Spiced pumpkin and chocolate chip biscuits

Who would have thought that you could make something so delicious from a tin of pureed pumpkin, but these biscuits are so delicious they will become a staple in our home every autumn.

Because pumpkin puree comes in 425g tins, this recipe makes rather a large batch of biscuits, but I prefer that to having half a tin of pureed pumpkin left over that I wouldn't know what to do with (other than blending it into a vegetable soup). Having said that, the batter freezes very well and makes an easy to prepare pick-me-up if there's nothing fresh in your cupboard.

Where do you buy pumpkin puree? Most supermarkets in the UK sell it in autumn - look in the baking/fruit preserve section rather than the tinned vegetable section.

What’s nice about pumpkin biscuits

You can’t beat a mix of spices for an autumnal or wintery treat, and these biscuits have spices in abundance. Cinnamon, cloves, ginger, vanilla and nutmeg... this combination is so warming!

Their texture is not crunchy or gooey, but they are fluffy and soft, almost cake like in texture. They go down a bit too well, but then we can say they’ve got vegetables in them, so perhaps that means it’s not too bad if you eat one too many.

The amount of sugar in this recipe is quite small, as I prefer biscuits and cookies that are not too sweet. If you like them sweeter, simply increase the amount of sugar.

Spiced pumpkin and chocolate chip cookie recipe

Makes 30 to 40 biscuits (depending on their size)

Ingredients

450 g self raising flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cloves

a good grating of nutmeg

100 g dark chocolate chips

1 tin of pureed pumpkin (425g)

2 eggs

300 g soft brown sugar (350 g if you like them sweeter)

200 ml oil (sunflower or mild olive oil work well)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan) and line two baking trays with baking parchment.

• Combine the flour, salt and spices using a balloon whisk and add in the chocolate chips. (Coating any solid components in flour will prevent them from sinking to the bottom.)

• In your largest mixing bowl, mix the sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla paste and pumpkin puree with an electric mixer.

• Carefully fold in the flour mix.

• Scoop heaped dessert spoons of the mixture onto the trays, leaving enough space between them to allow them to rise, and smooth over the tops with a wet spoon.

• Bake for 12 minutes roughly, or until their tops and edges are slightly browned.

How to freeze and use an unbaked batch of any cookie dough

Freeze cookie dough portions for an instant accompaniment to a hot cuppa.

Plop dessert spoon portions of any cookie mix onto a parchment lined baking tray (they can be quite close together here) and freeze them. After an hour in the freezer, take out the tray and put the frozen lumps into a compact freezer container.

When you are ready to bake them, spread them out on a lined baking tray and bake them for an additional five minutes than the original baking time in your recipe(or until they are slightly brown).