Pumpkin spice cookies are delicious fall flavored sugar cookies decorated with an easy marbled icing. Between the easy decorating hack you use to get this beautiful result and the warming spice blend, you’ll love these pumpkin cookies without puree as a pretty and tasty dessert for any fall occasion from Halloween to Thanksgiving.
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Something snaps in me this time of year and I cannot stop baking.
I call it controlling the things you can control in a world that feels out of control.
And I can surely control what delicious goodies I whip up in my oven.
Like these pumpkin spice cut out sugar cookies.
We make tons of sugar cookies at Christmas, just vanilla flavored.
These, though, with their pumpkin spice perfection are even better and a fairly basic variation on sugar cookies since you are not adding pumpkin puree.
My family polishes off a batch of these in less than 24 hours- they are that good!
Yes, like other sugar cookies, they are a touch high maintenance but they are worth it and they are less high maintenance than cookies that you decorate with royal icing.
How is that possible?
Because instead of piping the icing on, I made an easy powdered sugar sugar cookie icing (flavored with a hint of maple syrup for even more fall flavor!) swirled with food coloring and just dipped the cookies in that.
The result?
Beautiful marbled icing on the sugar cookies and cookies that took less than 15 minutes to decorate.
Ingredients for the Pumpkin Spice Cookies and Kitchen Supplies
Right now, let’s just talk about what you will need for the pumpkin spice sugar cookies themselves. We’ll come back to the icing later.
For the cookies you’ll need:
- Butter– At room temperature. Don’t melt it and don’t use it cold!
- Sugar– Plain old granulated sugar
- Egg– At room temperature
- Vanilla– Use pure vanilla extract over imitation for the best flavor.
- Flour– All purpose
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Pumpkin pie spice
You’ll also need some kitchen tools and supplies to bake these:
- Cookie sheets
- Stand mixer or high power hand mixer
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Spatula
- Parchment paper
- Rolling pin
- Cookie cutters
How to Make Pumpkin Spice Cookies
1. Cream together the butter and sugar.
Beat the butter and sugar together on high speed until completely smooth and light and fluffy in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Once the butter is light and fluffy, beat in the egg and vanilla on high speed until combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
2. Whisk together the dry ingredients.
Whisk the flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and salt together in a medium bowl.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.
Add half of the dry ingredients to the bowl of wet ingredients and mix together on low until incorporated. Once the first half of the dry ingredients is incorporated, add the second half and mix again until combined.
4. Roll out the dough and cut out cookies.
Divide the dough into 2 roughly equal parts. Take one portion of dough and place it in the center of a floured piece of parchment paper. Press it down a bit and add a little more flour on top of the dough. Place another sheet of parchment over the dough, pressing it down a bit more.
Roll out the dough until it is about 1/4 inch thick.
Cut out the cookies and place them on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil.
Repeat this with the other dough ball and any dough scraps you have that you can roll out to make more cookies.
5. Refrigerate.
Cover the trays of cut out cookies and refrigerate them for 2 to 4 hours.
Do not skip this step so the cookies hold their shape!
6. Bake and cool.
After the cut out cookies have chilled, bake them at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes or until they are lightly golden. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack and letting them cool completely.
Ingredients for Easy Sugar Cookie Icing
Once the cookies are almost cool, you can put together the icing. For the icing you’ll need:
- Powdered sugar
- Milk or cream
- Maple syrup
- Decorating materials– Orange food coloring and sprinkles
And then you’ll just need a bowl and whisk or fork to stir the ingredients together.
How to Decorate Pumpkin Cookies
1. Make the icing.
In a shallow wide bowl or dish stir together the powdered sugar, milk or cream, and maple syrup until it reaches a consistency where the icing will smooth itself out slowly if you let it drip it the bowl of icing.
If the icing is too thick, add half a tablespoon of milk until it reaches the right consistency. If it is too thin, add a little more powdered sugar.
2. Add the food coloring.
On top of the icing’s surface, scatter drops of orange food coloring. I dotted 9 dots throughout the top of the icing.
Once you’ve dolloped the food coloring onto the surface of the icing, take a fork and gently swirl the food coloring so it makes swirls but does not completely mix together.
3. Dip the cookies in the icing.
Take one baked cookie and dip the top of the cookie into the icing so the cookie is flat in the icing. Turn the cookie by about 1 to 2 1/4 of a turn keeping the cookie flat in the icing so the icing swirls more. Gently remove the cookie, letting the excess icing drip off into the bowl.
Put the cookie on a cooling rack above foil so clean up will be easy.
4. Add sprinkles and let set.
Once you’ve dipped all the cookies and they are all on the cooling racks above the sheets of foil, decorate them with sprinkles if you’d like. Let the cookies set. The icing takes about a full day to fully harden but will be soft set after about 2 hours. Enjoy!
