No-Chill Pumpkin Spice Cut-Out Cookies
These no-chill pumpkin spice cut-out cookies are so simple to make, hold their shape, and are absolutely delicious! They’re super soft, full of seasonal flavor, and a fun alternative to regular cut-out sugar cookies.
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Servings: 24 cut-out cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 sticks unsalted butter softened
- 1 c packed dark brown sugar
- ⅔ c granulated sugar
- 4 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp almond extract*
- 2 large eggs
- 4 c all-purpose unbleached flour (plus more for rolling)
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
Instructions
- Add butter & both sugars to a stand mixer and cream together, using the paddle attachment, for 2-3 minutes on medium speed.
- Add vanilla, almond extract, and eggs one at a time, mixing between additions. Mix just until everything is combined.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice.
- With your mixer on low, gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet. Mix together until everything is well-blended and dough has an even consistency. (About 20-30 seconds mixing on low speed.) Your dough should be fairly creamy and not dry or crumbly.
- If you're not going to chill the dough (you don't have to, but see the notes!), then preheat your oven to 350. Lightly flour the surface where you're going to roll your dough & cut the shapes.
- Take a chunk of dough and work it with your hands, just to ensure it has an even consistency. Then roll the dough into a ball, roll the ball in the flour on the surface to give it a light coating, rub some flour on your rolling pin, and begin to roll the dough. You'll want to roll it until it's about 1/4 inch thick. If the dough is sticking to the surface or to your rolling pin, continue to add a little bit of flour until it's not sticky anymore.
- Cut out your shapes, transfer them to your baking sheet (see notes on this, too!), and then re-roll the scrap dough into another ball, roll it out, cut shapes, etc. Continue until you've finished cutting all of the dough.
- Place one baking pan in the oven and bake for 7 minutes at 350. (If you cut small shapes, you may want to just bake them for 6 minutes.)
- Remove from oven and repeat with the other pan of cookie dough shapes.
- Allow cookies to cool on the pan for about 5-10 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Use a thin or metal spatula to transfer the cookies to lessen your chance of breaking them as you move them.
- Once your cookies are fully cooled, it's time to ice them! See my notes for icing suggestions!
Notes
*You don't HAVE to use almond extract, but I'd recommend it! It does add some great flavor!
To chill or not to chill: You really don't have to chill this dough in order to create lovely shapes that won't puff up in the oven. However, we did find that chilling the recipe - for 30 min in the freezer or for at least an hour or two in the fridge - produced a softer cookie with more flavor. SO, while you don't HAVE to chill the dough, if you have the patience for it, I think you'll love the cookies that much more after they've baked! If you choose to chill the dough, wrap it in plastic wrap and try to flatten out a bit before putting in the fridge/freezer. Once it’s chilled, remove from fridge/freezer and break off a portion to start rolling. You’ll need to massage it a bit with your hands to get it pliable, but it shouldn’t take long.
Baking pans: If you’re not using USA Pans (the pans I always, always, always use when I bake cookies – seriously, best baking pans ever), then I’d recommend using either parchment paper or a Silpat mat in order to prevent cookies from sticking to the pan, especially since you don’t want to break the cute shapes you cut out! However, if you use USA Pans to bake these cookies, you should be just fine to do without either.
About icing the cookies: Yes, these cut-out cookies were definitely made to be paired with icing. A traditional cookie icing is just fine - here are some ideas for you:
- Glossy sugar cookie icing that hardens – this icing comes together easily & is simple to use. It produces a lovely glossy sheen and has a super soft bite, even though it hardens up!
- Easy royal icing recipe – finally, a royal icing recipe that ACTUALLY tastes good! If you’re looking for a traditional royal icing recipe that hardens up, decorates beautifully, AND is actually enjoyable to eat, you’ll love this recipe!! It completely hardens, but it’s still soft to the bite and it has a great flavor. It’s not your typical chalky, candy-like royal icing.
- Buttercream frosting for sugar cookies – the most popular recipe on my blog to date! (And for good reason – it’s SO GOOD and so fun to use, and it actually hardens up a lot better than other buttercream recipes.) Buttercream IS THE BEST!!