Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I remember enjoying my first pumpkin chocolate chip cookie in the English Department at BYU. They were from the Provo Bakery (190 E 100 N) and I was told they were the BEST version I would ever try. I believed it. Due to different circumstances in life (that whole "gluten free family" thing being one) I haven't had a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie since I left the department. I no longer know what about those cookies made them that fabulous in my memory, but I have thought of them often, with longing.

I was recently informed that this recipe was the one to try for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. It happens to be the recipe of my running friend, Heidi. It shouldn't surprise anyone, I have now made a gluten free version.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
(adapted from Food for Thought: Where Flours Bloom)
yield 3½ - 4 doz.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar

1 cup pumpkin purée
1 egg1/2 tsp vanilla

2/3 cup rice flour
2/3 cup tapioca starch
2/3 cup corn starch
1/2 cup almond flour
1 tsp xanthum gum
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp each cloves, nutmeg, ginger

1 c. mini semisweet morsels

Directions:
Cream butter and sugars together. Beat in egg, vanilla and pumpkin. Combine flours, xanthum gum, baking soda, salt and spices. Add flour mixture and chocolate chips to the creamed mixture and mix to combine. Refrigerate dough for a couple of hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Scoop cookie dough onto an ungreased baking sheet. With wet fingers, slightly flatten and smooth the tops. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until just set.

We all thought these were very yummy. They reminded us of little bites of a delicious cake. Are they as good as the cookies I remember from school? I don't know, but I do know that I had to lock up the cookies I could save from my family's greedy maws before all 4 dozen were gone in a single afternoon.