*Recipe* Pumpkin Oatmeal Choco-Chip Cookies

Probably my favorite thing about Fall is everything pumpkin (insert white girl joke here!)  I had been looking for a recipe to use up some of the pumpkin from my Pumpkin Spice Latte and when I saw these cookies I thought they sounded amazing.  I have tried some pumpkin cookie recipes before but they always go cakey, which I am not in love with.  This recipe said that they would not be cakey, but more like a traditional chocolate chip cookie so I knew I had to try it.  The recipe is kind of complicated (well, not complicated, just involved) but it is totally worth the work.  I generally never eat my own baking but I can hardly keep my hands off these, and I had requests from the wives at the guys at work for the recipe as well.  So enjoy these cookies and the rest of your October!

INGREDIENTS

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened OR 1/2 cup softened coconut oil and 1/4 cup softened butter
• 1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling, not the entire can)
• 1 large egg yolk, discard or save the whites for another recipe
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 and 1/2 cup white all-purpose flour I used 1 cup white and 1/2 cup coconut flour.  *If you use the 1/2 cup coconut flour, be sure to add 1 extra Tablespoon pumpkin to add some moisture* 
• 1 and 1/2 cup quick oats
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons chocolate chips of your choice.  I used 1/4 cup white chocolate chips and a large Ritter's Dark Chocolate bar I had in the freezer that I wanted to use up.  I just smashed it into pieces with a rolling pin. The size of the chunks is up to you, I like quite big ones.  

INSTRUCTIONS

1. There are quite a few little extra notes about this recipe, so that they don't turn out cakey.  Feel free to adapt for your time frame or preference.  
2. In a large bowl, with hand mixers beat together the butter or butter and coconut oil (softened and not melted) with the brown sugar and white sugar.
3. Beat in the pumpkin, egg yolk, and vanilla. (Make sure your canned pumpkin is high quality and not watery. If it is watery your cookies will be more cakey. Dab the pumpkin with some paper towels if needed.)
4. In another bowl stir together the flour, quick oats, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. If you like more seasonings in your pumpkin cookies feel free to add them here. Some ideas would be some pumpkin pie spice, more cinnamon, a little bit of nutmeg, allspice, cloves, etc.
5. Please note as you measure your flour that packing in too much flour will also lead to cakey cookies.  Too little flour and your cookies will spread way too much and too much flour and they will be cakey. If experiencing either of these problems, you likely measured your flour incorrectly.
6. Add the dry to the wet and mix until just combined.
7. The mixture should pull away from the edges once all the flour is added. Stir in the chocolate chips.
8. Cover and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes and preferably 1 or more hours. I usually refrigerate my cookie dough overnight as tests have shown the cookie not only tastes better but bakes better after 24 hours in the fridge.  This is a crucial step and if skipped your cookies will likely spread like a pancake.
9. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
10. Once the dough has been chilled, line a baking sheet with a nonstick liner (or parchment paper). If you don't do this the cookies will burn on the edges before they are cooked through.  
11. Roll the balls of dough quite large and taller than wider.  The original recipe I used said to roll 2 small balls and stack them on top of each other and smash down a bit.  they actually do taste a bit better this way but I don't think it is necessary.  
12. Once you've rolled about 8-10 balls of dough, chill on the cookie sheet in the fridge for another 10-15 minutes. (I only put 8-10 cookies on a cookie sheet as they spread quite large depending on how much dough you have rolled -- I use 2-3 tablespoons per cookie)
13. While one batch is chilling you can work on rolling out another one.
14. Take the tray right from the fridge and place it in the oven.
15. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until very lightly browned at the bottom/sides. The key to these cookies is slightly under-baking - that will keep them soft and chewy in the inside.
16. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for another 1-2 minutes on the baking sheet before removing them to a wire cooling rack. This is optional but huge for appearance.
17. These cookies taste even better the next day -- the cinnamon and pumpkin flavor have definitely intensified by then!
18. Store in an airtight container.

Recipe adapted from  Chelsea's Messy Apron