These soft chewy sugar cookies have been a holiday cookies tradition at our house for years! We make them as pumpkin-shaped cookies at Halloween, star-shaped cookies at Christmas time, heart-shaped cookies for Valentine's Day! They are so delicious- here's the recipe to enjoy your own Halloween Pumpkin Sugar Cookies!
If you are planning a Halloween class party for your kids at school- these are an awesome treat to bring in undecorated and allow the kids to frost them and add the candies themselves!
I am warning you- this dough is addictive! Its hard to actually get it into the oven without eating it first!
Be sure to bake your cookies on parchment paper so they keep their shape! Then decorate with orange frosting, candy corn for eyes, a chocolate chip for the nose, and pipe on the jack-o-lantern mouth with black decorator icing!
Do you love to cook?
Then be sure to check out this list of my favorite Kitchen Gadgets This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. for Busy Moms over on my Amazon influencer page This is an affiliate link: MomOf6 earns a commission if you purchase, at no additional cost to you. !
Pumpkin Sugar Cookie Recipe:
- 2 cups butter
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 6 cups of flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup solid white vegetable shortening
- ½ teaspoon of Wilton clear vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon of Wilton butter flavoring
- ¼ teaspoon of Wilton almond extract
- 2 Tablespoons of milk
- 1-lb. confectioner’s sugar
- 1 Tablespoon Wilton meringue powder
- Candy corn
- Mini Chocolate Chips
- Black decorating frosting
- Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla.
- Mix dry ingredients together in a small bowl and add to butter mixture. Mix well.
- Chill in large pancake shapes wrapped in parchment or waxed paper for 1 to 2 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees before baking cookies. Cover baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat mats to prevent cookies from spreading.
- On a surface dusted with powdered sugar (my favorite tip!), roll dough to approx ⅛″ thick. Use holiday cookie cutters dipped in powdered sugar to cut dough into shapes.
- Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until just beginning to turn brown around the edges.
- Cream shortening, flavorings, and milk.
- Add dry ingredients and mix on medium speed until all ingredients have been thoroughly mixed together. Blend an additional minute or so, until creamy. (You can add more milk, one tablespoon at a time to thin the icing a bit for piping).
- Use the candy corn, mini, chocolate chips, and black frosting to decorate the cookies.
This recipe makes up to 5 dozen 4-6″ cookies.
Looking for some more great ideas for Halloween?
Check out these posts:
- 10 Halloween Costumes for Tweens that Your Kids Will Love!!
- 10 Awesome Halloween Costumes for Tweens You Can Make at Home!
- 20 Halloween Party Ideas for Kids!
- Halloween Monkey Bread
- Halloween White Chocolate Chex Mix (with free printable tag)
- Halloween Bark (with free printable tag)
Erica says
I made these yesterday but found that the dough was really crumbly….is yours the same? I was still able to eventually get it rolled out and baked up some cookies, but didn’t think it should be so crumbly to begin with. Thanks for the great cookie idea…my boys are excited to try them!!
Sharon says
Oh no…. usually the dough is really moist. Are you sure you used enough butter? It’s 2 cups (4 sticks), not 2 sticks. The only other thing I can think of is that you need to mix it awhile to really incorporate all of that butter- maybe that was it? I am bummed that they didn’t turn out for you… 🙁
Erica says
I did use a full 2 cups of butter, so I was surprised the dough didn’t stay together! 🙁 I think I will put the rest of the batter back in my mixer and give it a good whirl…hopefully that will get it to pull together a bit more. I also live in Edmonton, Alberta and wonder if the climate might change things?
Sharon says
Ooo- good point- I wonder if climate/humidity have anything to do with it. I live in New York…. You are making me crave a bite of that dough right now! 🙂
Amy says
As I sit here at my desk drooling, it reminds me how great you are. Your children are so lucky to have such a wonderful, creative Mom. Would you like my address to send the cookies to, I will be your taste tester!!!!!