By October 2023. Fall in Memphis, and I am 64, walking the neighborhood in my light jacket, watching the leaves turn on the oaks and maples that line Deadrick Avenue. The smoker is happy in fall — the cooler air holds the smoke lower, keeps it closer to the meat, and the results are always a shade better in October than in July, as if the season itself is a seasoning.
Mama in Whitehaven, navigating her days between clarity and fog, still sharp enough to critique my cooking and still loving enough to eat it anyway.
Comfort food this week: a big pot of collard greens with smoked turkey neck, simmered for three hours until the greens were dark and silky and the pot liquor was a treasure. The kitchen smelled like Mama's kitchen in the shotgun house, and I stood at the stove and stirred and thought about hands — her hands, small and strong, teaching mine everything they know about turning humble ingredients into something that feeds not just the body but the soul.
I sat in the lawn chair next to Uncle Clyde's smoker as the dark came on, and I thought about what I always think about: the chain. From Clyde to me. From me to Trey, maybe, or Jerome, or whoever comes next with the patience and the hands and the willingness to stand next to a fire at three in the morning and wait for something good to happen. The chain doesn't break. The fire doesn't stop. And I am here, 64 years old, in a lawn chair in Orange Mound, Memphis, Tennessee, watching the smoke rise, and the rising is the living, and the living is the gift.
After a week of long simmers and slow smoke — collard greens that took three hours and a brisket that took longer — I still wanted something sweet to close the evening, something that didn’t ask much of me but gave a lot back. Mama always said the sweetest things in a kitchen come from the humblest shelf, and pumpkin is about as humble as it gets. These pumpkin white chocolate chip cookies came together quietly, the way the best things in fall do — soft, spiced, and gone before I could photograph them.
Pumpkin White Chocolate Chip Cookies
Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 14 min | Total Time: 29 min | Servings: 24 cookies
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 cup canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 3/4 cups white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats and set aside.
- Mix the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger until evenly combined. Set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugars. In a large bowl using a hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the softened butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2–3 minutes.
- Add the wet ingredients. Mix in the pumpkin puree, egg, and vanilla extract on medium speed until fully incorporated. The batter will look slightly curdled — that’s normal with pumpkin.
- Combine wet and dry. Reduce mixer to low and gradually add the flour mixture, stirring just until no dry streaks remain. Do not overmix.
- Fold in the chips. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the white chocolate chips until evenly distributed throughout the dough.
- Portion the dough. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 2 inches apart. The dough will be soft and slightly sticky.
- Bake. Bake for 12–14 minutes, until the edges are set and the tops look just barely done. Do not overbake — these cookies firm up as they cool and are meant to stay soft.
- Cool. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 178 | Protein: 2g | Fat: 8g | Carbs: 25g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 115mg