There it was. Staring at me with sad little orange eyes. Every time I opened the refrigerator, I could hear its insidious whisper:

“Please don’t throw me away.”

But what to do with it? I had about a cup of pumpkin puree leftover from Thanksgiving. Trying to find a savory recipe just seemed like a lot of hard work, and I was suffering a bit of a pumpkin hangover. So there it sat, that lonely container of orange mush. For days. A week almost. Then:

PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!

I found a recipe on allrecipes.com and changed it around a bit. I added my own spices (the original recipe called for pumpkin pie spice) and used a combination of brown sugar and white sugar, instead of all white sugar. These cookies are cakey and moist; warm from the oven, they are all but irresistible. I’ve tried the recipe with different kinds of nuts, but my favorite (so far) is chopped, toasted hazelnuts.

Recipe after the jump.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Based on a recipe from allrecipes.com
Makes approximately 40 cookies

10 tbs unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin at room temperature
1 large egg at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line several cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, sat, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon and mix well. Set aside. Using a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the pumpkin, egg and vanilla and beat until mixed, scraping the sides of the bowl several times. The mixture will look curdled.

Using low speed, mix the dry ingredients into the wet just until combined. Stir in the nuts and chocolate chips.

Scoop tablespoon-sized balls of batter onto cookie sheets and bake on center rack for 15-17 minutes. Cookies will fill dry and set and will spring back when lightly pressed. Let cookies cool for a minute and then move them to a wire rack to cool competely.