Hello and welcome to a squash cookie bonanza!

I’m so pleased to partner with the brilliant Kiera Wright-Ruiz to bring you not one, but two autumn-inspired treats as part of my ongoing seasonal cookie series. Kiera and I challenged ourselves to look beyond pumpkin or butternut, and feature lesser-known squash varieties (or at least lesser-known where I live, here in New Orleans). Together, we schemed up recipes for Kabocha Miso Snickerdoodles and Kuri Kuri Squash Blossoms with Tahini!

Kiera is a Tokyo-based writer and recipe developer, and the author of one of my favorite cookbooks of recent years: My (Half) Latinx Kitchen, a moving exploration of heritage told through both essays and recipes. This year, she debuted her newsletter Purin & Ponders, featuring recipes, stories, and recommendations from Kiera’s life in Tokyo. Start here for the story of how Kiera left the United States, or read this essay for Kiera’s take on what locals really buy from Japanese convenience stores. I highly recommend you subscribe! None of this is sponsored BTW, I’m just a huge fan!! When Kiera reached out and asked if I’d like to collaborate on a themed newsletter I couldn’t have been more thrilled.

Read on for recipes for Kabocha Miso Snickerdoodles and Kuri Kuri Squash Blossoms with Tahini!

Kabocha Miso Snickerdoodles

By Kiera Wright-Ruiz

This time of year when the air is crisp, all I want to do is watch cheesy holiday movies on my couch and bake. These Kabocha Miso Snickerdoodles are the perfect fall sweet that embraces the cozy flavors of the season. I’ve been living in Tokyo for almost five years now, and one of the biggest adjustments to my fall routine has been swapping traditional pumpkin for kabocha squash. In Japan, it’s uncommon to find the large orange pumpkin varieties you commonly see at grocery stores in the U.S. But once fall rolls in, you start seeing speckled green kabocha squash everywhere.

This recipe is an ode to the flavors I find comfort in but made with common ingredients from my new home in Tokyo. Beyond the crinkle surface, these cookies have an incredible chewy texture from the combination of mashed kabocha, miso, and cream of tartar. Even with the additional rolled cinnamon sugar, they are not too sweet, which means you can eat a lot while binging the Charlie Brown holiday specials for the 5th time this year. Hopefully that’s not just me.

Kabocha Miso Snickerdoodles

Makes: 23 cookies

Note: About 1/4 of a small kabocha will give you enough and then some for this recipe. If you don’t have easy access to kabocha, any squash will do. Just be sure to remove the skins, boil until tender, and mash until smooth. To ensure your cookie texture is correct, do you best to remove the extra water from the mashed squash. You can heat your mashed squash over medium-low heat to evaporate the excess liquid, or you can gently dab the extra water away with a paper towel from the surface.

Ingredients:

For the rolling sugar:

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 tablespoons ground cinnamon

For the cookie dough:

1 stick unsalted butter (113 grams)

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 cups all-purpose flour (240 grams)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons any color miso

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup mashed skinless kabocha squash (116 grams) *see note

Directions:

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 350°F degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

Step 2

Make the rolling sugar. In a small shallow bowl, combine 3 tablespoons sugar and 1 tablespoon cinnamon. Set aside.

Step 3

Brown the butter. In a small saucepan, cook butter over medium heat, stirring often, until it foams, then browns, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Mix in 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon; the residual heat will bloom the spice. Set aside and let butter cool for at least 10 minutes.

Step 4

Combine the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, add flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and baking powder. Mix until fully combined and set aside.

Step 5

Combine the wet ingredients. In a large mixing bowl, add cinnamon brown butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, miso, egg yolk, and vanilla extra. Mix until fully combined. Then add mashed kabocha and mix until it is fully incorporated with one even color and consistency.

Step 6

Using a rubber spatula, gradually add the dry ingredients into the wet ones until just incorporated.

Step 7

Roll the cookies into balls, about 1.5 tablespoons per cookie (or a #40 cookie scoop). Roll the dough balls into the cinnamon-sugar mixture until fully coated. On the baking sheets, place cookies 3 inches apart to avoid crowding.

Step 8

Bake for about 10 minutes or until golden at the edges with the cookie centers just set. Remove from oven. Gently tap the baking sheets on a counter to even out the cookie surfaces. Let cookies cool on the pan for 10 minutes, and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough. Serve while warm or store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Kuri Kuri Squash Blossoms with Tahini

By Bronwen Wyatt

Kuri Kuri squash is a small, deep reddish-orange gourd with a nearly indescribable nutty taste. I’ve heard it compared to chestnuts, but I truly think it has a character all of its own. Here, I pair it with tahini to make squash blossoms (pun intended), a play on the classic peanut butter blossom cookie, each replete with a Hershey’s kiss. You can, of course, substitute a féve of any chocolate of your choosing. I like these with milk chocolate, but dark chocolate would work beautifully as well.

These cookies call for vegetable shortening rather than butter, a rather unusual choice in this day and age, I know! I’ve come to favor it recently for cookies that don’t rely on butter as a core flavor profile. Shortening allows the cookies to have a longer shelf life and gives them an almost fudgey texture. You could use any plant-based shortening you like.

Kuri Kuri Squash Blossoms with Tahini

Makes: 28 cookies

Note: As with Keira’s recipe, you won’t need an entire kuri kuri squash to make these cookies. I used my remaining squash puree to make soup (there’s oodles of creamy squash soup recipes on the net!). I roast my squash by slicing it in half and placing it, cut side down, on a silpat-lined baking sheet. I then roast it at 400°F for 40-50 minutes, until it’s super super soft. Once cool, the skin will separate from the flesh and you can remove it with your fingers. I like to keep the seeds in while the squash is roasting (keeps it more moist) and then scoop them out with my fingers when the roasted kuri kuri is fully cooked and cooled.

Ingredients:

240 grams all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

130 grams brown sugar

70 grams granulated sugar (plus more to coat the cookies)

70 grams vegetable shortening

60 grams tahini

1 large egg (about 50 grams)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

100 grams roasted kuri kuri squash flesh, mashed

26 Hershey kisses or chocolate féves

Directions:

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, and whisk to combine.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the brown sugar, shortening, granulated sugar, and tahini until just combined (you can also do this quite easily by hand, if you like). Add the egg and vanilla and mix to combine. Add the roasted squash and mix, followed by the flour mixture, mixing until just combined.

Scoop the cookie dough into 28 balls (about 26 grams each). Arrange the cookies on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper and pop them in the freezer for twenty minutes (you can also freeze them for up to several weeks).

When you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 375°F degrees. Toss the cookies with granulated sugar until they are evenly coated. Divide the chilled cookies between two sheet trays lined with parchment paper. Bake for 10-11 minutes, or until the cookies have just begun to turn a deep gold at the bottom border. When you remove the cookies from the oven, immediately place a kiss or chocolate féve in the center of each cookie. Let cool completely before enjoying.

The cookies will last for up to four days at room temperature in a sealed container.

Squash Cookies, Two Ways!