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My friends have the best recipes!  This one was passed to me a few years ago and it is very well worn!  It’s a chocolate cookie with chocolate chips – or peanut butter chips.  Completely delicious!  They also work well straight from the freezer.  In these pictures, I show how to put them on a tray to freeze.  Then just throw the frozen balls in a zip top bag in the freezer and you’re ready to put a handful in the oven when you have company unexpectedly stop by!  You may need to add a minute or two to the cooking time, but I haven’t noticed a significant difference.

I also find that when I deliver a meal to a friend who is sick or had a baby or just returned home from a funeral, I can bring them this way.  The dough is wrapped in parchment paper and tied with a  ribbon.  I write the cooking instructions in permanent marker on the cookie cylinder.  Then all they need to to is spend 10 minutes cooking them for fresh baked dessert deliciousness!

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cream:

1c. butter

2c. sugar

Add until mixed:

2 eggs

2t. vanilla

Add:

2c. flour

3/4c. baking cocoa

1t. baking soda

1/2t. salt

When the ingredients are all incorporated, add 1 package of chocolate chips or peanut butter chips and stir until just mixed.  Place on cookie sheet a few inches apart – do not bake them as close together as these pictures show.  I was freezing mine raw, so I didn’t need space for them to spread.  Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.  Don’t over bake them.  You want chewy and decadent, not hard and crunchy!

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You know when you need 5 dozen cookies in a hurry?  You haven’t gotten any butter to room temperature, so you know that in order to make cookies, you’re going to have chunks of butter and sugar jumping out of your Kitchen Aid all over your counters?  That is definitely one of my least favorite baking scenarios.  It’s right up there with putting in the flour and accidentally going past speed one all the way to 5 and having flour snow all over my kitchen!

When I have a day like that and I need to make something quickly that yields a lot and skips the cold butter scenario, I make these.  I always have pumpkin and chocolate chips on hand and the rest are just baking staples.  So here is one of my favorites, passed on to me from a dear friend years ago, and now I’m passing it on to you.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 Big can of pumpkin, 29 oz. (not pumpkin pie filling, just pumpkin puree)

2c. sugar (I used raw sugar in these and it was amazing)

4c. flour

3/4c. canola oil (I bet coconut oil would be great, but when I need fast, I skip the oil melting step and use canola)

2 eggs

2t. cinnamon

2t. baking soda

4t. baking powder

1/2t. salt

2t. vanilla

2T. milk

1 package chocolate chips (2c.)

This is not the kind of recipe with tons of specific instructions so just dump it all into the bowl and stir until it is well mixed.  I usually keep out the chocolate chips until it’s well blended and then add them in last with a quick stir.  Bake them in a 375 degree oven for 12-15 minutes.  They are sort of a cross between a cupcake and a cookie.  They don’t spread a ton, so I can usually fit 13 on a pan, but somehow I missed the spacing on this one!  When the timer goes off at 12 minutes, feel the top with your finger to see if it springs back.  If it feels firm and cooked through, take them out.  My first pan always sets the gauge for the rest of the pans.  If they cook in 13 minutes, I know all the rest will too.  

I hope you love these little bites of heaven as much as we do!

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