Pumpkin Cream Sandwiches

The pumpkins appeared on every stoop in Southie sometime around last Tuesday and the city shifted into its pre-Halloween register — kids in costumes at the grocery store, the pharmacy selling candy by the case, and that quality of October light that makes every brick building in Boston look like it was designed to be photographed from this angle at this time of year. I bought two pumpkins from the stand on Broadway and carried them up four flights of stairs to my apartment and immediately remembered that I hate carrying pumpkins up stairs.

Maureen always carved pumpkins the same way when we were kids: a very sharp paring knife, two triangle eyes, a wide toothy smile, occasionally a nose depending on her mood. Classic. Archetypal. Perfect. I have never deviated from this template. I carve pumpkins the way Maureen carves pumpkins because that is the template and there is no reason to improve on it.

Carved them Saturday afternoon while Sean D. sat on the fire escape reading a student paper he'd been putting off for three days. He read me a student's interpretation of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and then looked up and said, "This is the most confidently wrong paragraph I've ever read." I said, "That's teaching." He said, "That's eleventh grade. They should know better." He went back to the paper with the slightly mournful expression of a man who had expected more from eleventh grade.

Made pumpkin bread Sunday with the gutted-out pumpkin — I know most people use canned pumpkin and there is nothing wrong with that, but I had a whole pumpkin sitting there. Roasted the flesh, pureed it, added it to a spiced quick bread with walnuts and a brown sugar swirl. Dense and warmly spiced and exactly the kind of thing you want in late October with strong tea. Brought half a loaf to the nurses' station Monday morning and it disappeared in under ten minutes, which is the oncology floor metric of success.

After the bread was gone — half to the nurses’ station, half to Sean D. over strong tea by the window — I still had pumpkin puree left in the fridge and no real intention of wasting it. These pumpkin cream sandwiches became the logical next step: same warm spices, same roasted-pumpkin base, but in a form small enough to share at the station without anyone having to slice anything. October in Southie deserves more than one pumpkin recipe.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 12 min | Total Time: 32 min (plus 30 min cooling) | Servings: 18 sandwich cookies

Ingredients

For the cookies:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree (fresh-roasted or canned)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the cream filling:
4 oz cream cheese, softened
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

Heat oven. Preheat to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Whisk dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat softened butter and granulated sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2–3 minutes.
Add wet ingredients. Beat in pumpkin puree, egg, and vanilla until fully combined. The batter will look slightly curdled — that’s fine.
Combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until just combined. Do not overmix.
Portion and bake. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto prepared baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart. Bake 11–13 minutes, until the tops are set and just barely beginning to turn golden at the edges. Cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Make the filling. Beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Add powdered sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon and beat on low until incorporated, then on medium-high until fluffy, about 2 minutes.
Assemble. Match cookies in similar-sized pairs. Spread or pipe a generous tablespoon of cream filling onto the flat side of one cookie, then press the second cookie gently on top. Repeat with remaining cookies.
Set and serve. Refrigerate assembled sandwiches for 20–30 minutes to let the filling firm up before serving. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

Nutrition (per serving)

Pumpkin Cream Sandwiches — The Sweet End to a Southie October Weekend