It’s pumpkin spice season, so I decided to make a batch of these soft pumpkin spice sugar cookies. They are packed with flavor, perfect in texture, and come together quickly. While the cookies themselves are delicious, the icing is what really makes these pumpkin spice sugar cookies special.
There’s something about the combination of pumpkin and cream cheese that is magical, and while you can’t really use cream cheese frosting on cookies, (it won’t set up and you can’t leave it at room temp) I figured out a way to get that same tangy flavor in royal icing. The secret is the cream of tartar. Just an eighth of a teaspoon of it added to the royal icing makes such a big difference, and totally elevates the icing and cookies to a new level.
Pumpkin Spice Sugar Cookies:
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon dried ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground clove
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
- Pinch of kosher salt
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- ½ cup (1 stick) salted butter, at room temperature
- ½ cup pumpkin purée (I used it from a can)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (if you don’t have vb paste, sub with 2 tsp vanilla extract)
- 1 large egg
Royal Icing:
- 1 ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 ½ tablespoons meringue powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 3 tablespoons water
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Using an electric mixer, beat the sugars, butter, pumpkin, salt, and vanilla bean paste in a large bowl to blend. Beat in the egg and mix to fully combine. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and spices together so everything is evenly distributed. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients in 2-3 batches, and beat after every addition until the dough is blended.
Split the dough in half and place half of the dough on a floured surface. I usually put a large piece of parchment paper down and put flour on top of that for easy clean up.
Make sure you use enough flour on your work surface and rolling pin to ensure that the dough doesn’t stick to anything. If you don’t use enough flour, your dough will become a sticky mess.
Working with one disk at a time, roll out the dough to about ¼ inch to ½ inch thick and cut out with your favorite cookie cutters. I used a standard size pumpkin cookie cutter, then some mini leaf cookie cutters, but you can use whatever you like. There a lot of cookie cutter sets out there, so have fun with it!
Note that I got 30 standard size cookies and 30 mini cookies out of this recipe.
Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Let cool on pan for an additional 8 minutes, then transfer to wire rack.
To make the icing, mix all the dry ingredients together, then mix in the water and vanilla until a glossy and smooth icing forms.
Make sure the pumpkin spice sugar cookies are fully cooled before you ice them. If you ice them when they are warm, the icing will just run off. You can have fun decorating the cookies and spend time with details, or if you want something simple like I wanted, just use a knife and frost all of the cookies in the with this white icing for a monochromatic look.
Let the pumpkin spice sugar cookies set up and dry for about an hour so icing dries, and share these with your friends! Trust me, they will be a hit!