Caramel-Pecan Pumpkin Pull-Aparts -- The Thread That Connects Every Week

Week 346. Fall 2022. I am 39 years old and standing in my kitchen — the Bench house kitchen, the one that held cancer and divorce and cinnamon rolls — and the stove is on and something is cooking and the house smells like cinnamon and falling leaves and this is my life. This is the life I built.

The clinic was busy this week — spring puppies and summer emergencies and the constant, comforting cycle of animals who need care and humans who love them enough to bring them in.

Mason is 11 and reading everything he can find and examining the world under a microscope with the intensity of a tenured researcher.

Lily is 9 and riding horses with the fearlessness of someone who has never considered the possibility of falling.

I made pot roast this week. The food continues. The food always continues. It is the thread that connects every week to every other week, every year to every other year, every version of me to every other version — the woman on the kitchen floor, the woman at the chemo recliner, the woman at the grill, the woman at the outdoor table under the string lights. All of them, connected by the food they made with their hands. All of them, me.

The pot roast was already doing its slow, steady work on the stove — the smell of it moving through the whole house the way only long-cooked things do — and I wanted something else alongside it, something that matched the cinnamon and falling-leaves feeling that had been sitting in my chest all week. These Caramel-Pecan Pumpkin Pull-Aparts were the answer: sticky and warm and just indulgent enough to feel like a small celebration of nothing in particular, which is the best kind. Mason pulled them apart at the seams like he was conducting an experiment; Lily ate three before I counted.

Caramel-Pecan Pumpkin Pull-Aparts

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 30 min | Total Time: 50 min | Servings: 12

Ingredients

• 2 cans (16.3 oz each) refrigerated biscuit dough
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup chopped pecans, divided
• 1/2 cup caramel topping, plus more for drizzling

Instructions

1. Preheat and prep. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish or a 12-cup bundt pan with butter or nonstick spray.
2. Make the pumpkin butter. Whisk together the melted butter and pumpkin puree in a medium bowl until smooth and combined. Set aside.
3. Mix the sugar coating. In a separate bowl, stir together the brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and salt until evenly blended.
4. Cut and coat the biscuits. Open both cans of biscuit dough and cut each biscuit into quarters. Working in batches, toss the pieces in the pumpkin butter, then roll them in the spiced brown sugar mixture until well coated.
5. Layer in the pan. Scatter half of the pecans across the bottom of the prepared pan. Arrange a layer of coated biscuit pieces over the pecans, then drizzle with half the caramel topping. Repeat with remaining biscuit pieces, pecans, and caramel, building layers as you go.
6. Pour and bake. Pour any remaining pumpkin butter over the top of the assembled pan. Bake for 28—32 minutes, until deep golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Cool and serve. Let the pull-aparts rest in the pan for 5 minutes. If using a bundt pan, invert onto a serving plate. Drizzle generously with additional caramel topping and serve warm, pulling apart at the seams.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 375 | Protein: 4g | Fat: 19g | Carbs: 50g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 530mg