CHEWY PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Plus: 12 delicious ways to make the most of pumpkin season (a soothing pumpkin ramen, gluten-free pumpkin waffles, a pumpkin snacking cake and so much more)!

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Hi, friends.

Although I still have a lot to say (and bake) about apples, we’ve lept right into pumpkin season, and I’m here for it. I come from a long line of squash lovers who find winter squashes grounding and earthy—the best way to accept the pending cold. Once I have my first taste (usually a roasted winter squash, with a touch of brown sugar and butter—the way my mom always baked it), there’s no turning back.

We aren't talking about pumpkin spice lattes here. I’m far more interested in Pumpkin Waffles, pumpkin soups, pumpkin muffins, and, as of this week, my new obsession: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies.

It happened like this: Motivated by our forthcoming visit to see Grandma and Granddad (who loves good grooming), I finally booked a haircut for my son. We’ve been pushing the line between shaggy chic and an accidental mullet for weeks. Afterward, we went for a Mama-Mátyás date at the diner, his favorite, for chicken soup and their triple chocolate cake.

The diner is his special place with his dad; I only pop in there occasionally, but I usually leave with one discovery that has me coming back for more. Enormous, Jack-of-all-trade diner menus can be so overwhelming (and underwhelming, at the same time). Yet, this one has proven to have excellent souvlaki, reliable omelets, and grandma-style homemade soups—plus a solid rice pudding and other classic desserts.

As we swung from our chairs at the bar, taking in Mátyás’ sweet high and tight fade around his ears, I locked on a new offering in the pastry case: a giant pumpkin chocolate chip cookie. It was fluffy, oversized, chewy, and loaded with chocolate.

Visually, I was sold. We portioned it into mini pie wedges to dip in our tea later that night, before bedtime, and though the texture was spot on—a virtual cookie dream—it was, mostly, a mouth full of cloves. I couldn’t taste the pumpkin, chocolate, or the cookie itself.

“Easy on the cloves, guys,” I said. This made my daughter laugh.

“That’s a great title for an article, Mamma,” she said.

“I want that on a T-shirt,” I responded. I’d wear it all over town for the month of October.

Whenever you add pumpkin pie spice to anything—a latte, a muffin, and certainly a cookie, it will have notes of cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg but also allspice and cloves. Allspice and cloves are a delicate thing: add too much, and you overpower the whole thing. Pumpkin pie spice, the all-in-one fall flavor trick of the masses, leans heavily clove-forward, IMO. This means that many pumpkin-pie-spiced treats of the season just aren’t it, as the young people say.

A better way to get that fall vibes flavor while still tapping into pumpkin's magic is to add a bit of cinnamon and maybe a dash of dried ginger or freshly grated nutmeg, if you’d like. With that in mind, I set you to recreate the diner cookie with all the same visual and textural charm and a bit more balance.

Reverse engineering something you ate once in a bakery without an ingredient list is never easy, but sometimes it’s worth it. It took the better part of a week, but the result is a beautifully dense, chewy cookie, chocolatey in all the right ways, and pumpkin enough to feel like a seasonal treat.

This baby swings the pendulum beautifully between grown-up indulgence and a comforting kid classic. My kids and their pals gobbled them up warm after school yesterday (obvious to the Vitamins A, C, E, Potassium, fiber, folate, iron, and B2 the added pumpkin imparted), and a dear mama friend and I munched ours—with added pecans and sea salt—over a long, deep chat.

It’s a small kindness to return home to a warm, oozy chocolate cookie and eat them wrapped in a mother’s hugs and love.

A quick note on ingredients: I bake 95% of my cookies gluten-free (Cup for Cup or One for One Gluten-Free all-purpose flour makes it super simple to get all the right textures). This time, I went all in for the chew of bread flour, which shines here, especially against the wetness of pumpkin puree (see notes about how to solve that, below). Yes, you can use all AP flour, they will still be delicious.

This cookie takes cues from many famed cookies: The Levain bakery chocolate chip (fat and chewy), these beloved gems from  (published in the New York Times; thus, bread flour and the rest time), and all the best pumpkin muffins and bread I’ve ever made—minus the cakey-ness.

I tried baking them with only chocolate (20 ounces will be super chocolatey and less pumpkin-forward; with 15 ounces, you taste more pumpkin but still plenty of decadence) and a batch with toasted pecan halves and sea salt. We tasted them both warm (a delight) and cooled (to my surprise, this version wins for that chewy satisfaction). I did a batch utilizing the

Zoë François

Smash Cookie technique, which worked beautifully here, as might Sarah Keiffer’s pan-banging technique (though with a lot less spread because these cookies are lower in sugar content). Both will give you an open, crackly finish.

