Vegan Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip Cookies

I caved.  I jumped on the pumpkin spice bandwagon.  What can I say?  Fall is in the air and I am in the mood for pumpkin and apples.  My first baked good, pumpkin cookies.  We make pumpkin cookies at my work, and they are always very popular this time of the year.  They smell amazing as they bake, the aromas of sweet cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and ginger filling the air, and they always make me hungry.  After experiencing being in a kitchen with those cookies I always want to go home and bake some.  When I was in college in the fall, I made soft pumpkin cookies for my cross country team and they were wonderful!  Not vegan though, so I was hoping to recreate them this week when I made my pumpkin cookies.  They were soft, aromatic, and kind of like a pumpkin cake married a cookie.

They had a lot of butter, sugar, and eggs in them, so I veganized them swapping out a lot of stuff.  I have to say, they turned out pretty awesome!  I love it when the vegan version of something tastes better than the original version I used to make.  These actually ended up being oil free, since I used pecan butter as the fat.  It gave it touch of nutty flavor that was a nice touch as well.  I used my usual pumpkin pie spices in this and the dough tasted amazing even before I baked the cookies.  I mixed in chocolate chips, which were not in the other cookies I used to make, but they were swapped in for something extra instead of the glaze I used to put on the other cookies.  I love chocolate with pumpkin spice, it is heavenly.

These smelled wonderful as I pulled them from the oven.  Once they were cool enough to enjoy, and I could taste one, I was very pleased.  Like classic soft pumpkin cookies, but better.  The rich little chocolate chips, the perfect touch.  This is only the first of the pumpkin recipes that will be coming from me this year, expect many more because I love it, and pumpkin comes only a certain time of the year!

Vegan Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip Cookies
makes 1 1/2 dozen

Cookies:

• 1 cup coconut sugar
• 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp raw pecan butter (or almond butter)
• 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 2 1/2 cups all purpose gluten free flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 12 oz vegan chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375F degrees.
2. In a large bowl, combine pecan butter with sugar and mix until well combined. mix in the pumpkin, vanilla extract, and maple syrup until well combined.
3. In a smaller bowl, whisk together spices, flour, salt, baking powder, then add to the large bowl, and mix until well combined. Mix in the chocolate and set aside.
4. To bake, Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Drop the dough in about 2 Tbsp amounts on prepared cookie sheets a couple inches apart.  Bake for about 15-18 minutes, until puffed and just starting to brown slightly. Remove from the oven and let cool on the pan a few minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool. Repeat with remaining cookies.