These cookies are a fall fav of mine.

I'm normally not a huge cookie person, but I do love me some pumpkin spice, so I tried making these one day out of boredom, and after perfecting the recipe, they must be shared.

It's a pretty simple recipe: the base is pretty much pumpkin puree, almond butter, maple syrup, and oats. But of course, you add the essential baking ingredients like salt and baking soda and always vanilla.

One of the things I like about healthy vegan baking is it is a lot more lenient. You can kind of eyeball everything, and you can always lick the spoon (although, let's be real, we all do that whether it's vegan or not). And ingredients can be somewhat interchangeable.

I always advocate for choosing a nut butter where the only ingredient is the nut itself. However, Whole Foods sells this pumpkin spice almond butter, and it's like fall candy on a spoon.* Life changing. So, if you manage to get your hands on it, it would really take your cookies to the next level. Or you can stick to using clean ingredients and just grab a one-ingredient nut butter. I like almond the best, but peanut works as well.

And sticking to the pumpkin spice trend, my favorite brand of vegan chocolate chips - Lily's - makes pumpkin spice chocolate chips, like could it get any more festive?

Directions:

1. Add almond butter, maple syrup, pumpkin puree, and vanilla extract to a large bowl and mix thoroughly.
2. Mix the almond flour, salt, pumpkin spice, and baking soda in a separate bowl. Then, pour in the oats and mix together with the dry ingredients.
3. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix everything together until smooth and combined.
4. Fold in your chocolate chips.
5. Scoop 1-2 tablespoon-sized balls onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Slightly flatten the balls, as they won't spread out too much in the oven.
6. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for around 22 minutes.
7. Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking tray before serving (however, sneaking a little taste of one right out of the oven to make sure they aren't poisonous is acceptable here).

*EDITOR'S NOTE: After lots of googling and trying to remember the name of this pumpkin butter, I learned it's from Fix and Fogg, which you can find in Whole Foods. Last year, I found the delicacy they call "Pumpkin Pie Butter." However, after checking Whole Foods weekly, doing more research, and googling, I learned that it is only available for purchase on their website. A fall tragedy.