Bring the unsalted butter to 65°F, then beat it with the granulated sugar for 2 to 3 minutes until the mixture looks pale and slightly fluffy. Add the large egg, pumpkin puree and vanilla extract, then beat for 45 seconds and scrape down the mixture once halfway through. Keep the mixture below 70°F. Too-warm butter makes Halloween Pumpkin Carving Stencils spread before their edges can set. Next, watch for a smooth orange mixture with tiny air pockets and no streaks of egg. It should smell buttery with a clear pumpkin note, and the sugar should feel mostly dissolved when rubbed between two fingers. Stop as soon as it looks uniform because another 2 minutes can over-aerate the base. Keep the butter near 65°F because warmer fat weakens the cookie shape.

Whisk the all-purpose flour, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground nutmeg, baking powder and fine sea salt together for 30 seconds, then add them to the pumpkin mixture in two additions. Fold with slow bottom-to-top turns for 45 to 60 seconds after each addition while the dough stays near 68°F. Stop when only a few flour streaks remain. Overmixing here makes the cookies tough instead of tender. Then finish with five or six gentle folds until the dough turns matte and thick enough to hold a soft ridge. You should smell the cinnamon first and see no dry flour pockets along the bottom. The dough will feel soft but not pourable. Don't keep folding after it comes together. Minimal mixing limits gluten so the cut pumpkin edges stay cleaner.

Divide the dough in half and roll each portion to exactly 1/4 inch thick, then cut 18 pumpkin shapes about 3 inches wide. Move the cut pieces onto a parchment-lined sheet pan with about 1 inch between them, then chill at 38°F for 30 minutes so the softened butter firms again. Press scraps together only once before rerolling. Warm dough softens fast, and repeated rerolling makes the final cookies noticeably firmer. Meanwhile, the chilled shapes should feel cool and firm at the edges while the centers still give slightly when pressed. The outlines should stay crisp when lifted, with tiny irregularities that make them look homemade. (My first batch skipped the chill. The pumpkins spread into soft blobs.) Chill 30 minutes because cold fat delays spreading until the flour structure sets.

Bake the chilled cookies at 350°F for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the sheet pan once at minute 6 so the front and back color evenly. Leave about 1 inch between cookies as they bake. Pull them when the edges turn pale golden but the centers still look slightly soft. Go past 13 minutes and the pumpkin moisture cooks off, leaving the centers dry and cakier. Next, let the cookies sit on the hot pan for 5 minutes before moving them to cool for 25 minutes. You'll see the centers change from shiny to matte as they finish setting, and the spice smell becomes stronger right around minute 10. They should bend only slightly when warm. Bake at 350°F because moderate heat sets the edges before the centers lose moisture.

Cool the cookies completely to about 70°F, then stir the powdered sugar with whole milk for 60 seconds until the icing falls in a thick ribbon. Tint most of it with orange gel food coloring, then tint 1/4 cup with black gel food coloring. Spread a thin orange coat over each cookie and let it set for 20 minutes before adding the Halloween Pumpkin Carving Stencils faces. Finally, press the dark icing through each face opening and lift the stencil straight up within 5 seconds. Lift straight up. The black icing should keep sharp edges and lose its wet shine after 30 to 45 minutes, while small variations remain from cookie to cookie. Wait too long before lifting and the edges drag. Thick icing holds the stencil pattern because it doesn't flow under the cutouts.