A Little Guide to Baking These Cookies
These pumpkin spice sugar cookies are a great way to kick off the fall baking season! Make a traditional sugar cookie extraordinary with pumpkin spice! This is a simple recipe that is not only easy to make, but is also a big hit for those who like pumpkin pie spice. We like to make baking affordable for everyone, so we make smaller batches so you don’t have to use a lot of ingredients to try a new recipe.
Step-By-Step Instructions
Below, we will teach you how to make these fabulous pumpkin spice sugar cookies in just four simple steps. Let’s get baking!
Step 1: Gather your Ingredients
Whenever you begin any recipe, it is a great idea to make sure you have all the supplies on hand. Being in the middle of a recipe only to discover you have run out of pumpkin pie spice for your pumpkin spice sugar cookie recipe can be a bit disappointing. By simply gathering up all your ingredients ahead of time, you not only ensure you have all the ingredients on hand, but you also ensure you don’t accidentally omit an ingredient by accident. How often do you misread a recipe or forget to put in a key ingredient because you became distracted? This one simple step can save you a lot of frustration in all your baking adventures.
Step 2: Combine your Dry Ingredients
Well, most of them. Normally, a cookie recipe says to combine all of your dry ingredients. But we are going to withhold the spices for now and only combine the flour, baking soda and salt. If you have a whisk or sifter, this will ensure your cookies are tender and chewy.
Step 3: Mix the Wet Ingredients – Cream the Butter and Sugar (and Spices!)
Now we want to cream the butter, spices and sugar together. We are going to take our softened butter and beat it with the spices and sugar. By beating the spices into the butter, you will release the fragrance and flavor into the cookies. The fat in the butter hydrates the spices and the sugar beats it into the butter evenly and wakes them up. By adding the spices in this step, you get a more flavorful cookie. I recommend you do this for any recipe with spices you want to really shine.
Have you ever wondered why they consider sugar, which is dry, a wet ingredient? Sugar is considered a wet ingredient in baking due to its hygroscopic nature. Hygroscopic refers to the ability of a substance to attract and absorb moisture from the surrounding environment. Sugar maintains moisture, improves texture and tenderness. Baking is all about science and getting the right proportions.
Now you want to add in the vanilla and egg, and beat them until they are smooth. The mixture should look like this. Some find it easier to add the vanilla first and others the egg. Whatever you do, make sure you use room temperature eggs or it will chill the butter into lumps and you’ll have less tender and chewy cookies.
Step 4: Prepare and Bake your Cookies
If your cookie dough is really sticky, pop it into the fridge while you preheat your oven. Once your oven has preheated, place spoonfuls of cookie dough a couple inches apart (about 5cm) so they have room to spread and bake. If you place them too close together, they will connect and become a giant gooey mess. Too far apart and they can over bake or brown too quickly.
Bake 8 – 12 minutes or until edges are lightly golden brown. This is sometimes difficult to see with the spices. A better way to tell when a cookie is fully cooked? Take its temperature! The center of most chewy cookies should reach between 190°F – 195°F (88°C – 91°F) when they are ready. Above that and they become firm and dry as they cool. Below that and they can be too wet and gooey in the center. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes. You want them to finish setting on the cookie sheet or they will fall apart, but you don’t want them to set too long or they will begin to stick as they cool.
After a few minutes, remove the cookies from the pan to wire rack to finish cooling.
And that is all there is to making a great pumpkin spice sugar cookie!
Substitutions and Tips
Here are some common substitutions and tips for this pumpkin spice sugar cookie recipe.
- Feel free to add more pumpkin pie spice if you want. We do not recommend going above 1 1/2 tsp (3g) as the cinnamon in the spice can become bitter in larger amounts for some individuals.
- Swap the vanilla extract for imitation vanilla with great results. Don’t have either? It can be left out as the spices will give a nice flavor.
- Margarine can be used in place of butter. Swap equal amounts. Vegetable spread is not recommended due to the low fat and high water contents.
- Try adding chopped nuts or dried fruit into the cookie dough. You can use up to 1 cup total, which is about 113g.
Storage
These cookies store for up to week or more and seem to get better tasting with age! Make sure to cool them completely before storage as moisture will cause cookies to mold.
Store in an airtight container for 5 – 10 days. When stored in an airtight container, make sure to store with similar style of chewier cookies as these can soften shortbread varieties. The cookies may also be stored tightly wrapped in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Likewise, the dough can be stored in the refrigerator up to 3 days or in the freezer for 3 – 6 months when properly wrapped. I like to portion out the cookie dough onto a baking sheet and chill it in the freezer for one hour before transferring to an air tight container or freezer bag. Then you can bake them frozen. You just add 3 -5 minutes to the baking time.
Pumpkin Spice Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ⅓ cups (200g) flour
- ¾ cup (150g) sugar
- ½ cup (113g) softened butter
- 1 large (50g) egg
- 1 tsp (5mL) vanilla
- 1 tsp (2g) pumpkin pie spice
- ½ tsp (3g) baking soda
- ¼ tsp (1.25g) salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C.)
- Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl.
- In large bowl, beat softened butter, pumpkin pie spice and sugar until creamy. Beat in the egg and vanilla until smooth. Stir in flour mixture just until blended.
- Drop 1 tbs of batter onto cookie sheet 2" (5cm) apart. If the dough is extremely sticky and difficult to scoop, chill for 20 – 30 minutes.
- Bake 8 – 12 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Center of cookies should reach between 190°F – 195°F (88°C – 91°C) when ready. Cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes; remove to wire rack to finish cooling.
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