Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

 Oh fall, I have missed you.  I've missed the cool weather.  I have missed the excuse to bake my brains out.  I have missed pumpkin and putting it in everything.  I love fall.  (I know, I've mentioned.)
And I love pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. 
They have some at a grocery store in the town I grew up that are to die for. (is that sad to admit?)  They come in this plastic case and I have to avoid the bakery area of the store all together or I will buy and eat the whole container without help.  I can do the same with a batch of these!  These are my all time favorite pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (I love the mini ones)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Beat butter and sugars until fluffy, add pumpkin and mix well.  Add egg and vanilla.  Add dry ingredients and mix well.  Drop by the tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheet

bake for 8-10 minutes until cookies spring back when touched in the middle.  Makes about 4 dozen.

I am one of "those" people who is always cutting recipes in half or thirds because I don't want millions of treats around taunting me.  This one is trickier (not impossible) to cut in half because of the 1 egg the recipe calls for.  I usually lightly beat an egg and measure out 1/8 cup (or 2 T) for the recipe.  You can do whatever you like with the rest of the egg.  

This dough freezes really well. When baking frozen dough, I would probably go with 350 and a couple extra minutes.

Update:  I have been using my 1 oz (2 T) scoop to make these lately.  With that amount of dough it usually takes 10-12 minutes for baking.  Last time I made them I halved the batch and it made about 20 cookies using the scoop. :)

Adapted from a pumpkin cookie recipe in: The 1997 Joy of Cooking