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Pumpkin-Spice Chocolate Chip Cookies |  |
Approachable, Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies Made from Scratch With a Twist. A New Addition to The Homemade Pantry, a Kitchen Parade Specialty. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. Potluck, Party & Picnic Friendly. Easy DIY. What're you waiting for?! So Good!!
The Truth Is ...
I've never been a fan of chocolate chip cookies. It's the reason why, after more than twenty years and plenty of cookie recipes, Kitchen Parade has just one recipe for traditional chocolate chip cookies, the Old-Fashioned Chocolate Chip Cookies that make my husband's eyes light up, they remind him so much of his mother's cookies.
And sure, chocolate chip cookies are said to be the world's favorite cookies but to me, they're just a bit too one-note, just flour, sugar, butter and chocolate.
Enter an Alanna-style twist, a classic AK move that's simple to execute and makes chocolate chip cookies (to my taste, anyway) just "better" without turning them into some other entirely different cookie.
Ready for an easy change-up? glow-up? a better version of a long-time favorite? Read on ...
Recipe Overview: Pumpkin-Spice Chocolate Chip Cookies
- These cookies take the very best of a much-loved familiar chocolate chip cookie, gives it twist (with pumpkin-pie style spices plus a touch of molasses) and a twirl (with a mix of chocolate, butterscotch and white chocolate chips). The recipe makes a big batch so good news, it's easy to bake some cookies straight away, then refrigerate the dough for a few days to bake more and better still, freeze the dough for baking a few at a time down the road. The cookies may be baked on bare cookie sheets (my preference) or on parchment (a close second).
- When to Serve = Whenever you're tempted by chocolate, whenever the gang is coming over for a casual meal, whenever a friend needs a quick pick-me-up, whenever the kids are bored with their box lunches ... that is, whenever, anyever
- Distinctive Ingredients = Molasses + Pumpkin Pie Spices (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cardamom and optional clove) + a Mix of Chips (Chocolate, White, Butterscotch or Caramel)
- Short Ingredient List = all the above + butter + vegetable shortening (Crisco) + vanilla + baking soda + baking powder + salt + 3 eggs + flour
- Kitchen Tools = a stand mixer is recommended since the dough is heavy + good baking sheets such as these American-made half sheet pans (affiliate link) that I have long loved + a thin metal spatula (affiliate link) that helps lift cookies off bare cookie sheets. If you prefer parchment, these sheetpan pre-cut parchment sheets (affiliate link) are a total convenience.
- It takes about 20 minutes to mix the dough, about an hour to bake the cookies.
- The recipe calls for an unusual technique with a funny name: the "thwack". After the cookies are baked and just out of the oven, to "thwack" is to hold the cookie sheet a couple of inches above a flat surface (I use a stovetop) and let it drop, hard, onto the surface. This flattens the cookies, creating the excellent chewy outer edges with soft centers.
- Thanks to the molasses and pumpkin pie spices, the cookies are slightly darker than other chocolate chip cookies. The cookies are cracked on top, revealing the chips. Some times, the tops are a little poofy on top, mostly though are flat (it depends on the "thwack").
- This is pantry-friendly recipe, you may well already have all the ingredients on hand. If not, the ingredients are easy to find in any ol' grocery store. If you have your own pumpkin pie spice, sure, go ahead and use it. I happen to love my own Pumpkin Pie Spice, it's wonderful here. If you'd like to mix just enough for this recipe, use 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 2/3 teaspoon ginger and nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon allspice and cardamon plus a sprinkle of optional ground cloves.
- As written, the recipe yields about 5 dozen medium-size cookies.
- Even though it's a big batch, this recipe works especially well for those Cooking for One or Two because (1) it's easy to mix a 1/3 or 2/3 batch and (2) the dough freezes really well, that means it's simple to bake just a few cookies at a time.
- So good! I hope you love these!
- If you like this spicy "twist," check another recipe twist, coffee! Just check out my Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookies.
- Not quite what you're looking for? Check out my other cookie recipes.
For Best Results
For my weekly column in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, I interviewed chefs and translated their restaurant recipes for home kitchens. The most illuminating question? "How can a home cook ensure the same results?" So now I ask that question of myself, too, for my own recipes. Have another question? Ask away, I'll do my best to answer!
