Pumpkin Spice Sugar Cookie Cut-Outs
Ingredients
2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature 454 grams
1 cup granulated sugar 194 grams
1 cup brown sugar. lightly packed 187 grams
1/4 cup pumpkin purée or pumpkin pie filling 66 grams
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 tsp ground pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp ground ginger
5 cups all-purpose flour 754 grams
1 tsp salt
Method
Cream the butter and 2 sugars together in an electric mixer on low to medium speed. (Use the paddle attachment). Mix until thoroughly incorporated – for about one minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with and mix again for a few seconds more. Over mixing the butter and sugar in this step will cause too much air to be incorporated into the dough. If you are going for a light and fluffy cookie, that’s ideal, but the dough will spread more during baking; not ideal if you want your cookies to hold their shapes.
Add pumpkin purée and eggs while slowly mixing. Add vanilla extract and mix. Scrape down the bowl with your spatula at least once and mix briefly again.
Mix or Sift your dry ingredients together. ie. Flour, pumpkin pie spice, ginger, and salt.
Add all of the flour mixture to the bowl. Mix on low speed for 30 seconds. Watch the dough mixing; when it clumps around the paddle it’s ready. It’s important not to over mix the dough.
Roll the dough out between 2 large pieces of parchment paper. Place on a baking sheet and into the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour up to overnight.
Roll out the dough further if you need to, and cut out cookie shapes. Place on parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Re-roll scraps and repeat.
Put cookie dough shapes back into the fridge for 10 minutes to 1 hour to chill again. They will then hold their shape better when baked.
Preheat your oven to 350°F
Bake cookies for 8-12 minutes or until the edges become golden brown. The baking time will depend on the size of your cookie.
Let the cookies cool to room temperature and then decorate them! Cream cheese frosting tastes best here and it can be colored just like buttercream. Enjoy!