We just celebrated Halloween in Portugal. We explored the city by day, ate our favorite orange-tinted bifanas by night, then walked through hoards of people in costumes. It was a quiet night, and we stopped by the Pingo Doce to buy ingredients for double chocolate chip cookies. We threw in some peanut butter cups and a chocolate bar and created heavenly, chewy chocolate and peanut butter cookies. I thought back to Maine in September when I made brown butter maple pumpkin cookies. Just before traveling. 

Pumpkins + Halloween

I am an only child, so my parents would spend every holiday catering to my creative whims. Dyeing eggs. Carving pumpkins. I vividly remember the small orange knife with black cats and hats. The sound of the kitchen spoon scraping the inside. The struggle of my small hands carving precise cuts into my sharpie pen lines on the slippery orange shell. The magical feeling when I finished. My parents would place our pumpkins outside on the porch, just on the ledge in front of our living room window. We’d fill our pumpkins with tea lights and reveal them dramatically after dark with a flick of the curtain. They glowed magnificently. 

We never ate pumpkins, though. Sadly, the pumpkin seeds and meat would go to waste. My mom hates pumpkin desserts, and my dad doesn’t cook enough to bother. The only times I could try pumpkin pie were at my grandparent’s house on holidays. My chef aunt would make a whole host of pies. Chocolate for my mom and I. Coconut cream for my dad. Pecan. Pumpkin. I always loved eating pumpkin pie, maybe it was the infrequency, or being around family. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more of a pumpkin fan. 

Festive Baking + Brown Butter Maple Pumpkin Cookies

When I lived alone after college in a new city, I started my first 8-6 job on October 1st. It was a hard, hard, month, adjusting to the piles of work during the day. The sun set 2 hours before I could even leave. I had few friends there, and they were usually busy. I didn’t make that much money. My rent was expensive. The only dinner I could stomach was a frozen pizza in the oven after my 10 hour days. On Halloween, I decided to celebrate my hard work and surviving my rocky ride into adulthood by watching movies and baking. 

I watched Hocus Pocus for the first time in the candlelight of my bedroom as people entered and exited the apartment complex outside my window. Pausing the movie to slip into the kitchen in my socks and pajamas to throw together an improvised pumpkin cupcake batter. I pulled out orange and black cupcake liners from the grocery store I was saving for weeks. Fired up my lazy stand mixer and listened to it whir and wheeze. I spooned batter into the cups and sipped tea as the smell of cinnamon and pumpkin and butter filled my small apartment. I didn’t bother making frosting.

Traveling on Halloween

So, they were cupcakes / muffins. And they were delicious. I remember the moist texture and the deep scent of fall spices. Peeling off wrapper after wrapper, eating my way to sickness on Halloween in the quiet of my half-decorated space. I was lonely and tired but still think of that night each Halloween.

I realized recently that I’ve been in 4 different countries on Halloween. Which feels so cool. Vietnam in 2014. Italy last year. Portugal this year. And America. I remember Vietnam by the mob of zombie motorcyclists on a pilgrimage to a convenience store for Oreos and candy. In Italy we moved to Florence and watched Practical Magic with Reese’s cups. We marveled at Ponte Vecchio in the days following. The twinkling of the water under the bridge. Gelato shops and long walks around the city.

This year my blog has been an incredible outlet for creativity and experimentation. I have craved making more pumpkin recipes for years, and still don’t make them enough. But I get excited each fall. Before I left, I drove down to the farm stand next to my high school and asked for the best cooking-pumpkin. The woman showed me a sweet variety that she said made an amazing pie. So, I grabbed a medium-sized pumpkin by the stem and forked over a few ones to pay. I nestled it into my passenger seat on the way home and proudly displayed it on my kitchen counter while diving into my sketchbook/recipe idea book.

Brown Butter Maple Pumpkin Cookies

I considered making a pumpkin roll with a satisfying swirl of frosting. A pumpkin soufflé baked into a pumpkin shell. Or a pumpkin spice cake with pumpkin seeds. But I thought back to baking Pillsbury cookies out of the tube with my mom as a kid – the orange pumpkins warped by the oven heat. I was craving cookies. And wanted something portable to bring on the plane to Europe. So, I prepared and roasted my pumpkin for a bit and scooped out the flesh to use in pumpkin spice cookies. 

