Cream the butter and 2 sugars together in the bowl of an electric mixer on low to medium speed. (Use the paddle attachment). Mix until thoroughly incorporated – for about one minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a plastic spatula and mix again for a few seconds more. Over mixing the butter and sugar in this step will cause too much air to be incorporated into the dough. If you’d like a light and fluffy cookie, that’s ideal, however the dough will spread more during baking; not ideal if you’d like the cookie to hold its shape.
Add pumpkin purée and eggs while slowly mixing. Add vanilla extract and mix. Scrape down the bowl with your spatula at least once and mix briefly again.
Sift your dry ingredients together. (Flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, all-spice and salt. I do not use baking powder in my cut-out cookies).
Add all of the flour mixture to the bowl. Mix on low speed. When the dough is almost fully mixed, pour in the pecans and mix until incorporated.
Roll the dough out between 2 large pieces of parchment paper. Place on a baking sheet and into the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour.
Roll out the dough further if you need to, and cut out cookie shapes. Place on parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Re-roll scraps and repeat.
Put cookie dough shapes back into the fridge for 10 minutes to 1 hour to chill again. They will then hold their shape better when baked.
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 176°C.
Bake cookies for 8-12 minutes or until the edges become golden brown. The baking time will depend on the size of your cookie.
Let cookies cool to room temperature and decorate!