Chocolate Pumpkin Pie Cookies

After getting our new plants settled Tuesday morning, I decided to make myself a protein shake to make up for the one I missed at breakfast.  On the menu: chocolate banana - no peanut butter this time! 

 

A little while later I decided to make cookies, specifically chocolate pumpkin pie cookies I saw on chocolatecoveredkatie's website.  The recipe is really simple, with no "weird" ingredients, so they're a great choice if you suddenly decide you want to whip up cookies but don't have time to get to the store.  Plus, these cookies have two very important benefits going for them.  1. They're vegan!  2. They involve peanut butter! 

 

The chocolate cookie dough and pumpkin pie filling came together in no time at all. 

Unfortunately, Katie was a little vague in giving directions on how to really make these cookies come together without looking like a horrible mess.  I needed a little trial and error to get them to work for me.  And I'm sure there's a much better way than what I did, but here it goes ...

 

Step one was to roll an oblong piece of dough, then flatten it out into an oval that's thicker in the middle and tapers out to the edges.  Kind of looks like a cow pattie, doesn't it? 

Sorry for that.  Hope I didn't spoil your appetite ...

 

Next, spoon a bit of filling towards the top of the center of your oval.  

Then roll the dough into a cylinder starting at the top and rolling towards the bottom.  Then push down the edges to seal the filling inside the cookie.  Like Katie said, don't worry much about cracks in the dough.  Even if the filling shows through a bit, you can push them back together.  

Then tuck the flattened edges under the cookie and roll a bit to form a fairly uniform oval.  

The cookies baked up beautifully in just the time she directed - 10 minutes, plus another 10 to cool and set. 

My filling looks a lot flatter than Katie's ... maybe I didn't put enough in each cookie.  But then again, they still tasted amazing so I'm still happy! 

I probably made larger cookies than some might, but with my proportions I ended up with 10 cookies from the recipe.  Enough to make you feel like the effort was worth it, but not so many that when you gorge on cookies until they're gone you have to feel guilty about it :) 

After cookie-making (and eating!) I wanted to do something really simple for dinner, so I whipped up some pasta with Newman's Own sweet onion and roasted garlic marinara sauce and some Parmela vegan parmesan. 

Simple, quick, and delicious.  Plus it left me with enough room to have another cookie for dessert!