If you’re a fan of sugar cookies and pumpkin pie, you’ll love this mashup of the two in my soft pumpkin sugar cookies. They’re incredibly moist and perfectly sweet — and they have all of the iconic flavor that’s become synonymous with the season.
Ingredients
The list is pretty standard as far as sugar cookies go, with the exception of the puree and spice blend. Feel free to use store-bought or easily make your own pumpkin pie spice blend.
- Flour– All-purpose flour provides structure to your cookies.
- Baking powder– This leavening agent helps the cookies rise.
- Kosher Salt- Salt brightens the other flavors. Use a coarse salt and never iodized, which can lead to cookies tasting metallic.
- Pumpkin Pie Spice– This blend adds that classic fall aroma and taste!
- Unsalted Butter– You can use salted butter but then you’ll want to omit additional salt.
- Sugar– These are sugar cookies, after all.
- Light Brown Sugar– Brown sugar adds a bit of molasses flavor and helps the cookies stay moist.
- Egg- Eggs create structure and stability. Be sure to use large eggs when baking.
- Pumpkin Puree– The star of the show, this adds flavor, moisture, and color. You can buy it at the store or make your own plain pumpkin puree at home.
- Vanilla extract- Using this extract adds warm flavor. You can also substitute almond extract for nutty flavor.
- Topping– Sugar, spice, and everything nice!
Variations
Sugar cookies are incredibly easy to customize!
- Cranberries – Add dried cranberries for a pop of color and sweet-tart flavor.
- Orange Zest – Sprinkle in some orange zest for some citrusy goodness.
- Chocolate – Add mini dark chocolate chips or milk chocolate chips to the cookie dough.
- Glaze – Add a maple syrup glaze to the tops of the cookies.
- Nuts – Stir in some crushed pecans or walnuts.
How to Make Pumpkin Cookies
Making these delicious cookies is so easy!
- Dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients for the cookies to a medium bowl and stir together.
- Beat butter and sugars. Add the butter, sugar, and light brown sugar to a large mixing bowl or large bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Beat the butter and sugars until creamy.
- Add egg, vanilla and pumpkin. Then, add the egg, vanilla, and pumpkin to the sugar mixture and mix.
- Combine wet and dry ingredients. Next, add the flour mixture in intervals until combined.
- Chill dough. Refrigerate the cookie dough for the recommended time.
- Make spice mixture. While the cookie dough is chilling, stir together the pumpkin pie spice and sugar.
- Scoop cookies. Using a cookie scoop, evenly portion out the dough balls before rolling them into spheres.
- Roll in spice mixture. Then, coat each cookie dough ball with the sugar and pumpkin pie spice mixture.
- Place on sheet. Place the dough balls on the prepared baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
- Flatten. Flatten each ball with the bottom of a glass that has been dipped in water.
- Bake. Then place the pan in the preheated oven and bake until the tops of the cookies begin to crack.
- Cool. Once the cookies are finished baking, remove them from the oven. Then, transfer them to a wire rack to cool to room temperature.
What to Serve with Pumpkin Spice Cookies
Serve these with anything you’d serve with pumpkin pie, like vanilla ice cream. Or spoon a little vanilla whipped cream in between two of them to make cookie sandwiches.
You can also skip rolling them in cinnamon and sugar and instead use a glaze. Just whisk together 3 cups of powdered sugar with 3 tablespoons of milk and ¼ teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled cookies and allow it to set before serving.
Common Questions about Sugar Cookies
Ideally, sugar cookies should be soft. To make sure your cookies turn out soft, avoid overmixing or overbaking.
You can make your sugar your own by adding spices or a glaze. You can also switch up the extract.
Adding too much sugar to your cookies can make them hard.
Storage
Store pumpkin sugar cookies at room temperature in an airtight container. They are at their freshest for the first 2 days, but they will keep for up to 1 week.
After 2 days, try microwaving them for 10 seconds. This will reheat the butter and make the cookies soft again.
Make Ahead
Make the cookie dough ahead of time. Then, just store it in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours.
Refrigerator
Storing these cookies at room temperature will keep them more moist, but you can store them in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Freezer
Wrap the cookies individually with plastic wrap and store them for up to 3 months.
More Pumpkin Recipes
It’s that time of year- the time when everyone is looking for recipes that use pumpkin!
Soft Pumpkin Sugar Cookie Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
Pumpkin Sugar Cookies:
- 3 3/4 cups flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1 cup unsalted butter , room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1 large egg , room temperature
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons canned pumpkin puree
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Sugar Cookie Topping:
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
Instructions
- In a medium mixing bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, salt and pumpkin pie spice. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, sugar and light brown sugar. When blended, add the egg, vanilla and pumpkin until fully incorporated.
- Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until fully combined. Do not overmix.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours.
- After the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 350°F.
Topping:
- In a small bowl, stir together the sugar and pumpkin pie spice.
- With clean hands, use a cookie scoop and roll the dough into 1 1/2 inch balls. The dough might be sticky and not roll well, have no fear, just plop it into the sugar and coat.
- Place the balls onto a parchment paper or silicone lined cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.
- Dip the flat bottom of a pint glass into the sugar and flatten each ball until approximately 1/4 inch thick.
- Bake for 13-15 minutes or until the cookie tops start to crack. Do not wait until cookies brown, they will be overdone.
- Allow the cookies to cool on cookie sheet for at least 5 minutes before carefully transferring to a cooling rack using a spatula.
- If you’ve tried this recipe, please come back and leave a comment to let us know how it went and if you made any modifications!
Nutrition
Make Sure to check out all of the fun Halloween recipes that we’re sharing this week for Halloween treats week!
- Mummy Macarons from Big Bear’s Wife
- Pumpkin Marshmallow S’more Pops from Semi Homemade Recipes
- Spider Web Pancakes from Cheese Curd In Paradise
- Spiderweb Pretzels from For the Love of Food
- Candy Corn Crumb Cake from Sweet ReciPEAs
- Air Fryer Bloody Intestines Cinnamon Rolls from It’s Shanaka
- Halloween Kids Punch from An Affair from the Heart
- Monster Burgers from Palatable Pastime
- Muddy Buddy Cookies from Best Cookie Recipes
- Eyeball Skewers from A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures
- Monster Mash-mallow Cereal Bars from Savory Moments
- Marshmallow Spiderweb Cupcakes from The Redhead Baker
- Pumpkin Halloween Eyeballs from Jen Around the World
- Ghost Marshmallow Brownies from Hezzi-D’s Recipe Box
- Monster Milkshakes from Jolene’s Recipe Journal
Very good cookie. I had a roasted fresh sugar pie pumpkin that I substituted for the canned pumpkin. The neighbors loved them. The cookie was easy to make and a perfect introduction to the pumpkin pie spice season. The house smelled divine while the were baking. I will be adding these to the Christmas cookie plate collection this year. Thanks for the recipe.
Woohoo! That is what we like to hear and thank you so much for coming back to let us know.
These pumpkin cookies look delicious. I could almost smell them on my way to your site…Yum!
Blessings,
Shari
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A very HAPPY THANKSGIVING to you and your family.