Gluten-Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies!

I used to think that seasons back home in Minnesota were messed up - bitterly cold winters and super hot summers, with a few measly weeks of spring and fall in between. Then I moved to San Francisco and realized that seasons basically don't even exist here. I've lived here for a year already and without seasons or a summer break, time passes strangely - everything just kind of melds together.

Although I don't miss the insane cold, I do miss the leaves changing color and all the other fun stuff that comes with fall. Luckily, there are enough fall-related things still around to remind me what time of the year it is.

One of those things is pumpkin. Over the last few weeks, there has been a dramatic increase of the number of pumpkin-related posts on Pinterest, as well as pumpkins on sale at the local Safeway. I knew that one of my upcoming baking projects absolutely had to be pumpkin-flavored and decided that this week would be it! I toyed with waiting until after this weekend, when I would have gone to the pumpkin festival in Half Moon Bay, but I found an inspiring recipe and decided to just run with it.

Besides wanting to bake with pumpkin, I've also been thinking about baking cookies with rice/mochi flour too, ever since I made my mochi cupcakes. The recipe I found combined both of these baking challenges and the result? A yummy chewy cookie with a subtle pumpkin spice flavor that has autumn in every bite!

Okay, maybe that's overpraising it a little. But these turn out quite delicious and after a quick research of my ingredients, I realized that these cookies were also gluten-free! Gluten-free baking has been something else that I've wanted to try, after my success with dairy-free baking, so it was nice to end up with gluten-free cookies without even really trying. (These were also ALMOST dairy-free, but I ran out of dairy-free chocolate and had to supplement with some regular milk-containing chocolate chips).

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (makes 2 dozen)
(Recipe adapted from here)

• 1 3/4 cup of Mochiko Rice Flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/4 baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup of pumpkin puree (LIBBY'S 100% Pure Pumpkin)
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, salt). 
3. In a separate bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the eggs and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the oil, vanilla, and pumpkin until smooth. 
4. Stir in the flour mixture (by hand) until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips last. Dough will be soft - you can put it in the fridge to firm up first (I just baked them immediately and it worked too). 
5. Drop onto parchment-lined cookie sheets and bake for 16-20 minutes or until edges and bottom can be handled without the cookie falling apart. Middle should still be soft and chewy. 
6. Let cool and enjoy! :)