Tuesday Tips & Tricks: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

It’s been a while since I shared a Tuesday Tips and Tricks post. I previously shared tips for making an elevated sugar cookie, royal icing consistencies, and baking the best cake. Today I am focusing on a few simple tips to create an elevated pumpkin chocolate chip cookie – perfect for Fall!

I’ve made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies before, but they were very cakey in texture. Not bad at all, but not quite what I was going for. I learned that a super cakey cookie can be due to too much moisture in the cookies; it’s particularly common with pumpkin cookies.

Here are a few things I changed with this year’s batch of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies:

I looked for a recipe that would reduce the moisture by leaving out the eggs. Pumpkin adds moisture and also acts as a binder, so you can do without eggs. I also reduced the moisture in the pumpkin puree by patting it dry with paper towels. I ended up using melted butter instead of cold butter. Beating cold butter adds air pockets that don’t hold up the same way with melted butter. Since the previous attempts were fluffy/cakey, I decided to use melted butter this time.

I made a few other changes to the batter compared to my previous attempts. These don’t change the texture of the cookie, but do enhance the flavor! Here’s what I tried:

I found some special dark chocolate chips that I had been wanting to test out; these were a great fit for them. I used a half-and-half mix of milk and dark chocolate chips. I didn’t just use cinnamon, but created a homemade pumpkin pie spice which included fall-themed flavors that include nutmeg, ginger, allspice, cloves, and even a pinch of black pepper! You might not think black pepper would be used in a cookie, but it enhances the warm spice flavors and cuts through the sweetness of the cookies.

Finally, I often use dark brown sugar but went with light brown sugar to not overpower the pumpkin flavor. I love adding the molasses flavoring and deepening the flavor with dark brown sugar, but I wanted to let the pumpkin and pumpkin spice flavors shine!

I improved the dough texture and enhanced the flavor, but I also wanted to make a few changes that gave an extra special touch to the look of the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies!

Here are a few simple tips to elevate the look of the cookies:

These actually turned out circular, but one thing that can elevate your cookies is to use a metal round cookie cutter and immediately use it to lightly shape cookies right out of the oven. If you do it carefully within the first few minutes, fresh out of the oven, you can even out the shape.

Also, while fresh out of the oven, you can add a few chocolate chips while they are still warm. This elevates the look, as there aren’t usually a lot of chips along the top of the cookie. If placed quickly, they will still melt a bit into the cookie, but mostly hold their shape. You will need to wait about an hour before stacking the cookies, as they take longer to firm up than the other baked chips.

For my cookies, I rolled them into smooth, even balls. I baked some with a smooth-top cookie, but loved the look of a more textured cookie. For this, I broke the smooth ball in half and stacked them on top of each other. This small change elevated the cookie, in my opinion. You can see the difference in the photo below; the left is rolled, and the right is stacked in layers: