Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

My two favorite cousins are hosting a Halloween party later this month. A friend of ours asked me to make some food because I "always come up with the most delicious vegan treats." While his comment was flattering, he obvious doesn't know me well: I'd already bookmarked about 10 vegan Halloween recipes, and a whole host of other recipes that I think I could veganize.

I'm kind of paranoid with feeding other people though, because while I'll eat something slightly overcooked or something that looks a hot mess but tastes good, I've got high standards when it comes to feeding other people. So I've started testing out the new recipes in anticipation of Halloween!

I made pumpkin-chocolate chip cookies from Very Vegan Holiday (the most amazing holiday-themed blog!!) over the weekend. Prior to making these, I had a mini-lesson in types of flours, because I didn't realize just how many types of flours there are. The extent of my flour use was basically all-purpose and whole wheat. Pretty limited once I took a good look at the baking aisle in Whole Foods. This is when I accidentally bought baking flour when I wanted all-purpose flour, too. When I got home, I figured baking flour would be fine since I was baking cookies.

Not the case.

 I don't know if it's that's how the recipe is supposed to turn out, or if the flour had something to do with it, but the cookies had a serious cake-like texture. They weren't bad, and in fact were quite flavorful, but the texture was not right. And that's exactly why I test out new recipes before feeding them to people. 

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies

Ingredients:
- 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup shortening
- 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon unsweetened applesauce
- 15 ounce can pumpkin puree
- 1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 lb semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- In a large bowl, cream together the sugars, shortening, applesauce, pumpkin, and vanilla until light and well-combined.
- Mix in the flour, baking soda, and cinnamon until just combined.
- Stir in the chocolate chips
- Drop by teaspoons onto a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 12-13 minutes or until set.
- Let cookies cool on a rack.