Zhushed up cookie mix

I have been seeing everywhere lately about substituting pumpkin puree for eggs and oil in cakes, and have been wanting to try it.  Did you guys know this was a thing?  I first saw it in my Hungry Girl book 200 under 200 where she makes cupcakes and uses a boxed cake mix, a can of pumpkin, and done.  That’s it.  Whhaatt?  And you know, if HG is doing it, it means it drops the fat and calories too! Bonus for me on a diet!  So, since it is the season for pumpkin type goodies, and I happened to have a can of pumpkin, some cookie mix, and a craving for sweets…what better time to try it! I love taking the basic boxed mix and fancy-ing it up so when someone asks “Did you make this?” I can say “Why yes…yes I did!” 

All I did was replace the eggs and butter that it called for, with enough pumpkin to get the right consistency.  I’ve made enough chocolate chip cookies in my life that I know what consistency it should be…but for those just starting out…it’s basically enough to hold it’s shape a bit. That turned out to be a half a can, btw.
You can see it’s pumpkiny goodness!! I also added a dash of pumpkin pie spice because I had it on hand and it just made these babies smell soooooooo gooooooood.  The funny thing about the pumpkin is the cookies didn’t spread out and flatten like they normally would with the eggs and butter, so they turned into little cake-like nuggets!

Awful pic…I was too excited to grab one.  OMG…these are delicious.  They are cake-like in consistency, and I don’t feel too bad for giving them to the kids as they are packed with pumpkin!  Go beta-carotene!  Yeah!  And chocolate.  But you know what Mary Poppins says…a spoonful of sugar!  I don’t know exactly how much fat a calories are cut out, but I don’t feel TOO guilty about popping one of these as an afternoon snack with my coffee!  And my house smells SO fantastic, just like the holidays!