Pumpkin Spice Cookies

Ahhh, the lovely fall pumpkins in Italy. They’re just so pretty you can’t resist bringing one home from the market. Actually, to be honest, that’s a load of crap. I use canned pumpkin puree whenever I can. Italian pumpkins are absolutely beautiful! But I wish I had my camera this morning to document just how hard they are to cook with (American ones are no better, mind you). A vegetable seller was cutting one of these beauties open with a saw. No kitchen knife here, my dears, but a hardware store, lions’ tooth saw; and it didn’t look like she was having an easy time with it, either. So forgive me my lack of foodie purity. I’ll go with the canned pumpkin every time. (Got one more can left for Thanksgiving pumpkin pie!)
This is a recipe I followed almost to the letter from an online cooking site. The only thing I changed were the spices. They promised “cookies” which made me think I was going to get small, crunchy, disc-shaped things. What I got were entirely pleasant, soft, moist cake puffs. They’re not like cookies but more like little pieces of pumpkin-spice cake. Not bad at all, though, really and just in time for Halloween.

1 cup softened butter
¾ cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon (cassia)
½ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground allspice
¼ tsp ground Mexican cinnamon (true cinnamon, not cassia, tastes like Big Red gum)

Take the butter out of the fridge and let soften at room temperature. Pre-heat the oven to 350F. Cream the butter with the brown sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add the egg and pumpkin and incorporate. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and all the spices. Pour the flour mixture 1/3 at a time into the larger bowl and mix just until everything is incorporated. Music to mix pumpkin-spice cookie dough with: “Every Day Is Halloween” by Gothic rockers, Ministry.
Drop rounded tablespoons-full of the dough 1 inch apart (they hardly spread) onto cookie sheets that have been greased or covered with parchment paper. Bake for 18 minutes or until the cookies have set but not browned. Cool on racks then enjoy with eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog (Macbeth: Act IV, Scene 1.) Happy Halloween!