does require a “specialty item”. The chocolate chips in the traditional recipe are replaced in this recipe by Pumpkin Spice Caramel Ghirardelli Squares chocolates. According to their website this flavor is available at Wal-Mart and Target.

Just to make everything a little less messy, freeze the chocolate for at least half an hour before you cut them so that the caramel is solid.

What You’ll Need…

1 Cup (2 Sticks) Butter, softened.

¾ Cup Granulated Sugar. (I used cane sugar and it gave the cookies an added crunch.)

¾ Cup Brown Sugar, packed.

1 Teaspoon Vanilla (If you like vanilla, just add a little more.)

2 Eggs

2 ¼ Cups All-Purpose Flour.

1 Teaspoon Baking Soda

½ Teaspoon Salt

½ Tablespoon Pumpkin Pie Spice

8 Pumpkin Spice Caramel Ghirardelli Squares (Chopped)

Pre-heat your oven to 375.

In a large bowl beat together the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla until creamy. Once combined, add the eggs and beat well.

In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. I find that this is easiest with a whisk. Once the dry ingredients are mixed slowly add the wet ingredients and combine.

When everything is mixed well add in the chopped chocolate.

At this point drop the dough onto a greased baking sheet. The size of the cookies depends on your personal preference. I like larger cookies so I use a tablespoon to scoop out the dough; if you like smaller cookies you can use a teaspoon. Don’t use measuring spoons for this part, use spoons that you actually use to eat with.

Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes; this all depends on how you like your cookies.

Once removed from the oven allow the cookies to cool slightly on the baking sheet before moving them to a cooling rack.

The amount of cookies that this makes depends on the size of the cookies. If you make smaller cookies it should make about 4 dozen, a batch of larger cookies should yield about 2 dozen.

Also, this recipe is super easy to double.

Enjoy!