All these notes are included in the recipe below. But enough baking jargon. Get to it! Below the recipe, find links to 12 other PUMPKIN TREATS to warm your October days—a well-curated list of sweet and savory recipes that won’t disappoint.

xx

Sarah

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CHEWY, PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

• 2 cups AP flour (10 ounces)

• 1⅔ cups bread flour ( 8½ ounces)

• 1¼ teaspoons baking soda

• 1½ teaspoons baking powder

• 1½ teaspoons coarse salt

• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

• pinch ground ginger, optional

• 1 cups unsalted butter (2 sticks), melted

• 1¼ cups dark brown sugar (10 ounces)

• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar (8 ounces)

• 1 large egg plus 2 egg yolks

• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree, drained or blotted to remove excess moisture*

• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

• 15 to 20 ounces large bittersweet or dark chocolate chips

• ½ cup pecan halves, optional

• Flaky Sea salt, such as Maldon

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C) or 350 using the convection setting. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

2. Whisk together the AP and bread flour, sugars, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Whisk together the melted butter, egg, egg yolks, pumpkin puree, and vanilla; whisk vigorously to blend. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients to create a cohesive dough. Mix in the chocolate, reserving just a bit for the tops, making sure they’re evenly distributed throughout the dough. 

3. Scoop the dough by golf-ball-sized rounds (3 ½ ounces each) –a large ice cream scoop works perfectly for this. Roll into balls if they are craggly or messy (scooped cookies generally don’t need this step). Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for 24 to 72 hours. 

4. Arrange the chilled dough on prepared baking sheets with at least 2 inches between them; these are big and they will spread. Allow them to sit on the counter for 10 minutes to soften slightly (but, not longer). Press reserved chocolate into the tops of the cookies. Divide the pecans between the cookies, if using. 

5. Bake, one sheet at a time, until crispy on the outside edges and soft and just a touch underbaked-looking inside (they will continue to bake on the pan as they cool), 18 to 22 minutes, depending on how soft you like the insides of your cookies. If you’d like, bang the pan on the counter after 18 minutes of baking to let the dough settle to create cracks–then continue baking until finished. Alternatively, you can press the cookies lightly with a flat, metal spatula just after baking (this will smear the chocolate chips but also open up the insides to cool in a beautifully chewy way). 

6. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with salt while still warm—an essential for bringing these flavors together. Let cool on the pan for at least 5 minutes before transferring to plates to serve warm, or cool completely and serve at room temperature. 

*To remove excess moisture from the pumpkin puree, set it in a strainer over a bowl while you measure all your ingredients. You can also “blot” it dry using unbleached paper towels.

PREP TIME: 15 MINUTES // TOTAL TIME: 45 MINUTES

MAKES ABOUT 20 to 22  5-INCH COOKIES 

GET AHEAD: Because the dough only improves with time, it’s worth keeping some. We bake one sheet right away, then save the rest in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer for sheet-by-sheet baking as needed.

✨ This is WILD, but I just learned how to make some of these posts shoppable, so if you want to load these ingredients into your grocery cart, you could have the bulk of these groceries delivered to your front door via InstaCart* as soon as today. Check the ingredients for amounts and veto or search alternatives if you prefer a different brand/style (organic, conventional, etc).✨

12 PUMPKIN TREATS*:

Tender, Gluten-Free Pumpkin Waffles (or Pancakes!)

Pumpkin Miso Ramen with Kale, Crushed Peanuts and Chile Oil

Spiced Pumpkin Snacking Cake with Chocolate Buttercream (by

Jessie Sheehan

)

Pumpkin Black Bean Soup (by

deb perelman

)

One-Pot Cheesy Pumpkin Pasta (by

Caroline Chambers

)

Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Mousse (by

Liz Prueitt

)

Caramelized Pumpkin Banana Pudding (by

channey

)

Healthy Pumpkin Spice Latte (by

Dr.Viv

)

Pumpkin Loaf with Brown Butter Glaze (by

Kristen Faith Eats

)

Pumpkin Crumb Cake by Yossy Arefi for New York Times (unlocked!)

Pumpkin Roll by Samantha Seneviratne for New York Times (unlocked!)

Pumpkin Flan* (by

Nik Sharma

)

*I try to include only recipes that don’t require a subscription, or that I can unlock and gift to you with my paid subscription, with the exception of Nik’s flan. Flan lovers, you get it—this one is just too gorgeous and evocative not to include!)

P.S. A moment for Squash! I couldn’t break form and squeeze these into a list about pumpkins, BUT, these three squash recipes especially caught my eye this week, too:

Roasted Butternut Squash and Garlic Soup with Croutons (by

Alexandra Stafford

)

Winter Squash Caponata (by

Domenica Marchetti

)

Roasted Squash Cappellacci (by

Giulia Scarpaleggia

)

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Photos and styling by Sarah Copeland. Pumpkin carving photo (of my kids, a few falls ago—my how little they were!!) by Harrison Lubin.