Soft and chewy sugar cookies topped with the most heavenly pumpkin buttercream frosting!
If there’s one cookie most synonymous with Christmas, it has to be the sugar cookie! I’m sure most of us share that fond childhood memory of making up a batch of sugar cookie dough, rolling it out, and cutting out fun holiday-themed shapes. Of course, the best part was ALWAYS decorating them with frosting and ALL kinds of sprinkles! Maybe that’s where where my obsession with sprinkles began…
Anywho, since the end of fall is getting dangerously close, I decided to make sure I got one last pumpkin recipe in before we shift into winter…
These Pumpkin Sugar Cookies are PERFECTION.
Although these cookies aren’t the same as a traditional pumpkin pie, they do kinda look like mini pumpkin pies and they provide a lot of the same flavors!
The cookie, which serves as the “crust” is soft and chewy on the inside and the exterior is slightly crisp, thanks to the sugar coating. When it comes to cookies of any kind, I’m Team Soft and Chewy all the way! I don’t do hard and crunchy cookies. Those are dog biscuits.
I ended up using the same sugar cookie recipe from my Soft & Chewy Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies and my Twix Sugar Cookies. That recipe has resulted in the most perfect sugar cookies every single time, so why try anything else? Plus, it’s so easy to make and requires no dough-chilling, which means less time you have to wait to shove these delicious cookies into your pie hole! Or I guess in this case, cookie hole?
The pumpkin frosting serves as the “pumpkin filling”, and in my opinion, it’s some of the best pumpkin frosting I’ve ever had. First off, it’s not just frosting with a dash of pumpkin pie spice added to it. It has actual pumpkin in it! That means you get real pumpkin flavor, which is further enhanced by pumpkin pie spices. It’s also incredibly creamy, making it the perfect topper for these supremely soft sugar cookies.
TIP: If at any point your frosting looks curdled, or you see tons of greasy-looking pockets throughout, it most likely has to do with the temperature of your ingredients being too cold. This has happened to me plenty of times, and the fix is super simple! Just place a couple of tablespoons of the frosting into a microwave-safe bowl, and heat it in the microwave until melted–about 10 seconds. Pour the melted frosting back into the bowl of frosting, and beat on high for several minutes until it looks completely smooth and creamy.
Just as I like my cookies thick, I also like my frosting THICK. As you can see, the frosting layer is just as thick as the cookie. I firmly believe in an even ratio of cookie to frosting. This might sound like overkill to some, but hey, winter’s about to start and calories don’t matter when you’re not wearing a swimsuit anytime soon!
And although this last step is totally optional, I added a dollop of whipped cream on top to make them look like mini pumpkin pies. I also just love whipped cream and would come up with literally any excuse to pile it on everything if I could…
Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
Sugar Cookies:
- 2 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- 2 ounces cream cheese softened
- ½ cup granulated sugar + 1/4 cup divided
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
Make the Pumpkin Frosting:
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- ½ cup pumpkin puree
- Pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3.5 - 4 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
Make the Sugar Cookies:
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or spray with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix the butter and cream cheese together until smooth and creamy. Add the 1/2 cup granulated sugar and powdered sugar, beating until smooth and creamy. Add the vegetable oil, egg, vanilla, and almond extract and mix until fully incorporated.
- Gradually mix flour mixture into wet ingredients until dough comes together.
- Place remaining 1/4 cup sugar into a small bowl. Roll dough into balls that are a little larger than golf balls. Coat ball in sugar and place on lined baking sheet. Repeat process with more dough until you have 6 or 7 balls spaced at least 2 inches apart. Using the bottom of a glass, flatten each dough ball to about 1/2″ thickness. It’s okay if the cookies form a rim on the edges.
- Bake cookies for 8-11 minutes or until tops look dry. They should still be pale in color–no browning. Try not to overbake or you’ll end up with hard, crispy cookies. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 3-4 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Make the Frosting:
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, pumpkin, salt, pumpkin pie spice, and vanilla together on high until fully incorporated, about 2 minutes. Gradually add the powdered sugar, a cup at a time, until smooth and fluffy.
- Transfer frosting to a pastry big fitted with a large round tip and pipe frosting on top of cooled cookies.* For a smoother surface (as pictured), use an offset spatula to smooth out the top.