Haters to the left! I’m about to drop another pumpkin recipe on you.

This one is near and dear to my heart, too. My mama makes a version of these cookies that I’ve enjoyed eating six or eight of in one sitting for most of my life. I’ve made a few small tweaks to her secret recipe, and I think you’ll love it.

One of my favorite things about it, too, was that we never made just one batch at a time. It uses exactly half a can of pumpkin, so more often than not we would just double the amount of cookies we were making! Problem solved! In the best way possible. And with a family of six, the larger quantity was a smart idea anyway. Otherwise the batch wouldn’t last a day.

I have baked, shared, brought to events and loved this recipe for nearly 30 years. I’m not sure why I haven’t posted it on the blog before now. Most of my childhood friends and definitely my family members have all had a taste of these cookies.

One of my personal tweaks to the recipe has just been to add a sprinkle of fancy sea salt on the top. I love the little bite of saltiness contrasting with the sweetness of the chocolate and pumpkin. And most of the time, I use homemade pumpkin puree because I have a TON of it in my freezer. The canned stuff also works! I find that the canned pumpkin makes it a little sweeter tasting, and the homemade puree makes it more vegetal. Both good options – pick whichever one works for you.

Salted Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ginger
• 1/8 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• Coarse or big-flake sea salt, for sprinkling

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line your cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, then add the pumpkin, salt and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together the baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and flour. Fold into the wet mixture using a spatula or a stand mixer on low until just barely combined. Finally, fold in the chocolate chips. Chill for 30 minutes.
3. Drop onto the cookie sheets, leaving about 3 inches of space between them (they shouldn’t spread much). Sprinkle the tops with a small bit of sea salt. Bake for 11 minutes.