Healthy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

As I've posted before, we love Greek yogurt and besides using it in chicken salad and dips, I also use it for baking.  We are also hardcore pumpkin lovers in this house, which is another great baking alternative.  Last year I found a recipe on Pintrest for the Softest Chocolate Chip cookies that is made with pumpkin and the husband loved them.  A few days ago a friend had us over for pumpkin pasta and gave us the extra pumpkin to take home.  Since we had a snow day I decided to use the pumpkin to modify the recipe I made previously and use Greek yogurt in lieu of oil.  I also used whole wheat flour since we always have some on hand but if all you have is all purpose flour that will work.

There is still sugar, that is hard to eliminate altogether but it is still less of what is in regular chocolate chip cookies.  Also I have never done the flour, baking soda and spices first like most recipes call for.  Mine is the lazy way of course.

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup Greek yogurt

1 cup pureed or canned pumpkin

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups wheat flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

2 pinches salt

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp powdered ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cloves

1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.  Beat together eggs and sugar.  Add Greek yogurt, pumpkin and vanilla.  Mix in flour, baking powder, salt and beat well. 

Greek yogurt and pumpkin... healthy cookies!

Once everything is mixed together add spices.  Stir in chocolate chips with a spoon, I never mix them in with the beater.  

Fall spices to give some kick to the pumpkin

Lately I have been just spraying a light sheen of PAM on my cookie sheet instead of using foil or parchment paper and it works just fine.  Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, the perfect time to take them out is right as the edges of the cookies are starting to brown.  I athink that many people ruin cookies by over cooking them.  Once the edges are starting to brown and pull them out and let them sit on the cookie sheet to set.

These cookies are very moist so they won't keep as long as regular cookies.  I also found they should be refrigerated.  I made just a few and froze the rest of the dough.