Storing
Let these cookies dry as long as you can in a single layer before transfering them to cookie tin or container. I highly recommend putting them in single layers seperated by parchment paper so they don’t stick together or get really messy.
FAQs
What can I substitute for pumpkin pie spice?
1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice = ¾ teaspoon cinnamon and ¼ teaspoon ginger, allspice, cloves or nutmeg. You can also reduce the cinnamon and add an extra 1/4 teaspoon of ginger, allspice, or nutmeg.
Can I just use cinnamon instead of pumpkin spice?
Sure. Pumpkin spice is mainly cinnamon BUT it does have other spices mixed in. While you can sub cinnamon in a pinch, just be aware that it won’t quite taste the same.
Can I swap apple pie spice for pumpkin spice?
Yet again, sure, but be aware that pumpkin spice normally has a few more spices than apple pie spice does so the end result may be different.
Tips and Tricks
- Whatever you do, don’t skip the chilling process! This is crucial to the cookies keeping their shape.
- The number of cookies you get will vary by the size of the cookie cutter you use. The bigger the cutter, the fewer cookies you will get and vice versa.
- The icing needs to be that right consistency between really thick and too thin for it it to not run all over the place but still creating a smooth surface. It can take a little practice to get it just right.
- You may find that you will need more or less milk depending on the weather. When I make this in humid warm weather, I need less than when I make it in cooler weather.
- Using heavy cream or half and half will mean you need to use a little more than you would use if you were using milk.
Other Sugar Cookie Recipes
Looking for other sugar cookie recipes? Try these:
- Easy and Adorable Unicorn Sugar Cookies
- The Cutest St. Patrick’s Day Sugar Cookies
- Store Bought Sugar Cookie Dough Hacks: Dipped Sugar Cookies
Other Sweet Pumpkin Spice Recipes
Looking for other sweet pumpkin spice treats this season? Try these:
- Pumpkin Hand Pies
- Easy 2 Ingredient Pumpkin Muffins with Cake Mix
- Easy Pumpkin Donuts (from Cake Mix)
- Spiked Pumpkin Spice Latte
- Cinnamon Swirl Pumpkin Bread with Streusel Topping
- Boozy Pumpkin Spice Buttercream
- Boozy Pumpkin Sheet Cake
- Best Homemade Easy Pumpkin Granola for Fall
Ingredients
For the cookies
- 3/4 cup of unsalted butter at room temperature
- 3/4 cup of granulated sugar
- 1 egg at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups of all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
- 1/8 teaspoon of salt
- 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice
For the Icing
- 2 cups of powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon of maple syrup
- 4-6 tablespoons of milk
- orange food coloring
Instructions
- Cream together the butter and sugar.Beat the butter and sugar together on high speed until completely smooth and light and fluffy in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
- Once the butter is light and fluffy, beat in the egg and vanilla on high speed until combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and salt together in a medium bowl.
- Add half of the dry ingredients to the bowl of wet ingredients and mix together on low until incorporated.
- Once the first half of the dry ingredients is incorporated, add the second half and mix again until combined.
- Divide the dough into 2 roughly equal parts. Take one portion of dough and place it in the center of a floured piece of parchment paper. Press it down a bit and add a little more flour on top of the dough. Place another sheet of parchment over the dough, pressing it down a bit more.
- Roll out the dough until it is about 1/4 inch thick.
- Cut out the cookies and place them on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Repeat this with the other dough ball and any dough scraps you have that you can roll out to make more cookies.
- Cover the trays of cut out cookies and refrigerate them for 2 to 4 hours.
- After the cut out cookies have chilled, bake them at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes or until they are lightly golden.
- Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack and letting them cool completely.
- When the cookies are coole and you are ready to decorate them, make the icing. In a shallow wide bowl or dish stir together the powdered sugar, milk or cream, and maple syrup until it reaches a consistency where the icing will smooth itself out slowly if you let it drip it the bowl of icing.
- On top of the icing's surface, scatter drops of orange food coloring. Once you've dolloped the food coloring onto the surface of the icing, take a fork and gently swirl the food coloring so it makes swirls but does not completely mix together.
- Take one baked cookie and dip the top of the cookie into the icing so the cookie is flat in the icing. Turn the cookie by about 1 to 2 1/4 of a turn keeping the cookie flat in the icing so the icing swirls more. Gently remove the cookie, letting the excess icing drip off into the bowl. Put the cookie on a cooling rack above foil so clean up will be easy if extra icing drips off the cookies as they set.
- Once you've dipped all the cookies and they are all on the cooling racks above the sheets of foil, decorate them with sprinkles if you'd like. Let the cookies set. The icing takes about a full day to fully harden but will be soft set after about 2 hours. Enjoy!
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