Cookies or Muffins?

Sometimes life presents a quandary and this week it was: cookies or muffins? So I made both. Determined to use up a gargantuan amount of leftover pack pumpkin, I began with the following recipe from Taste of Home Magazine for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. Not only were they ethereal (note the past tense), but they were the perfect texture of soft and cakey, with a surprising snap to the outer crust. The inclusion of oats gave them greater moisture and heft. Perhaps…the perfect cookie.

Although tempted to make several more batches of these cookies, I had the wild hare to branch out with muffins. I took one look at a recipe I had for “skinny” Pumpkin Muffins and promptly modified it to feature chocolate chips and a sufficient quantity of sugar. Choking down an inferior muffin with half the sugar doesn’t benefit me when it is primarily a white flour cake made with butter. I’m just keeping it real. With the badly needed inclusion of chocolate and the nutty texture of sunflower seeds on top, these muffins are outstanding. They have none of the sour-metallic flavor prominent in some baking powder quick breads and with a moist crumb inside, they were gobbled up before I could say “carbohydrates.”

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes approximately 48 cookies

1 cup butter, softened

¾ cup brown sugar, packed

¾ cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour (our use half whole wheat and half white flour)

1 cup oats (quick or old-fashioned)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon, ground

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350-degrees. In bowl of standing mixer cream butter and both sugars until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla extract and beat well. In a large bowl whisk together flour, oats, baking soda, and cinnamon. In three additions fold dry mixture into butter mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoons onto greased baking sheets. Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly browned.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins with Sunflower Seeds

Makes 12 muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

¾ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon salt

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup sugar

2 large eggs

¾ cup pumpkin puree

¼ cup milk

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

sunflower seeds (optional)

Preheat oven to 400-degrees. In a large bowl whisk flour, baking powder, spices, and salt. Line a regular muffin pan with paper liners or brush muffin tins with oil. In large bowl of standing mixer beat butter until soft and fluffy and then beat in the sugars. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Carefully, stir in pumpkin and milk. Stir in chocolate chips. Fill muffin cups with approximately ½ cup batter and sprinkle tops with sunflower seeds. Bake about 25 minutes or until muffins are puffed and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Serve warm or at room temperature.