Pumpkin Cookies — The Food That Connects Every Version of Me

Week 444. Fall 2024. I am 41 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.

Tom made his trout on Friday, the way he does every Friday, and the fish was perfect, and the kitchen smelled like lemon and capers, and I sat at the table and ate fish that my partner caught and cooked and served, and the being-served is still a wonder after all these years.

Mason is 13 and navigating middle school with the quiet competence that has always been his way — focused, kind, certain of who he is in a way that took me thirty years to achieve.

Lily is 11 and riding horses with the fearlessness of someone who has never considered the possibility of falling.

I made butternut squash soup 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 butternut squash soup was simmering and the house already smelled like fall — like cinnamon and something warm and right — and I found myself reaching for more of it, more of that smell, more of that feeling. So I made pumpkin cookies too, because when the season finally arrives and the kitchen is yours again and the life you built is humming along quietly around you, you bake until the whole house knows it.

Pumpkin Cookies

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 12 min | Total Time: 27 min | Servings: 36 cookies

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Glaze

• 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

1. Preheat. Heat your oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Mix dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. Set aside.
3. Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and granulated sugar together until light and fluffy, about 2–3 minutes.
4. Add wet ingredients. Beat in the pumpkin puree, egg, and vanilla extract until well combined. The mixture may look slightly curdled — that’s fine.
5. Combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Do not overmix.
6. Scoop. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart. These cookies spread slightly but stay soft and domed.
7. Bake. Bake for 11–13 minutes, until the edges are set and the tops look just dry. They will feel soft — that’s correct. Do not overbake.
8. Cool. Let cookies cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before glazing.
9. Make the glaze. Whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, melted butter, vanilla, and cinnamon until smooth. Drizzle or spread over cooled cookies and let set for 10 minutes before serving.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 112 | Protein: 1g | Fat: 3g | Carbs: 21g | Fiber: 0.5g | Sodium: 75mg