Heed the Mixing Instructions This recipe has an unusual mixing method that helps create the extraordinary texture, don't skip that first full five minutes and be sure to do the eggs one at a time, this means the cookie dough is really, really well-mixed before the flour and chips are added at the end.
Mix in the Flour and Chips by Hand At First. This recipe makes a lot of cookie dough, if you add all the flour to the mixing bowl and start up the mixer, it'll shoot flour and even chocolate chips all over the place. Instead, use a big spatula to mix in the flour and chips by hand until the flour is really no longer distinguishable. Then put the mixing bowl back on the stand mixer and mix it on low just until the dough comes together, just a few seconds, probably.
Choose Butterscotch or Caramel Chips for the "Brown" Chips I love peanut butter chips but they just don't have enough "oomph" to stand out. The cookies will still be awesome with peanut butter chips but just not as special.
Don't Overbake! It's easy to overbake these cookies, they're good, just turn into "dunkers" vs the sweet, chewy cookies that are so covetable. So pay attention to the timing in your oven. I've learned to set the timer for 10 minutes, check for doneness, looking for golden edges and soft (but not raw) centers, then add another minute, some times too.
What Makes This Recipe Special
Why would anyone go to the trouble of making chocolate chip cookies from scratch? Here are a few reasons. Why do you make it? Let me know in the comments!
- Takes a familiar favorite, gives it a fun new twist.
- Bake a few cookies now, freeze the rest for later, either in one clump or in individual balls
- Such welcome thanks from family and friends!
- Ready to get started? Here's your recipe!
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PUMPKIN-SPICE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
Baking time: about 1 hour to shape and bake
Time to table: about 90 minutes
Makes 5 dozen medium-size cookies (too many? make bigger cookies LOL or freeze dough balls for baking later or scale the recipe by making a 1/3 or 2/3 batch)
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MIX FOR FIVE MINUTES
- 8 tablespoons (1/4 pound/112g) salted butter, either room temperature or cold from the fridge and diced
- 1/2 cup (100g) shortening (such as Crisco)
- 1-1/4 cups (250g) white sugar
- 1-1/2 cups (300g) brown sugar, preferably dark but light is fine too
- 2 tablespoons (44g) molasses
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (see Pumpkin Pie Spice or use your own favorite blend)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt (assumes Diamond Crystal, use 25% less Morton's Kosher or sea salt; use more if using unsalted butter)
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ONE AT A TIME
- 3 large eggs
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FLOUR & CHIPS
- 4 cups (500g) all-purpose flour
- 1-3/4 cup chips (300g), preferably a mix of chocolate chips, white chocolate chips and caramel or butterscotch chips (see ALANNA's TIPS)
MIX FOR FIVE MINUTES (NOT INCLUDING SCRAPING TIME) If you have a stand mixer, this is a good time to drag it out, this cookie dough is dense and heavy. Add all the ingredients (butter through salt) to the mixer. Set the timer and mix on low at first, scraping the beaters and the bottom and sides of the bowl frequently. With cold butter, more scraping is more frequent and annoying; even with room temperature butter, scrape the beaters, bottom and sides after every minute.
ADD THE EGGS One at a time, add an egg and combine well for about 1 minute each, scraping the beaters and bowl after each addition.
FLOUR & CHIPS In a separate bowl, stir together the flour and chips. By hand with a spatula, stir the flour and chips into the dough (this prevents the flour from flying all over the place), then run the mixer just until the dough is fully combined.
CHILL THE DOUGH? This is optional. See ALANNA's TIPS for why and how. But if you decide to do it, just smooth out the top of the dough, right in the bowl, and cover it with something like waxed paper (my favorite) or plastic wrap. If you need the bowl for something else, gather up the dough and move it to a fridge-safe container with a tight lid.
BAKE Heat the oven to 375F/190C. These cookies may be baked on bare baking sheets (my preference) or on baking sheets lined with parchment.
