Every fall, I love to bake anything that has a little pumpkin essence in it. This year, I decided on these Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies that I found on foodnetwork.com. After reading the reviews on the website, a lot of people said they turned out more like mini cakes or muffin tops. That got me pretty excited because there’s nothing I love more than a little muffin top (except over skinny jeans).
If you look at the recipe, you’ll see that it requires about 39 pounds of butter. I wasn’t really feeling that butter content so I swapped it with applesauce – 1 cup of applesauce equals 1 stick of butter. It’s a simple trick that I learned. Sometimes it jives perfectly with a cookie recipe and sometimes it doesn’t – it’s worth the gamble though.
I also doubled the pumpkin and added a little more of each spice (cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, ginger). The cookies turned out cakey and delicious. They remind me of little pancakes. I almost want to pour syrup over them but that might be going overboard a little. You can really taste the pumpkin spice flavor in the cookie. Mission accomplished. And of course you can never go wrong with choc chips. I’m currently enjoying my cookies with a chai latte and a little Taylor Swift. Happy Halloween!
In the November issue of Bon Appetit, I came across a recipe for Butternut Squash Risotto with Shrimp. I love to cook with seasonal vegetables, fruit, and herbs so I thought this risotto was perfect to try. The recipe includes both butternut squash and sage – two ingredients that epitomize fall cooking. All this recipe needs is a side of pumpkin bread to transform it into a full-fledged seasonal feast. Yes, please.