Perfect for Halloween or fall baking, these soft pumpkin sugar cookies are easy to make at home. Using a simple cookie recipe and topped with a delicious homemade buttercream, this seasonal treat is great for fall fun and celebrations. To make their shape, grab a pumpkin cookie cutter and dive into pumpkin cookie decorating!
Ingredients for Pumpkin Cookies
The recipe card contains all the steps and ingredients for this pumpkin cookie recipe, but below are a few key items that bring flavor to these cookies. They would make great Halloween cookies or Thanksgiving cookies.
- Pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste – In an online baking class I took once, Christina Tosi of Milk Bar taught us that you don’t need expensive vanilla extract for good flavor. So the extract from your local grocery store is perfectly fine for this recipe. I never taste much difference between pricier extracts and more basic ones.
- Pumpkin spice – Despite its name, pumpkin spice doesn’t actually contain any pumpkin. Still, adding this spice is key in this recipe, as we associate it with a classic pumpkin flavor and warm fall flavors reminiscent of that time of year. If you don’t have any of this spice on-hand and can’t find it in nearby grocery stores, you can use a mix of your favorite spices, like nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, or all-spice.
- Brown sugar – While many sugar cookie recipes use granulated sugar, this one uses a touch of brown sugar, too. This ingredient gives a chewy, soft texture to these cookies.
- Buttercream frosting – Instead of using royal icing and meringue powder, this perfect fall cookie uses a buttercream frosting. Piping that on top of these pumpkin cookies gives them a nice texture. You’ll need food coloring to achieve the same look that I have for the pumpkins here. Wilton is normally available in grocery stores or online. Chef Master is another brand I really like.
No-Chill Dough for Cut-out Sugar Cookies
Some cookie recipes call for wrapping your dough in plastic wrap and letting it rest before baking for best results.
Here, though, you don’t need to chill or rest the sugar cookie dough ahead of baking these cookies. They don’t spread much.
You can learn more about the merits of resting dough in this post from Bon Appétit.
Preparing and Baking Homemade Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
Preheat your oven to 350°F.
To make this pumpkin spice sugar cookie recipe, cream unsalted butter, vanilla extract, spice (cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, your choice!) and sugars together in your mixing bowl for 3 minutes.
Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure ingredients are all mixing together. Then add salt, baking powder, as well as your eggs and flour. Mix for about 2 minutes on medium speed. Dough will initially look crumbly but pull together.
Next, I spread my silicon baking mats onto my kitchen counter, flour them, and use these for rolling out my dough with my rolling pin. I like dividing dough in halves or thirds and working with it in two or three waves. I find it easier to roll dough in smaller portions at a time.
Once the dough is flattened and roughly a quarter of an inch thick, press the pumpkin cutter into it.
Use a spatula to lift and transfer dough onto ungreased aluminum baking sheets, with about 2 inches between each of them. Or you can do what I do – space out the cookies on silicon mats and slide those onto each baking sheet.
If you don’t have these baking mats, you don’t need to line cookie sheets with anything else.
Bake cookies for 10-14 minutes (longer time for larger cookies, shorter for small ones). Transfer them to a wire rack after they’ve sat on the baking sheets 5 or so minutes outside of the oven and are firm enough to handle.
Continue to repeat the steps above for remaining dough until you’ve made all your cookies.
Buttercream for these Adorable Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
With an electric mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, combine unsalted butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, heavy cream, lemon juice (if using), and salt. Beat for about 3 minutes.
Taste test and then add another splash of lemon juice if too sweet.
Once happy with flavor, drag the spatula from the middle of your bowl to its edges, watching as the tears and bubbles in your buttercream disappear. Spend 3-4 minutes doing these motions to achieve nice, smooth frosting.
Then, divide your buttercream. Place about 10% of it in a small bowl and use food gel to dye it green. This will be for your pumpkin’s stem and leaves or vines.
Take the remaining frosting and dye it into however many colors you’d like for your pumpkin spice sugar cookies. I wanted a mix of orange and white pumpkins so dyed half of my leftover buttercream orange.
Step-by-step Instructions for Pumpkin Cookie Decorating
After your pumpkin spice cookies have cooled and buttercream is ready, load your orange frosting into one piping bag, fitted with a small open round or open star tip. I used tip 32 and switched to 12 halfway through for variety.
If you have white frosting, add it to a piping bag with a tip of your choice.
Place your green buttercream into a small piping bag fitted with a small open tip to create the stem. I used tip 8.
Next, create semi circular lines from the top of the pumpkin, following along the curve of its shape and connecting the top to the bottom. Continue filling in frosting until cookie is covered.
Add a small pumpkin stem with green buttercream.
Repeat steps for every cookie, switching between piping tips and orange and white buttercream for different colors and texture.
Another Way to Decorate these Fall Cookies
Similarly to how I decorate cake with a spoon, you can pipe dollops of frosting onto the base of your cookies and drag them to create the lines of a pumpkin.
I found it easier to work with a small offset spatula than a spoon, but the spoon works in a pinch, too.
For smoother design, you’ll want to remove extra frosting from your spatula or spoon between making each segment of your pumpkin. Otherwise, bits of frosting can drag through the frosting, making the cookies look messy.
