Tomorrow is All Hallows’ Eve, Hallowe’en, the night before Hallowmas, All Souls’ Day, the Christian reincarnation of the ancient festival of Lemuria, the Roman festival of the dead, merged with the ancient Irish celebration of the end of summer, Samhain. These days, we hardly remember that it was once a sacred festival. But, while the theme of death does sound rather sober, both Lemuria (originally celebrated around May Day) and Samhain (originally a weeklong fair centered on the annual livestock cull) had their boisterous elements.
Samhain featured games, sports, music, and poetry (because with the Irish everything is music and poetry…). Wine, mead, and the ancient Northern brew known as gruit (a barley beer flavored with bog myrtle and meadowsweet) ran in rivers. And, of course, there was feasting.
Lemuria, being a holy day of the restless dead, was associated with tricks played to exorcise malevolent spirits, the lemures and larvae. This involved washing your hands in spring water and spitting black beans over the shoulder while walking through the house at midnight. (You can’t make these things up…) The lemures were spirits who had died before their time and could not find their way in the afterlife. Most of these were children, so they weren’t the most sophisticated ghosts. They caused household mayhem through sheer stupidity. The larvae, however, were outright demons who plagued the living and possibly tormented the underworld dead as well. One did not want these beings hanging round the home.
Except…
Inevitably, young people of the incarnated variety seized on such a golden opportunity to cause mischief. Pranks were pulled and blamed on larvae and lemures, and larva in particular were so associated with masquerades and scary stories that the name was more commonly used for a frightening variety of theatre mask.
Because of its somewhat demonic associations, Lemuria was uprooted and refocused under the early Catholic Church. It was first renamed the Feast of All Martyrs, but that wasn’t enough separation. So it was moved to November where it encountered remnants of the Celtic summer’s end festival, Samhain. This mating led to one of the most enduring observances in the West — the Feast of All Saints followed by the Feast of All Souls. This nearly three-day festival of the dead, Hallowmas, waxed and waned in popularity throughout the Middle Ages, through Renaissance and Enlightenment, and right into Modern times, but it never vanished completely. In the colonial period, it traveled the world mixing with other cultures. And eventually, it evolved into a mostly secular celebration of all things eerie and Other.
For a number of reasons, the hallowed eve of All Saints’ Day became associated with ambulatory begging, with householders handing out sweets to children. Initially, these treats were called soul cakes. Children trouped about singing and dancing— “going a’souling” — to earn coins or cakes that were seen as treats for the dead. The coins were given to the Church to buy indulgences for the faithful in Purgatory. But the cakes were eaten by the youngsters, the thought being that when the innocent young ate the cakes, the recent dead could enjoy the treat as well. In any case, through a rather convoluted history, we still give out sweets to kids on All Hallows’ Eve.
I’ve never yet convinced my trick-or-treaters to sing for their sweeties — not for lack of trying — nor do I think any of them would know what a soul cake was. (I think they would be positively flummoxed if I spit beans to make the teenagers go away.) But I bake my own version of soul cakes all the same. This recipe started happening in my house over three decades ago. Maybe four. I know Son#1 was quite young (and, my god, he’s nearing 40! how did that happen!) when I first took the Betty Crocker recipe for pumpkin cookies and turned it into a cornucopia in a cookie. I started calling them “pumpkin dump-truck cookies” when Son#2 was in grade school and the name stuck… though sometimes it’s dump-ster, not –truck…
I usually make mountains of them, because this recipe is one that I turn to in order to use up roasted pumpkin and winter squash. The recipe below will make about two dozen cookies but only uses one cup of squash mash. When I have squash mash to use up, it’s almost always four to six cups. So I make at least quadruple this recipe. Yes, mountains.
I’ve been known to freeze those cookies that make it past the Day of the Dead and trot them back out for Thanksgiving. They work just as well as snacks for youngsters awaiting the big holiday meal. And while I’d not go so far as to call them healthy, as cookies go, they do pack in the nutrition alongside the sugar and fat. Every cookie is loaded with fruit and nuts and, of course, roasted squash which is something like a super-food for winter, brimming with all kinds of vitamins and minerals in a yummy sweet, but not sugary, vegetable. Very good for the body, as well as the soul.
But I would hesitate before offering them to larvae…
In any case, I give you Pumpkin Dump-truck Cookies — my version of soul cakes.
Pumpkin Dump-truck Cookies for Hallowe’en
Ingredients
1 egg, beaten well
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup roasted winter squash,
any kind, mashed well
1 cup sugar
(sub up to 1/4th maple sugar for pure magic!)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp mace 1/2 tsp nutmeg a scant 1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup raisins (mix golden and regular)
3/4 cup chopped and toasted pecans
1/2 cup cored and finely diced apple
a dry, tart variety works best
Instructions
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone mats (this is a sticky recipe!). Preheat oven to 375°F.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs until frothy.
Add the pumpkin and combine well.
Add the melted butter in a thin stream, a little at a time to ensure that the hot butter doesn’t cook the egg. Combine very well.
Add the vanilla and the sugar and beat until smooth. Set aside.
In another bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and all the dry spices. Make sure the spices are well-dispersed. (Nothing worse than a lump of clove powder in your cookie.)
Add all the chips, nuts, and fruit and toss to coat everything in flour. This being the “dump” part of the recipe, you are free to put in whatever you like in whatever quantity you want. I’ve used dried cherries, currants and blueberries. I’ve had walnuts and hazelnuts and almonds in my cookies. And once or twice I’ve put in mini-marshmallows and M&M’s. (Not my favorite, but the kids loved it!) The one constant is the butterscotch chips. These pair perfectly with pumpkin and all the spices. And they make the house smell like heaven.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet. If you are making a double batch (or more!), add the dry stuff incrementally, stirring well in between each addition. Otherwise, it’s rather difficult to get all the flour mixed into this stiff and sticky dough.
Drop spoonfuls of dough on your prepared cookie sheet. These don’t spread much, so you can space them out with only a half inch or so in between.
Bake 15-17 minutes in a 375°F oven.
If you are making many batches, use two cookie sheets. And unless you have a convection oven, bake them for 20 minutes, switching the sheets at 10 minutes so both get to cook evenly in the heat of the top of the oven.
Cool on a wire rack.
Or just eat them as they come out of the oven. (Because one must test for quality, you know… )
These keep in a cookie jar or some other loosely sealed contained up to one week.
They freeze well, if you can’t get them all eaten in that time. Stack them in quart freezer bags and use them within a year. (Like that’s a problem… ) They’ll need a bit of warming in the oven after defrosting.
These don’t do well in the fridge. I really don’t know why, but they seem to be very good at absorbing fridge flavors. Plus they get sort of mushy. Hence the need to warm them after freezing.
If you live in a place where you know the kiddies coming to your door and home-made treats are still acceptable, these are always favorites. The neighborhood kids in Albuquerque began asking when I was going to make the Dump-truck cookies as early as August.
©Elizabeth Anker 2025
By My Solitary Hearth 