Last year I made oatmeal spice cookies randomly one night and they came out incredible. One thing I did that put them over the top was steeping fall spices into hot brown butter before letting it cool and mixing with brown sugar, eggs, and the rest of the cookie ingredients. So, for these brown butter maple pumpkin cookies, I decided to infuse brown butter with cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, and ginger. Real fresh ginger, too. I cooled down the brown butter a bit and whisked it together with brown sugar and vanilla. Then, I realized I hadn’t added my pumpkin. 

Recipe Developing

I tasted my pumpkin and it was pretty bland. So, in another pot, I cooked it down with maple syrup and more spices, and when it thickened and intensified in flavor, I added my brown butter mix. I let it cool again and added my egg. Then, my dry ingredients with even more spices. Salt for flavor. I had amber-colored pumpkin spice cookie dough. I put it in the fridge to cool for a few hours, which always makes the best cookies. After a relaxing painting session with tea and lunch, I was scooping cookie dough onto baking sheets and popping trays in the oven. 

The house filled with the gorgeous, spicy, scent of brown butter maple pumpkin cookies. It reminded me of that magic on Halloween in 2017 when I was struggling to adjust to adulthood. When they came out of the oven, they looked thick and chewy and as they cooled they flattened into rippled, gorgeous orange brown butter maple pumpkin cookies. They firmed up a bit, and I scraped them onto a wire rack with a spatula. After they cooled for a few minutes, I dug in. The initial flavor was spice and butter. Then, the roasted pumpkin, like candied sweet potatoes with maple syrup and sugar. The texture of these brown butter pumpkin cookies is slightly chewy, a little caky, and buttery.

Eating Cookies

I enjoyed a few over the days leading up to traveling. I snuck bites while packing my clothes. Then, I put three in a ziplock bag and threw them into my backpack on the morning of. I looked longingly at my bedroom as I flipped off the light. Saying goodbye to that familiar bed and lamplight painting for 5 weeks. Which is always a sinking, difficult feeling. Yet, exciting and free. My dad and I took turns driving to the airport, stopping at Palace Diner for breakfast. We ate Taylor Ham and potatoes and eggs at the diner counter. I drove to Boston and hugged my dad with my suitcases on the sidewalk. After security, I handed my pumpkin spice cookies to Jake, my friend/travel companion/business partner. And possibly the world’s biggest sugar fan. 

Back to Portugal now, where we have Reese’s double chocolate chip cookies from Halloween to enjoy. I’ll be stress-eating before the election, trying not to check poll numbers of the many conflicting stories about who’s leading in swing states. We’re planning some day trips to gems of the Portuguese countryside in our last two weeks. And we’ll certainly fit in as many bifanas, pastels, and cachorrinhos as we can before we leave. We’re here until November 14th. I’m feeling a little sad about leaving soon, but I’ve realized that the time I have left is still more than most people ever have in Europe. I can’t wait to talk more about the incredible foods we’ve tried here. 

Thank you for reading! If you enjoy my paintings and recipes, be sure to check out Etsy for 25% off art prints and recipe cards. Use code THEFORKEDRING. Take care!

Print Pin

Brown Butter Pumpkin Cookies

Rich pumpkin brown butter cookies with plenty of spices and sugar

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword cookies, pumpkin, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin spice

Prep Time 3 hours hours

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 12

Author theforkedring

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt

Instructions

• In a large stockpot, cook pumpkin puree with flour, maple syrup, pumpkin pie spice, and sugar for 5-10 minutes over medium heat until thickened. Remove from heat.
• In a separate stockpot, brown butter until golden and toasted. Add your ground cinnamon, ground ginger, and ground nutmeg. Strain to remove any burnt bits and let cool slightly.
• Add your brown butter, egg, and brown sugar to your pumpkin puree mixture.
• In a large bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
• Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture with a wooden spoon. Mixture should be stiff and thick. Place in the fridge to chill for 2-3 hours.
• Preheat oven to 350°F. Scoop 10-12 large balls of cookie dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets. The balls should be the size of a meatball, or about 1/3 cup.
• Sprinkle tops with sea salt and bake for 15-20 minutes. Cool for 30 minutes and transfer to a wire rack.

Notes

• You can make your own pumpkin puree by roasting a whole pumpkin, split in half, for 30-40 minutes at 400°F. Canned pumpkin typically is more concentrated and may have more flavor. 
• You can turn these into pumpkin spice latte cookies by adding espresso powder to your brown butter mixture! Try about a teaspoon and a half to start, but if you like more coffee flavor, try 2-3 tsps. 
• If you live in a humid place, keep these in the fridge, as the pumpkin makes them more soft than most cookies after sitting out.