Pumpkin cookies! (Actually, pumpkin chocolate-chip cookies)

(Edited because of typo in baking time, thanks Charlotte)

I made these this weekend, for the five day feast of finger foods that we have in my department during the December exam week: everyone brings stuff in, some old favorites, some new recipes, to share.

This was a new recipe for me. I was not sure how they would be, never having eaten pumpkin and chocolate together. But they are very good. (And they are spectacular if you can serve them still warm from the oven, so the chocolate is still a bit melted).

The recipe comes from a back issue of "Illinois Country Living." This is a magazine that the electric and gas co-op my parents belong to puts out, they feature a few recipes from one of those "community" cook books (like churches and Junior League groups put out) every month. This one was from a cookbook put out as a fundraiser for a school in my parents' town; the taco dip recipe I posted last year came from this same issue.

(Which makes me think I should call up the school when I get up there for Christmas and see if they have any of the cookbooks left to purchase, seeing as two randomly selected recipes were good).

Anyway, pumpkin-chocolate-chip cookies:

1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cooking oil (I use my fallback: the "light" tasting olive oil, which doesn't taste "olivey" at all and which has "good" fats in it)

1 egg, beaten
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda, DISSOLVED IN 1 teaspoon milk
6 ounces of chocolate chips (I used the Ghiardelli 60% cacao semi-sweet chips and they were about perfect. I think a sweeter chocolate would be too sweet, but the semi-sweet chips with their dark chocolate flavor were really good).

Preheat the oven to 375.
First, dissolve the baking soda in the milk and put aside.

Then, mix the pumpkin, sugar, oil, and egg. Add the vanilla.

Combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt) in a separate bowl. Sift if you need to. (I find I rarely have to sift flour these days).

Add the flour "alternately" with the milk (which seems odd as there is only 1 t of milk, but that's what the directions say). Make sure the milk/baking soda is stirred up so the soda isn't all on the bottom of the cup or bowl you mixed them in.

Stir until combined, and then add in the chocolate chips.

Drop by teaspoonfuls on a cookie sheet. (They don't say to grease it - I used parchment paper which I find always works well for baking cookies). Bake for about 10 minutes.

The batch I made made just shy of 4 dozen. They are more cakelike than the typical chocolate chip cookie. You don't really taste the pumpkin strongly; you might not realize it was in there if you didn't know.