I’m probably supposed to be cleaning or doing laundry right now but here I am, cosy on the couch and writing to you. Nothing too earth shattering, as usual, unless you think baking and decorating is in that realm of categories. Although not necessarily ground-breaking though, baking is definitely one of life’s simple pleasures for me… And if asked (Oh did you ask? Ok!), what would you be doing if you could be doing anything? (Not including if you had a bazillion dollars), besides hiking in the forest on a glorious sunshiney day, decorating cookies and eating them, is at the top of my list.
And so, I’m thrilled to be sharing with you a new cut-out cookie recipe, gasp! Truly though, it’s sweet and spicy, perfect for fall or any time really; pumpkin spice cut-out cookies.
Enjoy!
Pumpkin Spice Cut-Out Cookie Recipe
Pumpkin Spice Cut Out Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature 454 grams
- 1 cup granulated sugar 194 grams
- 1 cup brown sugar. lightly packed 187 grams
- 1/4 cup pumpkin purée or pumpkin pie filling 66 grams
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp all-spice
- 5 cups all-purpose flour 754 grams
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- 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. Place a large tea towel or two small tea towels between the edge of the bowl and the electric mixer so that the flour won’t escape. Mix on low speed for 3o seconds. Remove the tea towels and observe the dough mixing; when it clumps around the paddle attachment it’s ready. It’s also important at this stage not to over mix the dough (the glutens in the flour develop and the dough can become tough).
- 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!
Notes
Notes
- Leftover pumpkin pie filling or pumpkin purée freezes well for future use.
- I’ve been asked numerous times where I find my baking trays. I’ve bought them in different places, but my favorite source is our local restaurant supply store. If you don’t have one nearby, there are options on-line. My favorite kind is Nordic Ware’s Aluminum Commercial Baker’s Half Sheet.
- You’ll notice some of the pumpkin cookies pictured are a richer, darker color than other lighter cookies (namely the foxes). I just baked the darker batch longer. Makes for a crispier cookie.
- To make your cookie spicier, add more cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and all-spice.
- If you’d like to see video tutorials of the decorated cookies in these photos, click on the one you’re interested in… Pumpkin Cookies or Chipmunk Cookies.
If you’re new to cookie decorating…
Cookie Decorating Basics
Here are some posts which take you through all the cookie decorating basics:
{Video} Cookie Decorating Tools & How to Fill a Piping Bag
{Video} How to Outline and Flood Cookies with Royal Icing
{Video} How to Dry Cookies Decorated with Royal Icing
More Tutorials
You can find more tutorials and information on cookie decorating in the tutorial section found at the top of Sweetopia. Everything from how to store royal icing to the shelf life of cookies.
If you have any questions or comments please feel free to drop me a line below in the comment section or on social media. You can find me on Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and YouTube.
Happy baking and decorating!
xo,
Marian
Melissa says
So happy you made this recipe Marian! Can’t wait to try it!
Tina says
No links seem to be clickable……?
Tina says
Never mind me…..links work fine!
Maria Theresia says
Hi Marian,
Really pretty shapes. Do have to try the recipe! Thank you for sharing. Besides enjoy your daily walks.
ML
Marian says
Thanks for the comments! 🙂
Andrea says
I would love to make more cookies, really. But what do I do with them? I can’t possibly eat all of them (5cups of flour, that’s a lot of cookies).
Marian, what do you do with them?
marian says
Hi Andrea,
I make as many cookies as I feel like and freeze the rest of the dough. I don’t do cookie orders but I do give my cookies away… the last few weeks for example (fruit and frog cookies in the latest posts), I’ve given them to; my neighbour, my parents, a prayer group I met with, my friend and her family, and a lady at church who I volunteered with at kids camp. They are so fun to give away! Perfect as thank you’s, hostess gifts, “I was thinking of you”, “feel better” gifts, and kids love them. I also generally keep a few from each batch I make and dry them out to use as demo examples. (I teach culinary arts at the high school level).
Hope that helps. xo
Kim says
Your cookies are always beautiful, but I really love those chipmunks! And I can’t wait to try this recipe – I’m sure it will be a hit!
Kacie says
Hi!
You mentioned that you freeze the dough for these cookies, but if I baked the cookies in advance and then froze them, would they thaw out and still taste good? I do this all the time with vanilla sugar cookies to save time and split up the baking/decorating process. I’d love to bake some of these pumpkin spice cookies before Thanksgiving, and before baby #2 is due, and freeze them until it’s time to decorate.
