The Candid Cook: Pumpkin CC "Mookies"

My kids are big fans of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. To be completely honest, they are huge fans of anything with chocolate chips. Fortunately for us both, I feel pretty good about making these for them. Pumpkin has a lot of good nutrition and fiber, and because I am using pureed produce, there's not as much extra added fat (butter or oil) as there is in typical sweet muffins.

But here is my quandary. Most pumpkin bread recipes call for 1 cup of canned pumpkin. One cup. That's it. Do you know how much pumpkin is in a CAN of pumpkin? 15 oz! That's way more than a cup! So I either have to pitch the extra or make another batch of muffins soon. Which of course means opening another can to supplement the pumpkin I already have open... and then having leftover pumpkin in the fridge again. It's a vicious cycle, I tell you!

Recently I got the genius idea to increase my recipe so I can use the entire can of pumpkin at once. (I'm just a tad bit OCD, can you tell?) Not only do I get rid of the "extra pumpkin" issue, but we end up with more delicious muffins and they last longer. It's a win-win!

Today I was making a batch of these babies, and I had a thought. (Always a dangerous thing.) The batter for these muffins is pretty stiff and is thick enough to be dropped on a cookie sheet instead of a muffin pan. The result? Mookies! (Muffin-cookies). You get the size and look of a cookie, yet the fluffiness of a muffin. Plus it's way easier to wash a cookie sheet than a muffin pan, right?

So anyhow, here's the recipe I used. I've adapted it from the Pumpkin Bread recipe in Better Homes & Gardens, and I've included baking instructions for BOTH muffins and mookies.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins / Mookies

1 stick salted butter
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 15-oz can pumpkin puree
3 cups flour (I used half whole wheat, half white)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (OR 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 3/8 tsp nutmeg, 1/8 tsp ginger, dash of cloves)
3/4 cup milk
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar.

If you are using a stand mixer, go ahead and add all remaining ingredients, except for the chocolate chips. 

 If you are using a regular hand mixer, then reduce the flour to 2 cups for this step. Once everything is well-combined, you can add that last cup in.

Now stir in your chocolate chips.

If you are going the traditional route and making muffins, preheat your oven to 375 degrees and fill your muffin tins. I use my cookie dropper and put 2 per muffin.

If you are living on the wild side and trying mookies, then preheat the oven to 350 degrees and drop scoops of batter onto a greased cookie sheet.

Bake the muffins for about 15-17 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Yield is about 32 muffins.

Bake the mookies for 10-12 minutes. You can use a toothpick to see if these are done, too. Yield is about 5 dozen mookies.

Amazing, fluffy goodness no matter which you choose!