Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Top of incline looking down.

 It's snowing!!! Ok not really just a little bit, so that means its really cold and we hardly have any snow. The other day my friend and I did the incline in the morning, I almost bailed. We started with it raining pretty hard, then that turning into sleet, followed by huge flakes of snow! I absolutely loved it, other than the other 50 people that had the same idea as us. Like the kid with the boombox in his backpack playing horrible music..is that really necessary? Headphones cost like a dollar. For those you that have no idea what the incline is, it is a bunch of railroad ties (or stairs) that go up a mile on the side of Pikes Peak. It is not for the faint of heart, but hands down is the best workout outdoors I have ever done! Natalie and I just chatted the whole way and took our time. The one time I did it for time and really pushed myself I wanted to puke everywhere at the top and it took me forever to recover, therefore doing it leisurely is much better! I know, what a horrible attitude, but that is pain I just don't one to revisit unless I have the weird urge again. So if you are in town and want to do it, let me know!! 

So last week was one of my friends, Eric Chin's bday! So I decided to make some pumpkin cookies for him. Little did I know he was baking his famous cookies and placed them right next to my pumpkin cookies. Therefore I had lots of leftovers, haha, but it's ok since Eric liked them and I ate them for breakfast the next few days. I wanted to find a recipe that was simple, but used pumpkin. I splurged and got some dark chocolate chips instead of the enjoy life since I knew the dark chocolate would go well with the pumpkin. They were simple and quite tasty. 

RECIPE: Paleo Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 cup maple syrup (I used honey)
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1  1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips 
• (I actually added an egg too so they would stay together better)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 Degrees
2. Mix the Pumpkin, melted butter, vanilla, and maple syrup (or sweetener of your choice) in a larger bowl
3. Mix coconut flour, baking soda, salt, and the spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, ginger) in a separate bowl. 
4. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet. I just did it little by little and beat it vigorously so there were no clumps. Its like a tabata beat, beat for 20 seconds and then 10 sec break! My arm was hurting..haha. 
5. Add the chocolate chips
6. I just used a regular cookie tray and no parchment like the recipe says and it worked just fine. Just make the cookies small or they won't cook all the way through. 
7. I baked for around 20 minutes. It is hard to tell when they are done, but they should look a little brown along the edges. 
8. Make sure to let them cool or they will fall apart! 

EAT EAT EAT!!! Might have to make these for my cookie exchange too, but I think I'll try a new recipe :-) Enjoy!