With a cookie scoop or a heavy spoon, break off a piece of dough about 4 teaspoons (30g) big. If the dough has been chilled, the cookies won't spread much, you can easily do a dozen cookies per baking sheet. If it hasn't been chilled, the cookies will spread slightly more, aim for 8 cookies per sheet, three each along the long sides, two in between.
Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, do check at 10 minutes. The cookies are done when the bottoms are golden and the centers not raw but not firm, either, they'll continue to firm up outside the oven. It's a bit tricky to get the timing right, it's better to underbake than to overbake.
THE THWACK For really nicely chewy cookies with soft centers, straight out of the oven (or after cooling for a minute or two), once or twice or thrice, drop the entire baking sheet flat onto a hard surface like a stovetop from a few inches with a sharp thwack, this further flattens the cookies plus LOL it's a great way to work out a touch of anxiety or frustration! If the cookies break apart after the first thwack, let them cool for a minute or two before thwacking again.
COOL If the cookies were baked on a bare baking sheet, let them continue to cool for 5-10 minutes, then use a metal spatula to lift the cookies off; once lifted, they can stay on the cookie sheet to finish cooling but doing it early prevents sticking. If the cookies were baked on parchment, any spatula will do and they can be lifted off the parchment at any time.
STORE Store in a tight container until one-two-three gone-gone-gone. The cookies stay fresh for a good week.
WHY CHILL COOKIE DOUGH BEFORE BAKING COOKIES? Time was, food bloggers experimented with chilling cookie dough for 6 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours, 48 hours, even 10 days! Many, many of us came away feeling confident that this practice improves taste, texture, shape and color. As I recall, the sweet spot was at 24 hours (and who can wait more than that???) but even a few hours in the fridge gives the wet ingredients a chance to hydrate the flour and the fats to re-solidify, making the dough firmer. King Arthur claims that even 30 minutes makes a difference. Still, you might experiment yourself, just to see. And I promise, around here, nobody but nobody complains about cookies baked straight away, no chill time. And? My own preference is to bake the cookies straight away, no chilling, I just like the color a little better.
FREEZE COOKIE DOUGH This dough is dense, that means it freezes extra well. Some times I pack it into a freezer container, press wax paper across the top to prevent freezer burn and freeze the whole container. But usually I freeze unbaked dough shaped into 30g balls very slightly flattened. It's so cool to be able to then later (say at midnight after a night out?! or if one of the grandkids has a hard day at school?) bake a few cookies at a time, worth the extra finagling to freeze dough balls. Here's how I do it. I arrange the dough balls on a plate or some other flat surface and freeze them like this for an hour or so. Then I move the frozen dough balls into a freezer container, separating the layers with wax paper. To bake the frozen balls, pull as many as you want from the freezer, arrange on a baking sheet and bake straight from the frozen state, adding a minute or two to the oven time.
Kinda to my surprise, these cookies are "extra special" with three kinds and colors of "chocolate" chips. The most important chips show up in on store shelves in the fall, the butterscotch (my favorite) and caramel chips, also the peanut butter chips though these are less distinctive. You really don't want to skip one of these! The white chocolate chips add a nice color contrast too. For chocolate chips, I go back and forth between mini chips (especially if baking smaller cookies) and the usual larger chips. If you check the cookies after five minutes in the oven, you'll be worrying if you maybe should've flattened the dough balls a bit. Be strong! They'll flatten out beautifully during the last 5-7 minutes.
FOR MORE INFO If you "skipped straight to the recipe," please scroll back to the top of this page for ingredient information, ingredient substitutions, tips and more.
If you print this recipe, you'll want to check the recipe online for even more tips and extra information about ingredient substitutions, best results and more. See https://www.kitchenparade.com/2024/10/pumpkin-spice-chocolate-chip-cookies.html .
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Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences.
Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail, you'll find my current address in the FAQs. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, for more scratch cooking recipes using whole, healthful ingredients, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. If you make this recipe, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below.
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Thank you for taking a moment to write! I read each and every comment, for each and every recipe. If you have a specific question, it's nearly always answered quick-quick. But I also love hearing your reactions, your curiosity, even your concerns! When you've made a recipe, I especially love to know how it turned out, what variations you made, what you'll do differently the next time. ~ Alanna