By March 2021. I am 62 years old, retired from the Postal Service, my days now belong to me and the smoker and Rosetta and the slow unfolding of a life without a mailbag. The week arrived the way weeks arrive in Orange Mound — carried by the rhythm of morning coffee and evening porch-sitting and the steady, patient work of being present in a life that doesn\'t require grand gestures to feel meaningful. Halloween with grandkids again.
I cooked this week the way I cook every week: with the ingredients at hand, the fire in the steel drum, and the understanding that food made with love in a home kitchen for people you care about is the most important food in the world. The recipe matters less than the hands that make it and the table that receives it. I stood at my smoker or my stove and I made something, and the making was the purpose.
Rosetta came to the porch as the light faded and said, "Good week, Earl." I said, "Good week." And it was — not remarkable, not historic, just good, the way most weeks are good when you have a smoker that works and a wife who loves you and a family that shows up and a God who watches. Good is enough. Good is everything. Good is what you\'re left with when you strip away the noise and the ambition and the worry, and what remains is a man on a porch in Memphis, sixty-something years old, watching the dark come, full of food and gratitude and the quiet knowledge that he did his best today, and tomorrow he\'ll do it again.
Halloween brought the grandkids over and Rosetta had that look she gets when she wants something sweet on the table before the trick-or-treating starts — so I pulled together these Pumpkin Spice Sugar Cookies, figuring if we’re carving pumpkins anyway, we ought to taste a little of that fall warmth too. There’s something right about a cookie that smells like October and goes soft in the middle, the kind of thing a grandchild takes two of without asking. That’s a good week right there.
Pumpkin Spice Sugar Cookies
Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 12 min | Total Time: 32 min | Servings: 36 cookies
Ingredients
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar, plus extra for rolling
- 1/3 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Heat the oven. Preheat your oven to 375°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- Combine dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, pumpkin pie spice, and cinnamon. Set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar together with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add wet ingredients. Mix in the pumpkin puree, egg, and vanilla extract until fully combined. The mixture may look slightly curdled — that’s fine.
- Mix in flour. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing on low speed just until the dough comes together. Do not overmix.
- Shape and roll. Scoop dough into 1-inch balls, roll each ball in granulated sugar, and place 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
- Flatten slightly. Use the bottom of a glass or your palm to gently press each ball down to about 1/2-inch thickness.
- Bake. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges are just set and the centers still look slightly underdone. They will firm up as they cool.
- Cool. Let cookies rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 118 | Protein: 1g | Fat: 5g | Carbs: 17g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 72mg