An egg free chocolate chip pumpkin cookie for Lucie

Egg Free Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies Now that Thanksgiving is over, are you wondering what to do with all that leftover canned pumpkin puree? Well, how about making some pumpkin cookies?

Several years ago a friend made these Egg Free Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies for a play date since my then toddler daughter, Lucie, was eating an egg free diet due to her allergies. Now a second grader, Lucie has outgrown her egg allergy, but has been put on an egg free diet for a few weeks to see if it will help her eczema. (I doubt it. She’s just an itchy kid from a family of skin scratchers and pickers.) So she’s put in a request for her favorite pumpkin cookies.

After reviewing the original recipe at Allrecipes.com, I felt I needed to “health it up” as much as possible. So, I substituted Stevia Extract In The Raw for the white sugar. (One cup is equal to one cup of sugar.) I also substituted half of the white flour with whole wheat flour, and used organic ingredients whenever possible.

The pumpkin cookies were delicious, and no one noticed that I used stevia instead of sugar or that they were egg free. But remember, pumpkin cookies are a special treat and not a meal. Even with all the healthier substitutions and the fact that each (small) pumpkin cookie is one Weight Watchers POINT, it got a “D” grade from CalorieCount.

Egg Free Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies

Based on an Allrecipes.com recipe

Yields: 80 servings

Ingredients:

2 cups Stevia Extract In The Raw
1 cup Spectrum Organic Shortening
1 (15 ounce) can Farmer’s Market Organic Pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
Cream the sugar, shortening, pumpkin and vanilla together. Mix until light and well combined. If you’re using a mixer, start slowly as the Stevia Extract in the Raw is very powdery – too fast and you’ll have a stevia cloud over your head!
Mix the flour, baking soda and ground cinnamon. Stir the flour mixture into the creamed mixture. Mix until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. (You’ll find the cookie batter is very dough like – that’s OK.)
Measure out a tablespoon of the cookie dough. (I used a small Pampered Chef scoop.) Roll into a ball and flatten it into a round disc. Place on an ungreased baking sheet.
Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 12 to 15 minutes or until set. Let cookies cool on a rack.

Nutritional information per cookie:

Calories 69
Calories from Fat 35
Total Fat 3.8g
Saturated Fat 1.6g
Trans Fat 0.0g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 33mg
Total Carbohydrates 8.0g
Dietary Fiber 0.6g
Sugars 2.6g
Protein 1.0g
Vitamin A 17%
Vitamin C 0%
Calcium 0%
Iron 2%

Nutrition Grade D from CalorieCount.

Weight Watchers POINTS per cookie = 1

If you omit the chocolate and cut back the shortening to 3/4 of a cup, it’s a little bit better. (However, you’ll need to add a little water to the mixture to make sure the batter isn’t a mass of crumbles.)

Calories 42
Calories from Fat 18
Total Fat 2.0g
Saturated Fat 0.6g
Trans Fat 0.0g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 33mg
Total Carbohydrates 5.3g
Protein 0.7g
Vitamin A 17%
Vitamin C 0%
Calcium 0%
Iron 2%

Nutrition Grade C from CalorieCount.

Weight Watchers POINTS per cookie = 1

This Mama’s tips:

Since the pumpkin cookie dough is egg free, it’s perfect for (guilty) snacking or any raw cookie dough recipe you may have.
This is a perfect way to use up all that leftover canned pumpkin puree after Thanksgiving.

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