Another cookie recipe on my salad blog

It was a long week. And a long Friday night and Saturday. Between work obligations and friend-seeing, Friday and Saturday were full of back-to-back activities. Combine that with some strange almost-winter allergies, and I am pooped! When my Sunday plans were unexpectedly canceled, my husband declared today to be a pajama day. I did get dressed (in yoga pants) sometime after lunch, so I could leave the apartment to pick up cookie-baking supplies.

I know, I know. I started this blog to write about salad recipes and all things roughage, but lately all I want to do is bake. I am more and more and more my mother's daughter in that realm. On weekends, I like to to trade in my gym time for baking time.

I knew I wanted to bake an oatmeal, white chocolate chip and craisin cookie. They are warm and comforting and December-appropriate. When I saw that canned pumpkin was on sale, my recipe deal was sealed. Pumpkin-Oatmeal-White Chocolate-Craisin Cookies. Lately, I've enjoyed experimenting with recipes, so I decided to create my own by modifying what I consider to be the best oatmeal cookie dough recipe: Oatmeal Scotchies (you can find the recipe on the back of bags of Nestle Butterscotch Morsels or here).

Pumpkin is one of the best baking substitutes for fat. Unlike apple sauce, which gives cookies a strange chewy texture (don't get me wrong, I still use it sometimes), pumpkin keeps cookies moist and springy. So these cookies are free of butter. I'm not sure I would describe them as healthy, but they aren't as bad as they could be. And boy are they delicious!

Pumpkin-Oatmeal-White Chocolate-Craisin Cookies

• 1 1/3 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 cups pumpkin (3/4 a can)
• 3 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 bag (11 oz) white chocolate chips 
• 1 cup craisins

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine flour, baking, soda, salt, cinnamon, sugars, pumpkin and vanilla and mix well until combined. Add oats and stir into dough. Mix in white chocolate chips and craisins. Use a table spoon to drop dough on to cookie sheets. Bake for about 7 minutes, and then transfer to wire racks to cool.

Depending on the size of the cookies, the recipe should yield about 40 to 48 cookies. (I got 47 cookies.)

I hope you like white chocolate chips. (Can you see the paw in the top right corner of the photo. That is courtesy of my dog, who thought the cookies looked delicious.)