Halloween baking

I wanted to make something Halloweeny for a party today. Normally, I'm not a fan of mixing chocolate with pumpkin (like chocolate chips in pumpkin bread, for example--the chocolate overpowers the pumpkin and spices, and it implies that the pumpkin and spices are lacking something). But this cookie recipe doesn't really distinguish between the chocolate parts and the pumpkin parts.

As you might guess from the fact that there's twice as much pumpkin as shortening, this isn't a very cookie-y cookie. It's a bit closer to little bite-sized pumpkin breads...which is ok.

Marbled Pumpkin-Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients
1/2 c vegan butter
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c turbinado sugar
1 c pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla
*
1 c whole wheat flour
1 c white flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp allspice
*
1/3 c chopped walnuts (optional)
1/3 c unsweetened cocoa

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350*. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars. Add pumpkin and vanilla, mix well. Refrigerate while mixing dry ingredients (earth balance likes to melt)
2. In another bowl, mix dry ingredients (flour through spices).
3. Add wet to dry. Stir in nuts, if desired. Then stir in cocoa, but do not mix thoroughly. I mixed the cocoa with a small amount of corn oil and soymilk to make it mix better.
4. Form dough into 1- or 1.5-in-diameter balls. Place on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Spacing not necessary as cookies don't expand much at all. Bake about 14 minutes, or until bottoms begin to brown. Makes 3-4 dozen.

Parchment paper tip from my friend Amanda: fold up the parchment paper after using, put it in a sealed ziploc, and put in freezer. You can reuse it over and over.