Thanks for info!
marian says
Hi Kacie,
Sure, that works for these too! Best of luck with decorating and congrats on #2! 🙂
Maamaabear says
Hello Marian,
I love your blog!! Thank you for always sharing such wonderful cookies and tips. I was wondering though when making your pumpkin cookie recipe, do you use the same royal icing flavors as usual or do you add pumpkin flavor or something else? I am afraid adding pumpkin to the icing may be too much. I am think just keeping almond or vanilla. Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
marian says
Hi Maamaabear,
Thanks for your comments!
I kept my royal icing the same flavour as usual (vanilla) to keep it simple; I usually prefer it that way. Maybe after you try it once you could see if you’d want to add more flavours to the mix? If you do, please let me know what you thought. Happy baking!
Maamaabear says
Thank you! I will mix up vanilla for the first run (= and I’ll definitely try some other flavors and I’ll let you know how they turn out.
Thanks again!
marian says
Wonderful, thanks, looking forward to hearing the results!
Angela says
Thank you for sharing!! Do you still use your normal almond royal on the pumpkin spice cookies? Wondering how the almond flavor goes with pumpkin and if there is another “flavor” or extract to use that would taste better. Thanks so much!!
marian says
Thanks Angela! For my royal icing recipe I usually use vanilla, and rarely use almond. Here it is if you’re interested; https://sweetopia.net/2009/06/cookie-decorating-tutorial-general-tips-butterfly-cookies/
And an illustrated version here (near the bottom); https://sweetopia.net/2014/11/baking-conversions/
Almond might taste nice with it though! Please let me know if you try it.
Kim says
Does the pumpkin pie filling or the pumpkin purée provide a better tasting cookie?
Karin says
Getting ready to roll these out, but you don’t suggest a thickness. 1/8″, 1/4″? Can hardly wait to taste these! Thanks.
marian says
Hi Karin,
I’m so glad, I hope you love them! Here’s a post for you I wrote about cookie thickness; https://sweetopia.net/2013/11/how-thick-or-thin-do-you-roll-your-cookie-dough-how-do-you-make-the-dough-even/ Happy baking!
Betsy says
Are these cookies soft?
marian says
Hi Betsy,
The recipe can be both:
The thicker the cookie, the softer it will be, however the longer you bake the cookie, the crispier it will be.
Lilly says
How many cookies does one batch make?
marian says
Hi Lilly,
Approximately 32 average sized cookies.
Teri says
How does this recipe do if you half it? Not all recipes can be successfully halved.
Katie says
I’m making these cookies for a Halloween party and I am wondering if they taste yummy without frosting…? I don’t have time to decorate them, but they seem like they will be great without. Are they? Thanks!
Katie says
These are fantastic!! Thank you! They taste great without frosting or decorations! When I make them again, I want to add a bit more pumpkin to the mix. I love strong pumpkin flavor in cookies. Any suggestions on how to offset the extra liquid/moisture? More flour?
Teri says
Katie,
I’m not sure if this will work or not, but it’s worth a try. Substitute 3/4 cup of pumpkin for 1 cup of butter. Calculating the half of that would be 3/8 cup pumpkin for one stick of butter. If I were doing this, I’d also add more of the spices accordingly. Let us know, please how this works out if you try it.
Teri
June says
Hi!!! I’m not a pro baker but I was woundering.. could I cut this recipe in half? I’ve done it to another recipe and it didn’t come out right.
Katie says
Help im getting frustrated cause my dough is to sticky to roll out. I followed the directions to the T ,but when i put it between parchment paper and tried to roll it out it was super soft and hard to work with then when i tried to lift the paper off it got stuck to the paper. Please help i want to use this recipe for my cousins baby shower in october
Julia says
Excellent recipe.
Made them with my 2 year old son and nephew. I cheated and used the freezer to cut on fridge time and I didn’t even ice them they are so good as is. Thanks for sharing.
Nicole Rawson says
Thank you for this recipe. I’m just wondering since the cookies is full of flavor, what flavor of royal icing would you use / what recipe?
marian says
Hi Nicole, I usually use vanilla. Here is the recipe:
https://sweetopia.net/2012/01/royal-icing-recipe-free-illustrated-recipe/
Katie says
The recipe is delicious! I’m having a hard time figuring out if they are done tho, as the backs still seem “wet”. Is that typical?
marian says
Hmm, no they shouldn’t be wet on the bottom. How long you bake the cookie does depend on the size of the cookie you make, but a good rule of thumb I go by is to look at the surface of the cookie before I take them out of the oven… it should look dry, no wet or glossy look. The edges are usually a bit golden as well. Hope that helps!
