Halloween Cookie Recipe: Pumpkin Cutout Cookies

Did you know that October is National Cookie Month? Last year for the occasion, I wanted to send each of my sisters a care package with a cute little owl card and some pumpkin cutout cookies. Not only did I want my cookies to look like pumpkins, I wanted them to be made with pumpkin as well. I searched around but could not find a recipe that was well reviewed, so I came up with my own!

Ingredients:

For  Cookies

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup Libby’s Pumpkin
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

For Icing

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 to 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• food coloring

Directions:

1. Beat together sugar, pumpkin, and butter. Add egg and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Mix well.
2. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. beat flour mixture into pumpkin mixture. Move to a well-floured surface and knead in any remaining mixture and additional flour if necessary to form a semi-workable dough.  The dough will be pretty sticky coming straight from the bowl.  Shape into ball, cover and refrigerate for one hour.
3. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Roll dough on floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut dough into desired shapes.
4. Bake 14 minutes or until cookies are light in color, and do not indent when pressed in the center. Do not over-bake (I use air-bake pans.  This helps keep the bottoms of the cookies from burning).  Cool completely on wire racks.
5. Combine together powdered sugar, milk, and remaining vanilla extract in a small bowl. Mix well and add desired food coloring. Frost cookies and enjoy!

This year, when I made these cookies, I decided to use fondant frosting.  I rolled it out and used the same cookie cutter that I had used to make the cookies.  I don’t have a secret recipe for fondant, I just found one on Allrecipes.com and used gel food coloring.  I still used the frosting recipe in this post to adhere the fondant to the cookies.  See the finished product below!  Also if you are looking for a card send along with these yummy cookies, check out my shop:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/ElationGreetings