Super soft and fluffy Iced Pumpkin Cookies, topped with a sweet vanilla cinnamon icing and are a must for the fall season. These unique pumpkin-flavored fall treats are very tempting that you will want to make them again and again throughout the year and fall especially.
Preheat the oven to a 350°F and line three baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, combine and whisk: 2½ cups all-purpose flour, 2 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp baking soda, ½ tsp fine salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, ½ tsp nutmeg, ¼ tsp cloves and ¼ tsp ginger. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine and cream together 1 cup unsalted softened butter, ½ cup granulated sugar and ½ cup brown sugar until light and fluffy (2-3 mins, start low).
Add 1 large egg, 1 cup canned pumpkin puree and 1 tsp vanilla extract. Beat on low for 30 seconds until just combined.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to batter and beat on low with each addition until just combined. You don’t need to chill the dough.
Scoop dough out using a small cookie scoop and drop onto prepared baking sheets, 2-inches apart.
Bake in preheated oven 12-15 minutes until set with lightly golden edges (I did 12 minutes).
Let cool on baking sheet several minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
How to Make Icing:
In a medium mixing bowl, combine and whisk: 3 cups sifted powdered sugar, 2 tbsp unsalted melted butter (slightly cooled), 4 tbsp 2% milk, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon. Icing should be smooth and thick. If icing too thick, thin with more milk as needed. Too thick icing won’t smooth out on cookie.
Transfer the icing to a decorating bag, cut a small hole at the tip of the bag and drizzle or fully cover each cookie with icing cloud. Avoid drizzling icing onto warm cookies as the icing will melt and slide off. Let rest at room temperature to allow icing to set.
Cookies stay fresh up to 5 days at room temperature. They will soften even more with each day.
Notes
Canned pumpkin puree can be replaced for homemade pumpkin puree. If dough turns out a bit on the thin side, add ¼ cup all-purpose flour. Avoid using pumpkin pie mix as they have added sweeteners and spices and will ruin the cookies.
Pumpkin Pie Spice: you can substitute the 4 fall spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger) for 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice.
Decrease icing ingredients by half if you want to give cookies a simple drizzle.
You can lightly dust each cookies with cinnamon or add sprinkles for more festive cookie. Sprinkle each cookie right away once covered with icing before the icing sets.
Store cookies in single layer so they don’t stick.