Biz's Baking Extravaganza!

So why, on a Monday night, was I baking at 10pm?
2 reasons:
1. Presentation for Organic Chemistry Lab (the presenters, my roommate and me, had to bring in food.)
2. I had to go home to bake because there's not enough room in my apartment to make this much of a mess:

(and this was after half had been cleaned-up)

To be fair, I had a lot of help. My mom made the brownies before I even showed-up. (I was a little disappointed because I have a special connection with that recipe - the barefoot contessa's "outrageous brownies" - but it helped me out a lot in the long run.) She also made the dough for the oatmeal raisin walnut cookies, the recipe of which I am not giving you!!! Because I am a spiteful person/the recipe is on a notecard in Wexford. (If you want it, leave a comment.) However, here are some of my favorite moments in the process:

floury goodness stage (the best time to taste the batter)


mama chaps mixing it up :)


next morning dough balls


finished oatmeal raisin cookies


close-up of oatmeal raisin cookies and brownies


i dolci con le noci
(I made a some oatmeal cookies w/o walnuts for George (see below), my roommate (Zaz), and her boyfriend, so the note was there to differentiate.)

Now to get to the real subject of today's post:

Pumpkin White and Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is a recipe taken from the food network's website:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_35182,00.html
with some slight modifications.

Every time I make a combo of desserts with these included, these go first and I always get asked for the recipe. This is when I write down the URL on a slip of paper and hand it to the questioning chef. They are officially George Bandik's favorite cookie (of which I am very proud.) I would describe them as everything you might want in a chocolate chip cookie. They're soft, moist, and almost fluffy (depending on how long you bake them), and because of the pumpkin, they have a subtle flavor that makes them better than a plain-jane cookie with just a flour base.

Here is the recipe (again, almost verbatim from the one on foodtv.com by George Duran):

1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs (I used one large, one extra large)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup canned pumpkin puree (I have also used butternut squash puree - the cookies are less fluffy this way, a little more moist and dense)
3 cups all-purpose flour (I don't fill the cups all the way, leave just a little room)
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 (rounded) teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 (rounded) teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 (rounded) teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup milk chocolate chips (do NOT use semisweet, it does not go well with the pumpkin)
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

1. Beat the butter with a mixer until it's smooth, and then add the sugars. This is what it will look like:

2. Do NOT stop mixing the butter and sugar when it is thoroughly combined. This is too soon. Let the mixer run until it is light and fluffy as seen below (sorry about the yellow, something was going on with the camera). By the way, I have done the mixing by hand, and it is a huge pain in the ass.

3. Beat in the eggs, then the vanilla, then the pumpkin puree.

after pumpkin puree added (camera still being a ridiculous, but it should be kind of orange)

4. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices with a whisk. Then slowly incorporate this mixture into the pumpkin mix. (Don't overmix, but make sure it's well combined. Overmixing = tough cookie.) Mix in the chips, and you're done with the batter!

after chips added

At this point you can either bake the cookies right away or stick them in the fridge overnight and make them in the morning. I like to do second because the dough is easier to work with that way, and I think the cookies hold together better in the oven.

Bake the cookies at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 12-17 minutes on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

And you get these:

the pumpkin parade of deliciousness!

This post just made me really hungry for cookies... I wonder what excuse I can make them for next...

~*'Biz'*~