These delicious pumpkin pie cookies are a festive fall treat that combines the best of both worlds, soft sugar cookie dough with a rich buttercream frosting, and cut out shaped like a piece of pumpkin pie. These cookies are perfect for any occasion, from Thanksgiving gatherings to Halloween parties, and the perfect way to celebrate the fall season.
Hold on to your hats, ladies and gentlemen, because I have the perfect fall cookies for you today. These delicious pumpkin pie cookies don’t actually have any pumpkin in them at all. Instead, these simple sugar cookies are frosted with orange, brown, and white buttercream to look just like pumpkin pie slices topped with whipped cream! This is a family favorite sugar cookie dough recipe, and I saw a photo in an ad of cookies that you could purchase decorated like these, and decided to make them myself using our sugar cookie recipe. I can tell you right now, I’ll be making these cookies every fall from now on. They have the perfect autumn look, and because pumpkin pie is a classic holiday dessert, they make the perfect Thanksgiving and Christmas cookies, too!
Pumpkin Pie Cookies
These cookies start with a simple, easy sugar cookie dough that uses both butter and shortening to make them extra rich and soft. I bake them to golden perfection and cool them, and then, I make the buttercream frosting. The frosting is separated into orange, tan, and white colors and used to decorate the cookies to look like pumpkin pie compete with crust and whipped cream in the center! It’s an easy recipe, and it so so festively fall.
Why You’ll Love This Pumpkin Pie Cookie Recipe
- They are festive and definitely bring in the fall season with their pumpkin pie shape and frosting to resemble the traditional pumpkin pie.
- They are easy to make using a family favorite sugar cookie dough and a delicious and rich buttercream frosting.
- They’re festive and are perfect to serve at parties, potlucks, family gatherings, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
Pumpkin Pie Cookie Ingredients
You’ll only need a few simple baking ingredients to make this recipe. Most if not all of them will be in your kitchen, and anything you don’t have can be found in just a few minutes at your local grocery store.
- Butter
- Shortening
- Granulated sugar
- Large egg
- Vanilla extract
- Milk
- All purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Powdered sugar
- Orange, yellow, and brown food coloring
How to Make Pumpkin Pie Cookies
Making these cookies is a straightforward process that anyone can do. It’s a simple dough recipe, and buttercream frosting only takes a few minutes to make. You’ll be in and out of the kitchen in no time!
Step 1: Combine the Wet Cookie Ingredients
Mix the butter, shortening, sugar, and egg in a medium bowl. Then, add the vanilla and milk and mix again.
Step 2: Add the Dry Ingredients
Gradually add the flour and baking soda, mixing until the dough is combined.
Step 3: Roll and Cut
Roll out a small amount of dough to ¼-inch thickness on a floured surface. Cut the cookies into triangles.
Step 4: Bake
Place the triangles on a cookie sheet and bake at 325 for 10 to 12 minutes until the edges just begin to brown.
Step 5: Cool
Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes. Then, transfer them to a wire cooling rack and cool completely.
Step 6: Make the Frosting
Cream the butter, milk, and vanilla in a medium bowl. Then, gradually stir in the powdered sugar and beat until smooth and creamy.
Step 7: Color the Frosting
Add â…” of the frosting to a medium bowl and add 2 drops of orange food coloring, 1 drop of yellow food coloring, and 1 drop of brown food coloring and mix. Add the same ratio if the color is too light. Divide the remaining frosting in 2 small bowls. Add brown food coloring to one of the bowls to make tan frosting, and leave the other frosting white.
Step 8: Decorate the Cookies
Frost the cookies with the pumpkin color completely. Then, pipe the tan frosting on the wide end of the triangle to make the crust, and add a dollop of white frosting in the center for the whipped cream.
Recipe Tips
- When rolling out the cookie dough, use a 50/50 mix of flour and powdered sugar to avoid a “floury” taste to the cookies.
- Mix the dough until combined and no further. Don’t overwork it!
- Let the cookies cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet so carry-over cooking time can finish baking them perfectly.
Variations
- Use your favorite cookie dough for this recipe.
- Try making these cookies with snickerdoodle dough.
What to Serve with Pumpkin Pie Cookies
Serve these cookies with a glass of milk or a cup of coffee or tea. Of course, the decoration makes them the perfect addition to any fall or holiday part dessert spread.
Recipe FAQ
These pumpkin pike cookies will last for up to 3 days in an airtight container at room temperature. Store them for up to a week in the refrigerator in an airtight container.
Pumpkin cookies are cookies that are made with pumpkin puree in the dough. These pumpkin pie sugar cookies are plain sugar cookies decorated with colored buttercream frosting to look like pumpkin pie slices.
Begin by frosting the entire surface of the cookie with pumpkin-colored frosting. Then, pipe the tan crust-colored frosting in a zig-zag pattern on the wider end of the cookies to mimic the crust. Finally, use a large star tip to add a dollop of frosting in the center of the cookies to look like whipped cream.
Unlike some doughs, sugar cookie dough is dense and doesn’t spread very much while baking. There’s no need to refrigerate it before baking.
These pumpkin pie cookies freeze very well and will last for up to a month in an airtight container in the freezer.
How to Store Pumpkin Pie Cookies
Store these cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. You can store the cookies in the refrigerator for up to a week in an airtight container. For longer storage, freeze the cookies in single layers separated by parchment paper in an airtight, freezer-safe container for up to a month.
Try This Delicious Pumpkin Pie Cookie Recipe
These pumpkin pie cookies are as adorable as they are delicious. Sweet, buttery sugar cookies topped decorated with buttercream frosting to look like pumpkin pie slices? What could be better? Nothing. The answer is nothing, so give these delicious cookies a try. Once you do, I know you’ll find yourself making them again and again.
More Delicious Pumpkin Recipes You’ll Enjoy
These Cream Puffs Recipe with Pumpkin Mousse are so light and airy, delicious, and are great to make for the upcoming holidays. The pumpkin mousse is scrumptious and when paired with the cream puffs, you have a delicious fall dessert everyone will enjoy.
Pumpkin Pie Cookies
Ingredients
For the Sugar Cookies
- ½ cup butter
- ½ cup shortening
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 3 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoon milk
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
For the Frosting
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- ½ cup butter, 1 stick
- 3 tablespoons milk
- 1½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Orange, yellow, and brown food coloring
Instructions
For the Sugar Cookies
- Preheat oven to 325°
- In a medium bowl, mix together butter, shortening, sugar and egg. Add vanilla and milk. Mix well until combined.
- Gradually stir in flour and baking powder until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl.
- Roll out a small amount of dough on a floured surface to about ¼″ thick and cut into shapes. Place on cookie sheets and bake until the edges just start to brown. Approximately 10-12 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let sit on cookie sheets for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. Repeat until all dough is used.
- Here’s a cookie tip for you…. When rolling out your cookie dough, mix flour and powdered sugar 50/50. Use this mixture and your cookies will taste much better and not leave a flour taste in your mouth.
For the Frosting
- In a medium bowl, cream butter, milk, and vanilla together. Gradually stir in powdered sugar and beat until smooth and creamy.
- To make the pumpkin pie colored frosting, add â…” of the white frosting to a medium bowl. Add two drops of orange food coloring, 1 drop of yellow, and 1 drop of brown food coloring. If the color is too light, repeat the amount above. Stir to combine.
- In the two remaining bowls, add white frosting and mix brown coloring to make tan, and leave the third bowl with plain white frosting.
- Frost the cookies once they have cooled completely. Add pumpkin color first, followed by the tan "crust" then add a dollop of white in the center.
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