Pumpkin Perfect

I love October! It's the best month of the year - perfect weather, the best holiday and the official go-ahead for eating everything that could possibly be made with a pumpkin flavor.

Yesterday, I was trying to think of a snack to make that was a little like dessert but not too sweet, when chocolate chip pumpkin cookies came to mind. Mmmm. The recipe I used is half of the original recipe since - let's be real here - I'm not going to be sharing these cookies with anyone, but also don't want to eat 7 million of them on my own. Even halved, this recipe still made about two dozen medium sized cookies.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar (I used my favorite, Florida Crystals)*
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg (cage free)*
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup canned pumpkin (organic)*
1-1/2 cups flour (unbleached)*
1 tsp baking soda
1/2tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves**
1 cup (1/2 bag) milk chocolate chips (mini)*

* My options - use whatever brand or type of product you want

** I did not have any ground cloves in my spice collection, but I did have some pumpkin pie spice - it's a mix of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice and could probably be substituted for the total amount of all the spices used in this recipe.

Instructions:
1) Slice the stuck of butter into a large mixing bowl. Add the white and brown sugar, and beat with an electric mixer until fluffy.
2) Beat in the egg, then the vanilla and the pumpkin puree
3) In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and spices.
4) Slowly beat the flour mixture into the rest of the batter, on third at a time.
5) Stir in the chocolate chips
6) Spoon onto an ungreased baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes.
7) Remove from the oven and let stand on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack.
8) Gobble down several cookies, followed by a glass of milk from a local farm