Pumpkin Polvorones (Mexican Wedding Cookies)

The foliage is beginning on the ridge — the first maple on the high end of the woodlot went red-orange this week, the same tree that always turns first, positioned on the north face where the cold builds earliest. I noticed it on my morning walk on Wednesday and stood at the stone wall for a few minutes looking up at it. There is something about that one tree going early that functions as the foliage announcement, the ridge saying: we are starting. Everything after that is momentum and spectacle.

The apple orchard is producing well this year — the Cortlands went first, as always, and I have been picking and pressing since the weekend. The cider press ran Saturday morning, Ted and Owen helping this year with David along as well, and we processed four bushels in three hours and got eighteen gallons of fresh cider. David has a forestry background but I am learning that he is also a genuine cider enthusiast — he brought a hydrometer and tested the brix of the juice from different apple varieties to compare the sugar levels, which is exactly the kind of empirical attention I appreciate in a person. We had a good conversation about the relationship between sugar content, fermentation timing, and finished flavor in hard cider, which was the most interesting three-hour conversation I have had in a September in some years.

The blog post this week was from the Helen notebook series — a 1993 corn pudding she had described in the margin as "too Southern for Vermont but too good to care." The recipe was clearly adapted from a community cookbook she had been given at some point, reshaped by her to include Vermont sweet corn and a little maple syrup in place of the called-for sugar. The result was both regional and borrowed and entirely hers by the time it was done. I made it to photograph and ate it for three meals in a row. It is too Southern for Vermont and too good to care, exactly as she said.

After eighteen gallons of cider and three hours of good conversation about brix levels and fermentation, I wanted to do something with my hands in the kitchen that was quieter and did not require a hydrometer — something that smelled like the season rather than measured it. These pumpkin polvorones are what I landed on: small, yielding, spiced with the same warmth as the air on the ridge this week. They dissolve the way October afternoons do, faster than you expect, leaving just the good part behind.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 14 min | Total Time: 34 min | Servings: 30 cookies

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup powdered sugar, plus 1 cup more for rolling
1/3 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts

Instructions

Preheat oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Cream butter and sugar. Beat softened butter and 1/2 cup powdered sugar together with a hand mixer or stand mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add pumpkin. Mix in the pumpkin puree and vanilla extract until fully combined. The mixture may look slightly curdled — that is normal.
Combine dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and salt.
Form the dough. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and stir until just combined. Fold in the chopped nuts. The dough will be soft but should hold its shape when rolled.
Shape cookies. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls (about 1 tablespoon each) and place 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheets.
Bake. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, until the bottoms are lightly golden and the tops are just set. Do not overbake — they should remain pale.
First sugar coat. Let cookies cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then roll them gently in powdered sugar while still warm. They are fragile — handle with care.
Second sugar coat. Once completely cool, roll each cookie in powdered sugar a second time for a full, even coating.
Store. Keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days, or freeze for up to 2 months.

Nutrition (per serving)

Pumpkin Polvorones (Mexican Wedding Cookies) — Something Sweet for the End of Harvest Week