Vegan Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
These soft frosted pumpkin sugar cookies are topped with the most delicious pumpkin spice buttecream frosting!
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Servings: 10 cookies
Ingredients
Pumpkin Sugar cookies
- ½ cup vegan butter *room temperature
- ½ cup+ 2 Tablespoons sugar ( ½ cup for dough, 2 tablespoon for rolling before baking)
- ¼ cup pumpkin puree not pumpkin pie filling
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (optional)
- 1 cup+ 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1.5 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Pumpkin Spice Buttercream Frosting
- ½ cup cold vegan butter
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
Make the pumpkin cookie dough
- First add the butter, ½ cup of the sugar, and the pumpkin puree to a mixing bowl and cream together until light and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes. If using, add in the optional vanilla at this point too.
- Next, add in the flour, baking powder, and salt to the mixing bowl. Mix until a thick, yet sticky, pumpkin cookie dough forms. Do not overmix or else you will form too much gluten and the cookies will not spread as much and will be tough.
- Cover the mixing bowl of dough and add to the fridge to chill for 30 minutes- 1 hour.
Bake the cookies
- Line a baking sheet in parchment paper and preheat the oven to 350F. Next, remove the dough from the fridge and use a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop to form your cookie dough (about 45 grams of dough per cookie). Roll into balls between your palms and then roll in the 2 tablespoon of sugar that was set aside so that each dough ball is coated in sugar.
- Place the pumpkin cookie dough balls onto the baking sheet. Then, slightly press each dough ball down with your palm. Make sure that each cookie is kept about 2 inches apart since they will spread slightly while baking.
- Bake for 11-13 minutes until bottoms are lightly browned and the cookie is cooked, but still has soft centers. The cookies will continue baking after they are removed from the oven so the centers should be soft and slightly under-cooked, but not glossy or raw, when they are removed from the oven.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Then, move to a wire rack to continue cooling. While the cookies are cooling, make the frosting.
Making the frosting
- Add the cold vegan butter and pumpkin pie spice to a mixing bowl and whip until an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
- Once fluffy, gradually add in the powdered sugar ½ cup at a time and whip into the frosting. Once all the powdered sugar has been added, whip the frosting for another 2-3 minutes until white and fluffy.
- The frosting will be pretty soft, so at this point it's best to add it to a piping bag and then place the piping bag in the fridge for about 10 minutes before frosting the cookies.
- Top each cooled pumpkin sugar cookie with a generous swirl of frosting and enjoy!
Notes
- Unfrosted cookies can be stored on the counter at room temperature for 3-4 days.
- Frosted cookies can also be frozen for 1-2 months and just need to defrost at room temperature before eating. Cookies can also be stored in a closed container in the fridge and will keep up to 2 weeks, but it will slightly alter the texture and is my least preferred method for storing cookies.
- For this recipe, I used Country Crock plant-based butter and also tested with Earth Balance buttery sticks which both work great. If using Miyokos butter or earth balance from a tub add 1-2 tablespoon more flour (7-14 grams) to the dough as these kinds of butter contain more moisture.
- If you would like to make the dough and freeze it scoop the dough into balls and freeze on a parchment-lined sheet pan in the freezer. Once frozen, transfer the cookies to a ziploc bag or freezer-safe container. The baking time will need to be increased slightly for frozen cookies (usually 2-3 more minutes) so do keep that in mind!
Nutrition
Serving: 1cookie with frosting | Calories: 359kcal | Carbohydrates: 48g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 17g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 8g | Trans Fat: 3g | Sodium: 209mg | Potassium: 49mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 27g | Vitamin A: 955IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 16mg | Iron: 1mg
Tried this recipe?Mention @shortgirltallorder or tag #sgtoeats!