April Denkman says
I’m in the middle of baking this recipe. It’s super sticky and messy. Do I maybe need more flour? It started to get better when I was using flour to roll out and incorporated… Any suggestions?
marian says
Hi April,
Sorry to hear that! Yes, add more flour 1/4 cup at a time until it gets to the texture you want. Unfortunately, there are a variety of factors that can affect baking, everything from how soft your butter is, the humidity, the products you use from ingredients to machinery etc.
My rule of thumb for cookie doughs are; when you’re at the last step and the dough seems sticky – add 1/4 cup of flour, mix, test consistency. See if it needs more, repeat if necessary.
If the dough is too dry, add a little water or milk and test.
Hope it’s not too late!
Malina says
How many cookies does this make?
Marian says
Hi Malina,
It does depend on the cookie size and thickness, but about 30-35 average sized cookies.
Christy Smith says
These were amazing. I used vanilla buttercream icing to decorate as I was short on time. They kept their shape well and had a soft bite. Very good!
marian says
Hi Christy, thank you so much for your comment, I appreciate hearing your feedback and love that you enjoyed them! xo
Becky says
Can the dough be frozen for use at a later time?
marian says
Hi Becky,
Yes, it can.
Sandra says
Can I use pumpkin pie spice since it has all the spices in it? I do not have all spice at home. If so, how much should I use?
marian says
Hi Sandra,
Sure, try a tablespoon and see you how like the taste.
Sevde says
Hi Marian!
How long do they stay fresh?
marian says
Hi Sevde,
Here is a post with details on that for you:
https://sweetopia.net/2012/02/how-long-do-decorated-cookies-stay-fresh-what-is-the-shelf-life-of-decorated-cookies/
Susan Mangano says
I love (!!!) these cookies! The taste is delicious, especially with cinnamon RI. One big problem I have is that they spread horribly. I refrigerate the dough. Roll it out. Refrigerate it. Cut shapes then refrigerate them again before baking. The dough is so sticky. I added 1/4 c cornstarch too. No luck. Please help! What am I doing wrong? I roll to 3/4 in. I need them to keep their shape and thickness.
marian says
Hi Susan,
Hmm, it’s a bit hard for me to say if I haven’t seen the measurements etc. but my general rule of thumb is that if a dough is too sticky I add 1/4 cup of flour, mix and test the consistency by pinching it between my fingers. If it’s still too sticky, I repeat until I’m happy with the dough consistency.
Also, here is a post for you on helping cookies keep their shape, if you’d like to check it out:
https://sweetopia.net/2011/04/top-8-tips-on-preventing-cookies-from-spreading/
Kim says
I had the same problem. I got so upset I was ready to throw it all out in the garbage. I just kept adding a little flour while rolling small sections (just big enough to cut two cookies at a time).
Eventually go through it. Cookies came out nice. I like a soft cookie but I’m still unsure if I like the texture. Almost seems undercooked.
Tina says
I was wondering if you use pumpkin pie filling which has spices in it do you still use the spices in the recipe?
Thank you
marian says
Hi Tina,
Yes, I do.
Courtney says
If I freeze the dough. How long can I deep freeze it for. And when I’m ready, do I just leave out on the counter until it thaws? Or refrigerator overnight? Or does it matter?
Thanks!
marian says
Hi Courtney,
I generally make the cookies and then freeze those until I’m ready to decorate. Here’s a post on thawing those; https://sweetopia.net/2015/07/how-to-thaw-frozen-undecorated-cut-out-cookies/
The reason I don’t often freeze just the dough is because I like to roll out my dough between parchment paper when finished, not pat into a ball. That way I don’t have to roll it out again when ready to cut the shapes out. It is often challenging to find space in the freezer to put a tray of rolled out dough there…
If you would like to freeze it in a ball, let it thaw in the fridge overnight. Freeze 3-6 months.
Hope that helps!
Sherrie Pierce says
It’s September 2022 and I finally tried this recipe. It is very good! I was skeptical that it would have any pumpkin flavor because the recipe called for such a small amount of pumpkin puree. However, it was very tasty. I love the spice flavors too!
marian says
Hi Sherrie,
I’m so glad to hear your positive review! Glad you enjoy it and happy fall to you!
Alicia says
I love working with weighted measurements, so a big thank you for including grams!
For the flour, 754 grams works out to about 6 cups of flour, so I wasn’t sure which measurement to stick with, 5 cups of flour or the 754 grams?
I snuck a bit of raw dough and it tastes wonderful!
marian says
Hi Alicia,
I usually add 5 cups and then watch the dough mix. If the dough peels away from the sides of the bowl wall and nothing sticks, it’s perfect. If it’s still a bit sticky, add more flour. It may vary depending on the butter you’re using (water content varies depending on brand), how soft the butter is when using etc.
Hope that helps!