Autumn is the absolute favorite time of year in our family, and I can’t wait until the first cool breeze signals it’s time to get out my slow cooker and all my pumpkin and apple recipes. Recently my almost 3-year-old son has been showing a lot of interest in helping me cook or bake, so I wanted to find a kitchen activity that would be easy and fun for him and his 19-month-old brother to help me make.
I also wanted to incorporate one of our favorite flavors of fall, PUMPKIN! So I decided to tweak a sugar cookie recipe I found online at one of my favorite websites, allrecipes.com. I added some canned pumpkin, lots of cinnamon, a little extra flour, and all kinds of autumn and Halloween-themed sprinkles.
I have a lot of people ask me how it’s possible to have kids who are so little helping out in the kitchen without it being a huge mess, and the answer is, of course, it’s a mess! But by having all the ingredients pre-assembled and measured out ahead of time and ready for the boys to pour in when needed, makes things a lot easier.
Having never tried this pumpkin sugar cookie recipe before, I didn’t know what to expect, but they turned out better than I thought they would! A word of caution: the dough is extremely sticky, but it can be rolled into balls and then dipped in sprinkles or sugar. I let the boys each do a few balls, but then once I saw how difficult it was to keep such sticky dough from completely covering their hair, eyeballs, and upper body, I gave them the boot from the kitchen and finished assembling them myself. (This did not go over well with the boys.)
All in all, this was a simple recipe that turned out great. The cookies are soft and cake-like, so this is not the recipe you want to use with cookie cutters. I’m thinking of modifying it for the Christmas holidays with ginger and molasses to make gingerbread sugar cookies. Try it and tell me what you think!
Dawn’s Pumpkin Sugar Cookie Recipe
Yields 3 dozen small cookies
Ingredients:
| 1/3 cup shortening | 2 cups all-purpose flour |
| 1/3 cup butter | 3/4 cup white sugar |
| 1 egg | 2 teaspoons vanilla extract |
| 1 teaspoon baking powder | 1/2 teaspoon salt |
| 1/2 cup canned pumpkin | 1 teaspoon cinnamon |
| Colored sugar or sprinkles for decoration |
- Cream butter, sugar, shortening, vanilla, pumpkin, and spices together.
- Add in salt, baking powder, and flour until dough is formed. The mixture will be very sticky.
- Roll into small balls and dip into sugar or sprinkles.
- Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes on greased cookie sheets.
Do you like pumpkin sugar cookies?
Find more of our Favorite Recipes on our recipe page.
by Dawn T. (Volo)
Dawn is a former 1st grade and early childhood teacher turned to stay at home mom to 2 boys Dawn and her boys love journeying around Lake County and the Chicago suburbs to check out new places to play, restaurants, farms, gardens, museums, or anything that might be of interest to families with young children.
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