This is a soft cookie, not a crisp one. Dry ingredients in one bowl, creamed butter and sugar in another, a full cup of pumpkin, and the spice list doing the heavy lifting: cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves.
The icing is the part people get wrong. It has to go on cold. Glaze a warm cookie and it slides straight off onto the parchment. Let the tray come all the way to room temperature, then spread.
COOKIES
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
ICING
2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons milk, plus more as needed
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
METHOD
1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees and grease two cookie sheets.
2. Whisk the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, cloves and salt together in a medium bowl.
3. In a large bowl, cream the sugar and butter until fluffy, two to three minutes. Beat in the pumpkin, egg and vanilla until creamy, then mix in the dry ingredients until just combined.
4. Drop tablespoonfuls of dough onto the sheets and flatten each one slightly.
5. Bake 15 to 20 minutes, until the centers are set, switching racks halfway through.
6. Move the cookies to a wire rack and cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.
7. Stir the confectioners' sugar, milk, melted butter and vanilla until smooth. Add milk a little at a time until the icing drops off the spoon in a thick ribbon.
8. Spread the icing over the cooled cookies with an offset spatula.
Three things that decide how these turn out. Do not overmix once the flour goes in. Flatten the dough before it bakes or the centers stay wet. And wait the full thirty minutes before icing, because warm cookies shed glaze onto the parchment every time.