Happy Thanksgiving! We’re Absolutely Thankful for Our Readers

Like most of you on the day before Thanksgiving, we’re a bit distracted. We’re focused on one thing though: Our gratitude to our readers. We appreciate the fact you keep coming back.

While we’re on the topic of distractions, we’ll be closing up shop for the long weekend and returning on Monday, November 29. In the meantime, if you’re fearful that your upcoming holiday gathering is akin to SNL’s recent spoof of a Target Thanksgiving ad, then consider this executive editor’s timeless pumpkin chocolate chip cookies: They are a definite crowd please and can satisfy almost everyone’s dietary (and political) needs.

In the meantime, we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving to you and your loved ones.

Leon Kaye’s Addictive Thanksgiving Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup Miyoko’s Vegan butter or other “healthy” margarine

1 cup organic brown sugar

1/2 cup organic granulated sugar

1 humanely sourced (cage free, organic, etc.) egg (You can try using ¼ cup of applesauce or another alternative if you wish for these to be vegan)

1 cup organic canned pumpkin

1 teaspoon fair trade vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups organic all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon sea salt

2 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger and cloves)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional – or any nuts for that matter)

1 cup or a 12 oz bag of fair trade-certified semisweet chocolate chips (or dark chocolate chips or chunks)

The steps to making these addictive cookies:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F degrees.
2. Grease cookie sheets, or use parchment paper or a silicone baking sheet.
3. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and both sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then fold in the pumpkin and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices; gradually mix into the creamed mixture. Stir in the walnuts and chocolate chips. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets.
4. Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until light brown. Cool on wire racks.
5. Try to eat only one. It so won’t happen.

You can use butter, but using Miyoko’s vegan alternative (which I prefer as it has no palm oil) or a similar product gives the cookies a nice texture, similar to a cake. If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice, a mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice should do the trick. And don’t forget the salt–it brings out the flavor of the chocolate.

The results should look almost the above photo, courtesy Keith McDuffee via Wiki Commons. (The author’s photos never happen as platters of these cookies disappear before he thinks of snapping a pic.).

Lead image credit: Joseph Gonzales via Unsplash