Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies

No one ever called me a baker. Really, its not my thing. But lately - mostly ever since I saw these cookies on this sweet cooking blog - Everybody Likes Sandwiches - I have been having the urge to bake. I had big plans for baking, and I am sure I will still make some of the yummy cakes and pies and cookies I have been dreaming about. But now I remember why I don't really bake - cause I ain't so good at it and it makes a massively huge mess. Well, throw in the fact that I don't know what any of the ingredients are called here, and can't seem to find most of them, and you have these cookies.

Don't get me wrong, taste wise, these were everything I ever dreamed of. But they don't look pretty. Also, chocolate chips are nowhere to be found in Berlin so I got some yummy looking baking chocolate and cut it up. I had little chunks and big chunks and flakes - and so these ended up being more chocolate-swirly-chunky with a bit of pumpkin and oatmeal. The chocolate was really creamy and milky and rich, and I never thought I would say this, but it may have been too much chocolate. Shocking, I know.

Don't worry, I am making these again. Oh yes, I will conquer. And in the meantime, like I said, they still taste absolutely deliciously wonderful.


2 c flour
1 c quick or old-fashioned oats
1 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t salt
1 c (2 sticks) butter
1 c firmly packed brown sugar
1 c sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla (I used something called vanilla sugar cause I could not find vanilla extract here. It has to exist somewhere though...)
1 c cooked and pureed pumpkin
1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used probably almost 2 cups of milk chocolate chunks)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
2. Combine dry ingredients (flour through salt). Set aside.
3. Cream butter. Gradually add both sugars and cream until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and mix well. (Can I just say right here that when you don't have a nifty stand mixer this part SUCKS)(I would like a Kitchen aid mixer for christmas. That is all.)
4. Alternate additions of dry ingredients and pumpkin, mixing well after each addition.
5. Stir in chocolate chips.
6. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto baking sheet, leaving room for cookies to spread (and BOY do they spread). Bake for 10-12 minutes or until tops of cookies are dry and spring back when touched lightly. Remove from baking sheet and cool on racks.

Why I love Fall - Pumpkin

Yes, I love all things pumpkin flavored. Pumpkin Spice Lattes, Pumpkin bread, Pumpkin pie, Pumpkin cake, Pumpkin cookies, Pumpkin Soup...I even like roasted pumpkin seeds.

I saw lots of amazing pumpkins at the Farmers Market this past Saturday and I was a little afraid there wouldn't be anymore around closer to Thanksgiving. And we might not have any of the rest of the meal, but we WILL have pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving. Not to mention I want to try making this Pumpkin-Oatmeal-Chocolate chip cookie recipe. So, I decided to try and preserve some pumpkin to get me through the rest of the season. I did some reading and decided to go with freezing . It was ridiculously easy, which is kinda my style.

I started with 1/2 of a monster of a pumpkin - I am guessing it weighed about 8 or 9 pounds (the half, not the whole). The pumpkin needs to be cooked and pureed - I decided to 'roast' in the oven. I scooped out the guts, split the half into three pieces, brushed liberally with vegetable oil and a bit of salt, and placed on a baking sheet.

Turns out that baking sheet (read MY ONE AND ONLY baking sheet) does not fit in my tiny little European oven. So I moved them onto my pizza stone which worked out just fine. Until I realized they were touching the top of the oven and I had to move the rack down to like the bottom one. Finally I got them to fit in the oven. I baked at 200C (about 400 F) for roughly two hours. It was nice and soft and the peel came of easily.

I scooped out the flesh into a bowl. Here's where I got a little creative. I have no idea if this is going to affect my pumpkin puree or not - but I drained off quite a bit of liquid. It was just swimming in it. There was still quite a bit of liquid in the puree when I was done - but it just seemed like too much at first.

Then I scooped the puree into containers for freezing - I got 2 2-cup containers and 2 1-cup containers for a total of 6 cups of pumpkin puree. Thats enough for a lot of baking - one recipe of cookies takes 1 cup of puree.

I let the puree cool down to room temperature then stuck them in my freezer. Now I have handy fresh pumpkin anytime I want to do some baking. Yay!