FAQ for Pumpkin Spice Cutout Cookies
Cookies can spread if the dough is too moist, without enough dry ingredients to hold it together. It can also spread due to an excessive amount of baking soda.
If you follow the steps in this recipe, though, you won’t have that issue.
Generally, adding a bit of baking powder or flour to a cookie’s dough can help prevent them from spreading as much. Chilling them before baking them is another method to prevent spreading.
These cookies will stay fresh at room temperature (around 70°F ) for 3-4 days.
These cookies also freeze well, frosted or unfrosted. If you’ve already frosted them, give the buttercream time to form a crust, which it will do if the room is not too hot or humid (room temperature or slightly cooler is great).
After buttercream has formed a crust, place cookies in a single layer in an airtight container. Add wax or parchment paper on top of the first cookie layer so any frosting doesn’t get caught on other cookies or frosting but paper instead.
The cookies will still be good after about 3 months in the freezer. To enjoy, let come to room temperature before serving.
Tips for Chewy Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
Below are some general tips to keep in mind when baking these simple sugar cookies and any recipe, really:
- If you aren’t already, use a scale for accuracy in your baking. This ensures you’re following the exact measurements and your cookies will turn out how the recipe intended them.
- Periodically check the freshness of your leavening agents. Mix a pinch of baking powder with hot water to see if it reacts. For baking soda, you can mix a pinch of it with a few drops of something acidic, like vinegar or lemon juice. If your leavening agents have no reaction (i.e. you see no fizzing or bubbling), it means they also won’t help your ingredients rise during the baking process.
- Before diving into the recipe, clear your workspace and set out all your ingredients in front of you. This will make it less likely that you’ll forget to leave something important out of your mixing bowl!
More Dessert Recipes
Looking for more ideas like these homemade sugar cookies? Check out my pink sugar cookies – they’re pretty and strawberry-flavored!
Want a spookier version of these cookies? Use my black buttercream for dark pumpkins!
PrintHow to Make and Decorate Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
Make adorable pumpkin sugar cookies with this easy cookie recipe and delicious homemade buttercream. These spiced cookies are perfect for Halloween and fall!
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Decorating Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 90 minutes
- Yield: 24 cookies 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
Sugar Cookie Dough
- 3 cups (380 grams) all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- 12 T butter (170 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2/3 cup (150 grams) white sugar
- 1/2 cup (90 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 tsp pumpkin or apple pie spice or your favorite fall spice (cinnamon, nutmeg, etc)
- 1 1/4 teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 cold, large eggs, straight from the fridge
Buttercream
- 6 cups (750 grams) powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 sticks (170 grams) of unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/3 cup (80 grams) heavy cream
- 4 tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
- Lemon juice to cut sweetness
- Food gels (orange and green) to dye your frosting
Instructions
Sugar Cookie Dough
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Cream butter, vanilla extract, spice (cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, your choice!) and sugars together in your mixing bowl for 3 minutes.
- Stop the mixer and add salt, baking powder, as well as your eggs and flour. Mix for about 2 minutes on medium speed. Dough will initially look crumbly but pull together.
- Roll the dough into a ball on a clean, flat, floured surface. I like dividing half at a time and rolling it out to about ¼ inch before pressing the cookie cutters into the dough.
- Use a spatula to lift and transfer dough onto ungreased aluminum baking sheets, with about 2 inches between each of them. Bake for 10-14 minutes (longer time for larger cookies, shorter for small ones). Transfer them to cooling racks after they’ve sat on the baking sheets 5 or so minutes outside of the oven and are firm enough to handle.
Buttercream Frosting
- With an electric mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, combine unsalted butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, heavy cream, lemon juice (if using), and salt. Beat for about 3 minutes.
- Taste test and then add another splash of lemon juice if too sweet.
- Once happy with flavor, drag the spatula from the middle of your bowl to its edges, watching as the tears and bubbles in your buttercream disappear. Spend 3-4 minutes doing these motions to achieve nice, smooth frosting.
- Divide buttercream, placing about 10% of it in a small bowl and use food gel to dye it green for the pumpkin’s stem. Take remaining frosting and dye it into however many colors you’d like for your pumpkin spice sugar cookies. I wanted a mix of orange and white pumpkins so dyed half of my leftover buttercream orange.
Cookie Assembly
- Load buttercream into piping bags, fitted with a small open round or open star tip. I used tip 32 and for variety switched to 12 halfway through decorating with my orange and white frostings.
- Place green buttercream into a small piping bag fitted with a small open tip to create the stem. I used tip 8.
- Create semi-circular lines from the top of the pumpkin, following along the curve of its shape and connecting the top to the bottom. Continue filling in frosting until cookie is covered.
- Add a small pumpkin stem and/or vines with green buttercream.
- Repeat steps for every cookie, switching between piping tips and orange and white buttercream for different colors and texture.
Notes
- This recipe yields approximately 24 cookies if each of them is roughly 3 inches. However, you can definitely get more cookies out of this recipe if you’re using smaller cookie cutters.
Keywords: pumpkin sugar cookies, cutout cookies, frosted cookies, Halloween cookies, fall cookies, seasonal cookies, pumpkin cookie decorating
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