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.

Birthday Cake in a Jar

Two of my favorite co-workers share their birthdays, and I wanted to make them this insanely cute cake in a jar. Much to my dismay, the coloring didn't quite turn out like I'd planned. The flavor was fantastic, and the centers of the cake were wonderfully colorful, but the outsides weren't too cute. See?

Delicious? Yes. Cute enough to gift to two friends? Absolutely not.

I tried again, going to painstaking lengths to ensure beautiful and even layering... and yielded similar results. So I gave up, make a double batch of vanilla cupcake batter from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, added some sprinkles and dyed buttercream frosting, and called it a day. The cake turned out decent enough to give them away, but I'm hellbent on getting that rainbow cake right... Any suggestions, fellow bakers?

I had enough leftover to pack a tiny one for my lunch, too!

Now it's time to get ready for the weekend, hooray! I'm going to Gettysburg to visit a friend from high school. On the way to work this morning, it occurred to me that Julie and I have been friends for about 10 years now, which just seems crazy to me. I'm looking forward to seeing her, and we've got plans for pumpkin penne and an apple festival!

What are your plans for the weekend? Headed out anywhere? Hanging around the house? Whatever you do, I hope your weekend is fun and safe!