Well, it is official.  Toronto has set a new record for lack of sunlight this past month.  The weather network reported that a whopping 88 percent of daylight hours in November were cloud covered.  It’s definitely been a gloomy few weeks, and I think it’s starting to get to me.  I’ve been feeling lethargic, worn out, unproductive and in desperate need of a thorough recharge.  A vacation is finally on the horizon, but in the interim, I’ve been looking for small ways to slow down, chill out and re-invigorate, but it’s easier to do in theory than in practice.

Our tendency to be in an incessant hurry seems to hit a feverish pitch this time of year, with the holidays approaching.  We’re all so busy doing ‘stuff’ that, in my experience, we end up rushing through even those activities which we tend to enjoy.  Our lives are becoming more about quantity than quality.  While multitasking is still an important skill to have, there is too much emphasis on trying to juggle numerous undertakings all at once.  The problem, I find, is that there is a growing lack of commitment to our endeavors and nothing ends up getting finished to satisfaction.

So that has been my mission for these past few very grey months – to focus as much as possible on a single venture, project or task and to learn to give value even to small increments of progress.  I think that’s what I enjoy most about baking.  The exact science of it forces us to slow down, concentrate, and assess what we’re doing and how we’re doing it.

This recipe took some nuancing to get right, and I’m proud to say, after much patient experimentation with the ingredients, that these cookies are a moist and delicious autumn treat.

Ingredients
1 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 cup of sugar
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp of baking soda
1 tbsp of pumpkin pie spice
1 tbsp of cinnamon
Two eggs worth of egg replacer (I used Ener-g Egg Replacer)
1 cup of pumpkin
1 tbsp of vanilla
1/2 cup of plant-based milk
1/2 cup of plant-based margarine (softened)
1 cup of chocolate chips

Directions
1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients: the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder,  baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and cinnamon.
3.  In a medium-sized bowl combine the wet ingredients:  Egg replacer, pumpkin, vanilla, milk, and margarine.  Mix until smooth.
4.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.  Mix until smooth.
5.  Gently fold in the chocolate chips
6. On a baking sheet, form the cookies with about 1 tbsp worth of cookie dough, leaving at least a few centimeters between each cookie.  Flatten the dough with the back of a spoon or with a fork.
7.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.