What to do

1. For the cookies, mix flour, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl- set aside (*see note below about measuring flour).

2. Using a stand mixer with paddle attachment, beat your sugar and butter for about 3 minutes until light in color and fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla and almond extracts. Mix gently until combined.

3.Sift all dry ingredients into the bowl. I like to run the mixer on low for about 4 seconds and then use a spatula to fully incorporate everything.

4. Lay out saran or plastic wrap on your counter and plop your cookie dough onto the wrap. Place another piece of saran wrap on top of the dough and form everything into a disc. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, I like to chill my dough overnight.

5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Remove your dough from fridge and let it set on the counter for about 30 min, maybe an hour depending on the temperature in your kitchen. Sprinkle flour on your counter (or a large board) and roll out your dough to about 1/4 – 1/2 inch thick. Using cookie cutters, cut dough into desired shapes. Place your shapes on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Chill in fridge for about 20 min before baking. Note: In the recipe video, I had about 1/2 inch thick dough and used a large cookie cutter (about 3 inches) and it yielded about 8 quite large cookies. You can absolutely make smaller cookies, but baking time will vary, so start watching the cookies at about 8 minutes, you don’t want them to brown!

6. Bake for 8-9 minutes. Cookies should not brown and should look slightly under baked. Thats ok! Thats what makes them tender and delicious later. After about 3-5 min of cooling, using a spatula, transfer the cookies to a wire rack.

7. For the buttercream frosting, using a hand mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment, on medium speed, beat butter until nice and fluffy. Add half of the powdered sugar, mix for 30 seconds. Then add remaining ingredients (if you like sweeter buttercream use 3 cups of powdered sugar), mix until you reach desired consistency!

8. If you plan to pipe little vines onto your cookies, remove about 1 1/2 tbsp of the frosting, place it into a bowl with 2 drops of the green food gel. Mix until you the frosting turns a nice shade of green. Place the larger frosting tip inside of the piping bag, along with the white vanilla frosting. Cut the tip of the bag off so the tip has room to pop out. Then pipe (or spread) frosting onto the cooled sugar cookies. Sprinkle the cookies with the crushed oreos, top with the pumpkins.

9. Now place the smaller frosting tip into another bag, along with the green frosting. Cut the tip the same as before, then pipe little vines all around the pumpkins. Note: If you are not comfortable piping frosting, some green sprinkles also work! Serve immediately or store in an airtight container until ready to serve.

Note: I like to store my cookies in an airtight container in the fridge. See FAQ’s for more information on storage below!

FAQ’s

Helpful tips

Here are some important Pro tips by Maude

• Chilling your dough makes a difference in taste. Try to hold out and chill your dough for 24 hrs and again for 20 min right before baking.
• When measuring flour, if not using a scale, it’s important to spoon in the flour at the rim of the cup and then using a butter knife level off the excess flour. Do not pack the flour as that will yield a crumbly and dry dough.
• If looking to use food coloring- after you have mixed your buttercream, squirt 2-3 drops of food gel into the bowl. Mix with a spatula until the white of the buttercream disappears. Proceed with frosting!

If you try this recipe, I would love your feedback! Please leave a star rating, a comment below or on the reel in Instagram! Also please share what you made and tag @eatmaudes !! Thank you so much for stopping by and making yumminess with me!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Magnolia-Star Baking Supply (@magnoliastarbaking)