Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

Halloween is tomorrow! I’m sorry I didn’t get this post up sooner, but these adorable pumpkin cookies are a fun and festive thing to make from now until Thanksgiving! You can use this recipe, and make the cookies with other shapes as well.

I made these gluten-free, instead of grain-free, because over the years of making grain-free desserts, I’ve found that most people tolerate gluten-free flour a little better than a dessert from a ton of ground up nuts. Also, at this point in our Paleo lives, we just don’t stress too much about being completely grain-free. We include rice and quinoa in our diets, and do just fine with those ingredients.

For this cookie recipe, I used our local Gluten-Free bakery’s all purpose flour mix, that we purchase at our local Whole Foods, but I also recommend Better Batter.

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I used our Pumpkin Pie Spice to flavor these cookies, but you can omit that if you want to make this recipe year round.

For the frosting, I made my homemade buttercream frosting with grass-fed butter, and I colored it with Color Garden vegetable dyes. I love that Color Garden makes an orange shade, but I did mix yellow and blue for the green stem. Color Garden also makes a line of sprinkles, and they have orange and green, so if Halloween has passed, and you want to serve these pumpkin cookies at a Holiday party, you can decorate them with sprinkles, instead of the jack o’ lantern face.

For the jack o’ lantern face, I simply melted down Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips, and once cooled, I poured the melted chocolate into a piping back with my smallest round tip, to pipe the faces. I used my smallest star tip to pipe the green stem of the pumpkin, and I just frosted the orange pumpkin with my offset spatula.

These cookies were so fun to make! They will be an adorable dessert for your Halloween party, or Thanksgiving dinner!

xo,

Hayley

Our Spices (organic, non-GMO, non-Irradiated, all-ingredients-listed) are on sale this weekend! Take 10% off your order using code “Boo” through Monday. You can shop all our spice blends here.

These adorable pumpkin cookies, are delicious on their own, or decorated with our Buttercream Frosting. They make a festive dessert for your Halloween party, or Thanksgiving dinner.

Serves: 24

Ingredients

2 cups 2 cups 2 cups Gluten Free Flour
1/2 cup 1/2 cup 1/2 cup Maple Sugar
1/4 tsp 1/4 tsp 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp 1/4 tsp 1/4 tsp Himalayan Pink Salt
2 Tbsp 2 Tbsp 2 Tbsp Primal Palate Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 tsp 1 tsp 1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
8 Tbsp 8 Tbsp 8 Tbsp Palm Oil Shortening, Organic [*Spectrum Brand, sustainably sourced]
2 whole 2 whole 2 whole Eggs
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting (click for recipe), We color ours with Color Garden food coloring, which is vegetable-dyed coloring
Semisweet Chocolate Chips, melted and piped, for the face decoration

Process

Note, these instructions are written assuming the standard serving size, since you have modified the number of servings, these steps may need to be modified for best results

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, maple sugar, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice.
Add the vanilla extract, and 8 tablespoons of palm shortening. Combine with a pastry knife, or your hands.
Add in the two eggs, and combine with your hands, until you have a ball of dough.
Place a sheet of parchment paper onto a flat surface for rolling. Lightly dust the sheet of parchment paper with arrowroot flour, and place half of the cookie dough onto the parchment.
Roll out the dough into a thin sheet, about 1/4 inch thick.
Using a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter, cut the dough into as many cookies, as you can fit.
Carefully remove the excess dough, and using a spatula, move the cookies to your parchment lined baking sheets.
Repeat the steps of rolling out the dough, and cutting the cookies, until you have used all of the cookie dough.
Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, and then allow to cool completely before frosting.

Notes

I used Color Garden vegetable dyes to color the frosting. I also melted Enjoy Life Chocolate chips, to make the jack o' lantern face. To frost the cookies, use a small offset spatula for the orange pumpkin. Use a small star tip for the stem, and a small round tip for the chocolate face. You can also use the Color Garden sprinkles, if you do not wish to make the jack o' lantern face.