Soft Pumpkin Ginger Cookies

And just like that, it’s Pumpkin-tober, people!

Ah, October. So many fun pumpkin patch and Halloween memories. So many delicious pumpkin-themed foods, cakes, breads, scones etc, including the most obvious glamorous star of the season: the Pumpkin Spice Latte.

My idea of romance and/or friendship is someone bringing me a Pumpkin Spice Latte when I wake up. Or when I’m at work. Or any time really…

We grew up in the mountains, in the trees, in the orchards. Harvest season was real and tasty and often meant hours of traffic as car and busloads of tourists came to our sleepy rural town on a pilgrimage to see real signs of “autumn” in California. The goal: to be closer to nature, and even (and we always laughed at this one) pick their own apples from the orchard.

Ok, yes, apple picking is actually a fun fall activity. But can we just take a moment to talk about how touristy it is to show up at a farm that took four hours of traffic to get to, in order to pluck apples from a tree – even though there are literally 10 lb. boxes of apples for sale about 100 feet away?

Alright, moment’s over. It’s still a fun fall activity.

I’m so happy to kick off this blanket-wearing, tea-drinking, leaf-jumping fall season with a recipe that took many many tries to finally get right. This is a cross between a pumpkin cake, a cookie, and a gingersnap. I personally enjoy a cakey cookie. Soft, chewy, flavorful cookies with possibly some mix-ins like chocolate chips, or nuts, will always be my favorite type.

The difficulty was being able to incorporate pumpkin, a wet ingredient, but no fat, into a cookie recipe that didn’t call for it. I noticed that many “pumpkin cookies” out there don’t even use pumpkin – just pumpkin pie spice extract (yes, that’s a real thing, I tried it out for this recipe too!). I started with the recipe of my favorite chocolate chip cookie, but changed it so much that they barely resemble each other (but in a good way). Despite all the effort it took to find the right ingredient balance, this final recipe is actually really easy to make, and yields enough to share with friends.

This cookie is pumpkin-cozy with lots of spice and a kick of extra ginger. It took a while to get the quantity of ginger right, but after a few trials, I think the end result is an addictive, delicious soft cookie with lots of fall flavors.