Pinterest Test: Low Fat Pumpkin Spice Choc Chip Cookie and more!

With all the pumpkin recipes I have been trying lately, I am surprised my whole family is not turning a bit orange. It's just so good for you and has fiber in it.....who doesn't like to poop? LOL Especially when I can package that pumpkin into delicious baked treats.

Well today I had a dilemma: I wanted to make these Low-Fat Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip Cookies that I found on Pinterest, but the recipe only called for 2 tablespoons of pumpkin. So I would have almost an entire can left! So I decide to do another version of my 2 Ingredient Pumpkin Spice Muffins but this time with Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix. This way no pumpkin goes to waste and I get two delicious and nutritious goodies with only a few more minutes of work :)

I gathered my ingredients for the cookies first.

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp butter, melted
1 egg white
2 tbsp pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

 

Then I gathered my ingredients for the muffins.
(Jesus Blogger, you are KILLING ME with not uploading pictures correctly!)

Anyway, ingredients are the left over pumpkin from the cookie recipe and a box of Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix.








What do you know! Both recipes call for preheating the oven to 350 degrees- what luck! So I set that sucker and got to work mixing up my cookie batter.

As per the directions on SkinnyTaste.com, you mix the dry in one bowl and the wet in another bowl and then wisk the dry into the wet. If it is crumbly when you are finished, put a few drops of water in the mixture just until it is smooth......and it tastes amazing! (Lecture me on the danger of eating things with raw eggs later, I am too busy basking in the after glow of awesome cookies)




Then I tossed in my half cup of chocolate chips and emptied the rest of the bag in a Ball jar. My mom and I are trying to get away from plastic so when we can use up the glass jars she collects, we do. (That's why you see the all-purpose flour and the brown sugar in canning jars in the picture above)

After mixing in the chocolate chips, lining my cookie sheet with parchment paper, and dropping my batter on the sheet in 12 even little clumps, I popped those amazing-smelling blobs in the oven for 10 full minutes.

But while these little guys were cooking, did I rest? Of course not! I cleaned my glass mixing bowl, emptied the rest of my pumpkin can into the bowl, topped it with the bag of cake mix and started stirring!

It turns out I needed a bigger bowl....oops! Even though I was careful, I managed to make a mess of the counter. I did end up putting in about 1/8 cup of water in with the batter so it would be smooth. This batter was a lot thicker then when I did it with the spice cake mix. The batter tasted just like chocolate, you could not really tell there was pumpkin in it. At this point I was not sure if that was a good or bad thing......

But there is nothing wrong with anything chocolate! So I forged on and filled my cupcake pan with the batter and put it in the already hot oven for 21 full minutes. They came out looking delicious! One of the reasons that I like cooking with pumpkin is that it does not stick to the pan like things with sugar and oil do. These things pop right out of the pan and don't stick. You can pop them out right after they come out of the oven and on to a plate too cool and they won't lose their shape because the pumpkin is so dense. I love it when shit is this easy!

And there you have it! Yeah, it is about an hour of baking, but at least 21 minutes of it is resting, especially if you are like me and you clean up as you go.

My parents loved the cookies and I have to say they were worth the effort. Next time I will have to make a double batch to share because at 2 cookies for 171 calories, they make a great dessert. The fudge muffins come in at 172 calories per muffin and have way more pumpkin in them so they are an awesome choice for dessert (or breakfast) as well.

The muffins tasted just like chocolate fudge, you could barely tell there was pumpkin flavor! That's not bad if you are trying to hide it, but we love the pumpkin flavor! Well, these will be enjoyed as well. And baking with pumpkin puree has revolutionized how my family enjoys baked goods. I have a feeling that year-round we will be subbing oils, butter, eggs and water for one can of vitamin and mineral packed pumpkin puree.

 

Well there you go! I hope that helps any of you wondering what to do with that can of pumpkin when you only use a few tablespoons!

 

Jenn