Easy & Healthy Pumpkin Cookies with Sourdough and Chocolate Chips

Healthy pumpkin cookies are easy because pumpkin in itself is very nutritious. Paired with a little bit of sourdough and given even a little bit of time to ferment slightly, this treat quickly becomes a healthy pumpkin cookie. At last, healthy is the closest sense that a cookie can be and still taste delicious!

Healthy Pumpkin Cookies

We make these cookies around the fall season, after our garden pumpkins are ripe and ready for curing. Any of our pumpkins that didn’t quite mature and cure on the vine are used first. You can test this by sticking your nail slightly into the outer edge of the pumpkin, and if it doesn’t leave a mark the pumkin cured. If your nail leaves a mark, use that pumpkin first.

For this recipe, the pumpkin flesh is cooked in the oven until you can stick a fork into it easily. Pumpkins are filled with loads of health benefits! To only name a few, pumpkins include:

• Potassium: retains body fluids regular, regulates sugar levels and muscle contractions
• Copper: maintain nervous system and immune system
• Phosphorus repairs tissues and cells, needed for growth
• Calcium: needed for healthy bones and teeth
• Unsaturated Fatty Acids: needed for functioning of organism in the body
• Fibre: regulates body sugars
• Vitamin A: improves vision, immune system (heart, lungs and organs) and reproductive system
• Carotene: protects body from free radicals

We grow a variety of pumpkins in our garden to absorb a wide range of these health benefits. Some of the pumpkins we grew this year included: two varieties of butternut squash (Waltham and Orange), some Delicata squash and Burgess Buttercup.

What You May Need

Mixing bowls

Measuring cups or kitchen scale

Measuring spoons

Whisk

Wooden spoon

Baking sheets

Sauce pan

Cooling racks

Cookie scooper

Directions

If you have a fresh pumpkin, start by preheating the oven to 350°F. If you are not using fresh pumpkins this time, use high quality canned pumpkins and skip the first couple of steps.

Cut a clean pumkin in half and dust the fleshy side with cinnamon.

Bake halved pumpkins upside down in a pan until soft (usually 45-60 minutes).

Brown butter in a saucepan while adding cinnamon, fine cloves, nutmeg and all spice. Watch so the butter doesn’t burn.

Once butter is browned and spices well combined, take pan off stove and allow to cool to room temperature. Pour the mix into another bowl to cool faster if necessary.

Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

In another bowl, mix the sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, sourdough discard and cooked pumpkin flesh.

Add in the cooled butter mixture.

Once the wet ingredients are well combined, mix in with the dry ingredients. Once well combined, add the chocolate chips as the very last ingredient.

Place dough in refrigerator for 45 minutes. This may seem unnecessary, but don’t skip this step. This will also allow some time for the sourdough to do its work.

After 45 minutes (or more is okay too), preheat the oven to 350°F to get ready for baking.

Scoop dough into small balls onto a cookie sheet.

Bake cookies for 15 minutes and then let them cool for 5 minutes on the baking pan before transferring the cookies onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Easy Pumpkin Cookies Recipe

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My Favourite Kitchen Appliances

Other Sourdough Cookies & Baked Treats

Sourdough is a great way to make your baked goods a little healthier. This way, the flour will at at least boost your nutrient intake by undergoing a slight fermentation with the sourdough starter.

Some cookie recipes to consider are our standard (but oh so tasty!) Chocolate Chip Cookies. You may also be interested in the sourdough South African beskuit recipe, otherwise known as biscotti.

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