But let’s not talk about work. Let’s talk about warm pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. These are the kind of cookies you want to come home to when you’re a post-work zombie. Chocolate and pumpkin make things all better.

They start with fresh pumpkin puree.

Actually, let’s take a step back. These cookies really start with a whole pumpkin. To make pumpkin puree, you need a small sugar pumpkin (also called a pie pumpkin). Slice it in half and scoop out the seeds and gunk. If you’re obsessed with citrus and have a few grapefruit spoons in your silverware drawer, they’re great scoopers.

Next, pre-heat your oven to 400°. Cover a baking sheet with tinfoil, coat with a small amount of oil, and place the pumpkin halves on the sheet with the sliced side down. Cover the halves with tinfoil and bake for about an hour, or until a fork easily pierces the skin.

Let the cooked pumpkin cool for 20-30 minutes, then use a spoon to remove the flesh. Puree in a food processor or mash with a potato masher, whichever you prefer. Set aside and start the cookies.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
(adapted from the classic Nestle Toll House chocolate chip recipe)

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 2 1/4 cup flour
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Pre-heat oven to 375°.

2. Cream butter and sugars together with electric mixer until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and mix until incorporated. Add pumpkin puree and also mix until incorporated.

3. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ground ginger, ground cloves, and nutmeg in a medium bowl. Gradually add to butter and egg mixture until fully incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips.

4. Using a tablespoon or fancy cookie scoop, drop balls of dough onto a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes. The edges and tops of the cookies should be golden brown.

5. Let the cookies cool for a minute on the baking sheet and then move them to a wire rack. Serve with a glass of milk or spicy hot chocolate. The pumpkin puree will give the bottom of the cookies an extra crunch.

After looking through my Grandma Mangan’s recipe book at my mother’s house last fall, I decided to buy a scanner and archive the book’s contents on my computer. My father has now loaned me the recipe box of his mother, my Grandma Cahill, and I have started scanning her recipes as well.  Grandma Cahill’s collection has more recipes in poetic verse (total: 2), and Grandma Mangan’s collection has more clippings of famous dishes from local restaurants, but overall, their contents are similar. They include a recipes scribbled on scraps of paper, clippings from newspapers and processed food packaging, and index cards from friends and family. Lots of jello molds. Lots of “whipped topping.”

The first recipe I chose from my Grandma Cahill’s collection was for molasses cookies. Internet sleuthing while the cookies were baking yielded many similar—if not identical—recipes on the web, so it must have appeared on the side of a molasses container at one point and now graces the index cards of many collections. Recipe and photos after the jump.

Grandma Cahill’s Molasses Cookies
[yields ~3 dozen]
-3/4 c. shortening
-1 c. sugar
-1/4 c. molasses
-1 egg
-2 tsp. baking soda
-2 c. sifted flour
-1/2 tsp. [ground] ginger
-1/2 tsp. [ground] cloves
-1 tsp. cinnamon
-1/2 tsp. salt

Melt shortening in a 3 or 4 qt. saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat; let cool. Add sugar, molasses and egg; beat well. Sift together flour, soda, cloves, ginger, cinnamon and salt; add to first mixture. Mix well; chill.

Form in 1 inch balls, roll in granulated sugar and place on greased cookie sheets 2 inches apart. Bake in moderately hot oven, 375º F, 8-10 min.

Cookies rolled and ready to bake:

I read a tip that if you want your molasses cookies to be chewy, you should cool them on a flat surface and not a rack. Unfortunately, I read the tip after my cookies were fully cooled on a rack and tucked away in tupperware, so if you try it, let me know if it works for you. These were crunchy, but still good.

There are many benefits to cooking with alcohol. Wine adds an extra depth of flavor to certain meat dishes, a splash of brandy brings a special zing to a fruit tart, and when it comes to Christmas cookies, Irish cream is the perfect addition. Case and point: Baileys Irish Cream Chocolate Chip Cookies, which I first experienced a few years ago when my aunt made them for the post-Christmas dinner cookie platter. If you consider your holidays incomplete without enjoying a Baileys on the rocks at some point during the party season, then these are for you. Even if you’re not a big Irish cream fan, the slight hint of whisky makes them worth a try. 

Bailey’s Irish Cream Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yield: 3 dozen
-1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
-1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
-1/2 cup granulated sugar
-1 egg
-1 tsp. vanilla
-1/2 cup Irish cream
-2 cups flour
-1/2 tsp. baking soda
-1/2 tsp. baking powder
-Pinch of salt
-1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
-1/2 cup chopped walnuts or almonds

1) Preheat oven to 375º

2) Cream together butter, sugars, and the egg in a large bowl. 

3) Add vanilla and Irish cream and stir until fully incorporated. 

4) In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Incorporate the dry ingredients into the butter mixture in two equal parts. 

5) Gently stir in chocolate chips and chopped nuts.

6) Drop spoonfuls of batter onto a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake for 8-11 minutes. Cookies will be golden brown around the bottom edges, as well as lightly browned on top.