Beat the butter on medium speed with an electric mixer (hand or stand) until creamy. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, and beat in the sugar, once again on medium speed, until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Beat in the pumpkin puree. Do not worry if the mixture looks a little curdled (and this could be because my kitchen was exceptionally cold). Beat until completely incorporated, scraping the bowl as needed.

Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and beat in the egg and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, salt, baking powder and spices.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture--add it is in several additions, more still if you have doubled the recipe. Mix on slow, scraping the bowl in between additions.

When the flour is nearly but not quite completely incorporated, add the chopped white chocolate and pistachios (if using).

Mix until completely incorporated but be careful not to over mix. Press plastic wrap over the dough and chill for 30 minutes.

When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats. I used my larger cookie scoop, 2-3 tablespoons of dough per cookie, and baked 6 to a sheet. You can bake more at once if you make them smaller.

For smaller cookies, start checking at 12 minutes; start checking large cookies at 16 minutes. The cookies are done when they browning at the edges and set and dry looking in the middle.

Let cool on the cookie sheets.

If you choose to frost your cookies, wait until the cookies have cooled completely before piling frosting on each cookie.

if you choose to glaze the cookies, start by whisking 2 tablespoons of heavy cream into the powdered sugar. If it is humid where you are, this might be enough, but it is quite dry here now, so I added water by the teaspoon until I had a thick white glaze that would pour easily off of a spoon. Drizzle over the COOLED cookies and let set completely before storing.