Coloring the Dough

It is always important to remember that gel-based food coloring is best! The gel food coloring will combine incredibly well with the cookie dough without creating a grainy looking texture. Along with that, the gel food coloring is very opaque and you’ll only need a few drops of each color to achieve that vibrant orange and green!

Shaping the Pumpkin Dough

This recipe is a little tedious, however, it’s not difficult at all since we’re only dealing with three colors. The classic Pillsbury Pumpkin Cookies do have a jack-o’-lantern face, but that would take far too long to make from scratch if you’re wanting to enjoy the baking process (don’t judge me!).

Here is a step-by-step photo guide on how to properly shape the pumpkin cookie dough log:

*Keep in mind that I tripled this recipe to make extra cookies. You will only have one orange log and one green log!

Refrigerate Before Baking

To avoid squishing the pumpkin shape as you slice your cookies, I highly recommend refrigerating the entire dough log before you slice & bake! Just tightly wrap your finished dough log in plastic wrap and place it the fridge for a few hours or overnight before baking.

bankobake

Pumpkin Slice & Bake Sugar Cookies

There are very few things better than those classic desserts that remind us of childhood. These Pumpkin Slice & Bake Sugar Cookies are inspired by the Pillsbury Pumpkin Cookies with just a few adjustments to create the most incredibly simple cookie that tastes like home and looks like Fall.

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Prep Time 1 hour hr

Cook Time 8 minutes mins

Chill Time 2 hours hrs

Total Time 3 hours hrs 8 minutes mins

Servings: 48 cookies

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

• 1 ¼ cup cake flour (162g)
• 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour (172g)
• ¼ tsp fine salt (1g)
• 1 tsp baking powder (3g)
• 1 cup + 1 tbsp unsalted room temperature butter (127g)
• 1 ⅔ cup granulated sugar (354g)
• 1 room temperature large egg
• vanilla extract to taste (I recommend 1-3 tsp)
• orange gel food coloring
• green gel food coloring

Method

 

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (you can also use an electric hand mixer), whip the room temperature butter and granulated sugar until light & fluffy (~5 minutes on medium speed)
2. Add the room temperature egg and vanilla extract and mix until combined
3. Scrape the bowl down with a rubber spatula to ensure everything is well incorporated
4. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients
5. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl of the stand mixer and mix until just combined (you're going to be mixing the dough a lot in order to roll it out and color it so you don't need to whip it too much here!)
6. Now that your dough is done, remove 202 grams of the dough and place it in a mixing bowl. Add a few drops of orange gel food coloring (I like to mix bright orange and a lighter orange to get the perfect color). Mix the dye into the dough until it's evenly distributed and you have the shade of orange that you want.
7. Next, take 35 grams of the plain white dough and add it to a separate mixing bowl. Repeat the above step but this time with the green gel food coloring.
8. Grab some plastic wrap and press all of the dough colors (white, orange, and green) onto their own sheet of plastic wrap. Tightly seal all colors and place them in the fridge for 1.5 hours.
9. After 1.5 hours, take the white dough out of the fridge and unwrap it. Roll it out using a rolling pin so that it's about a 7"x12" rectangle. Set that aside
10. Next, roll the orange dough out into a 12" log. Take a skewer (or something of a similar shape. I used a metal straw) and create a crease on top of the log (this is where the green stem will go)
11. Roll the green dough out into a skinny long strip and then place that on top of the orange log (where you just made the crease)
12. Press the green strip into the crease so that it's secure. Pinch the top of the green strip so that it makes more of a "stem" shape
13. Place the pumpkin log in the middle of the rolled out plain white dough
14. Tightly roll the white dough around the pumpkin log and press it together so that it all sticks (don't press too much as you don't want to squish the pumpkin shape)
15. To avoid squishing the pumpkin shape as you slice your cookies (like I did), I highly recommend refrigerating the entire dough log before baking. Once you complete the above step, just wrap your dough tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.
16. After the cookie dough has chilled in the fridge, you can preheat the oven to 350℉ and line a baking sheet with parchment paper
17. Begin slicing your cookies so that they are ~1/4" thick
18. Place your cookies a few inches apart from one another on the baking sheet and bake at 350℉ for ~8 minutes or until the edges are just slightly golden (you do not want them to brown, otherwise, they will be very firm when they cool)
19. Allow the cookies to cool for ~10 minutes on their pan before serving and enjoy!