Pumpkin Cookie Recipe

Making pumpkin cookies or Jack-O-Lantern cookies, is a thing at our house. We started this tradition when my daughter Brooke, was in about 6th grade and have been connecting every year since to make these comical cuties that are quite tasty too! Maybe you’d like to start this tradition with your children or grandchildren this year!

Creating these adorable cookies is not difficult, the key is breaking the task into into small steps that are manageable inside your regular kitchen activities.

Step 1- Make the Sturdy Sugar Cookie dough. You can do this 1 week to 10 days before you plan to roll the cookies.

Step 2- Roll the dough. A trick I always use for rolled cookies is to smash the dough very flat in gallon zip-top bags before chilling the dough. This makes rolling it out a breeze!

Step 3- Cut and bake pumpkins. Once cookies have cooled completely, freeze them to make decorating easier. You can make the cookies up to 3 weeks before you are ready to decorate them!

Step 4- Make the Buttercream Frosting

The frosting needs to be a smooth and spreadable. Divide the frosting into 3 bowls, you will need about 2/3’s of the recipe to be colored bright orange. Next, color the remaining frosting yellow and green for decorating the pumpkins.

Step 5- Frost and decorate the cookies.

Once the cookies are decorated and the frosting is set, I like to place them in individual bags and tie ribbons at the top. When this is done, the cookies can be frozen again until you are ready to share them with all your friends!!

I hope you’ll give this a try and that you enjoy your time together as much as we do!

XOXO
Lorie

Sturdy Sugar Cookie

1 cup butter

4 cups flour

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon almond extract

In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients. Creme butter and sugar use an electric mixer until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Continue to beat and add eggs one at a time. Next, add extracts, then dry ingredients slowly until combined. Separate dough into 2, gallon zip locks. Flatten the dough and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and roll out dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut out shapes and bake on greased baking sheet for 13-15 minutes.

Buttercream Frosting

1½ sticks butter at room temperature

6 cups powdered sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 teaspoon almond extract

Milk or heavy cream

Using an electric mixer, combine butter, sugar, extracts, and several teaspoons of milk on low speed and beat. Add more milk as needed to get the proper consistency for spreading. Mix on high speed for 5-7 minutes to create a fluffy frosting. Do not leave the mixer unattended.