Fall Funtivities: Pumpkin Pie Roll-Out Butter Cookies

It's officially my favorite season! I love Fall because it has the best activities! Apple-picking, bonfires, carving pumpkins, eating pumpkin flavored everything and caramel apples, decorating cut-out Halloween cookies, hiking underneath the leaves that are changing color, costume parties, the list goes on. I spent the past week looking for fall funtivities for my trip to Houston. Apple picking? Nope. Apparently it's too hot in Houston for apple orchards. Pumpkin patch? Nearest one is 50 minutes away (with limited time and a resident's work schedule, that's a little too far). Hikes underneath the changing leaves? Well, we can hike, but I don't think the palm trees will be changing color anytime soon. So, maybe we couldn't fill an entire day with fall funtivities. I knew we needed pumpkins and I knew we needed to bake.

I brought a pie pumpkin to Houston from St. Louis because I got it for $1.50 at the Soulard Farmer's Market. That's only half true. I mostly brought it because I wondered if TSA would actually let me carry-on a pumpkin. They didn't even ask me about it! Thursday night, we picked up more pumpkins from the grocery store and carved 2 of them. The one requirement for pumpkin carving was that we bake the pumpkin seeds. I had the apartment to myself on Friday because the boys had to work. I decided to bake the pumpkin seeds, and since the oven was going to be on anyway, make cookies. While the doctors were away, Abby raided their kitchen to play!

Objective

Make fun fall-cookies with my jack-o-lantern cookie cutter! Scouring the internet for pumpkin roll-out cookies lead me to many recipes with terrible reviews. I decided to make my own version of Pumpkin Spice Roll-out Sugar Cookies from Life's a Batch.

Materials

1 cup unsalted butter, sort of soft (get the chill off)

1 1/4 cup light brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon each of ground cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger

1/8 teaspoon each of ground allspice and cloves

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon half-and-half (whatever dairy product you have on hand)

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour

Methods

2. Cream butter and sugar until light (in color) and fluffy. It will be tricky to know when the butter is light because of the brown sugar. However, if you look closely, you'll be able to see that the butter changes from a light yellow to a creamy white. 

3. Stir in the baking powder, salt and spices.

4. Beat in the egg, vanilla and half-and-half.

5. Add in the flour (slowly if you have a hand mixer because it will get thick) and mix until well combined.

6. Divide the dough into 2 or 3 chunks. Place it between 2 sheets of waxed paper and roll the dough to a thickness of 1/8-1/4 inch (depending on if you like them thin and crispy or soft and chewy). Cut out desired shapes with cookie cutters. If you can remove the edges without ruining the cookies, do it. Place the cut out shapes (still on waxed paper and on a hard surface) in the freezer for 5-10 minutes. 

7. Gently transfer the cut-out cookies to a parchment-lined baking sheet. If desired, sprinkle with decorating sugar.

8. Bake 8 minutes at 365°. Let cookies cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Results

Yum! These are buttery and not overly-sweet. Just enough spice to not be overpowering. The recipe yielded about 40 cookies. 

Discussion

I normally hate making roll-out cookies. It usually becomes one big fat mess and I get frustrated and don't want to finish rolling/cutting them out. These were pretty easy. The butter to flour ratio makes a good, cohesive, soft dough that isn't too tacky. But, be sure to work quickly so that the butter doesn't get too soft. 

If you love cinnamon, add more. If you want a spicy cookie, increase all of the spices by 1/8-1/4 teaspoon. If there's a spice you don't have or don't like, leave it out and add more of the others. I think this is a forgiving recipe when it comes to the spices. If you want to go into a sugar coma, add frosting or glaze. If you're trying to avoid insulin-resistance, don't. These are delicious without frosting!

We took the cookies to a retreat over the weekend and they were a hit. People were really excited when they realized the pumpkins had faces and even more excited when they realized the cookies tasted like pumpkin pie!

Supplementary Materials