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I love pumpkin spice season! These Pumpkin Spice Cookies are an easy soft and chewy sugar cookie with warm fall flavors – and they’re so good. I took my favorite sugar cookie recipe and added pumpkin spice to the cookie and the icing. This is an EPIC fall cookie recipe: PUMPKIN SPICE SUGAR COOKIES with frosting!
Before some of you angrier readers send me comments at tell this recipe isn’t really pumpkin because there’s no canned pumpkin puree in them, don’t worry: I know. It’s pumpkin spice.
Pumpkin cookies are really good. I know, because I’ve made several pumpkin cookie recipes, even one stuffed with Nutella. But sometimes you’re in the mood for pumpkin spices but not actual pumpkin (you know, how I loved the PSL before it actually had pumpkin in it?) That’s where these cookies come in!
Pumpkin Spice Cookies are an easy sugar cookie recipe filled with pumpkin pie spice in both the cookie dough and the frosting. They’re easy to make, no chill cookies, soft and chewy and perfectly spiced. They’re the perfect fall cookie recipe!
Important Ingredients Needed
- Butter: I always use unsalted butter. Be sure to soften it before making the cookies so that it’s room temperature.
- Sugar: Granulated sugar goes into these cookies – they’re like a sugar cookie! You could also do half and half brown sugar if you want a more chocolate chip cookie texture.
- Cream of Tartar: I use this to keep the cookies nice and soft. Learn all about Cream of Tartar – and if you don’t have it you can substitute 1 tsp lemon juice.
- Pumpkin Spice: Pumpkin Pie Spice is another one of those enigmas to me because every recipe I’ve found for pumpkin pie spice is different. Cinnamon and nutmeg are always there. But some have allspice, some have cloves and some have ginger. Some have a combination or none of the above. That’s why I made my own DIY Pumpkin Pie Spice so I never have to guess, plus it’s easier than getting out all the spice jars individually.
How to make Pumpkin Spice Cookies
- Cream Butter and Sugar: Use a hand or a stand mixer to cream your butter and sugar until fluffy.
- Add Egg and Vanilla: I like to mix those in before adding dry ingredients.
- Add Pumpkin Spice: A whole lot of it!
- Flour: Mix in the all-purpose flour then you can scoop and bake in an oven preheated to 350°F.
How to make Pumpkin Spice Frosting
- Butter and Sugar: Mix the two until they’re crumbly.
- Spice: Add the pumpkin spice.
- Cream: Add the cream and mix. The cream makes the frosting fluffy and delicious.
- Frost: You have a creamy frosting – time to frost your cookies!
- Mix powdered sugar and butter until crumbly.
- Mix in salt and pumpkin pie spice. The mixture will be crumbly if using a hand mixer and more mixed together if using a stand mixer.
- Add cream a bit at a time until smooth and you reach your desired consistency for frosting.
If you want, you can make cream cheese frosting instead and add the pumpkin pie spice. This is my favorite cream cheese frosting recipe!
Storing and Freezing
Store cookies in a single layer in an airtight container. These can sit at room temperature, but will last an extra few days if refrigerated. You can also freeze them, frosted or unfrosted.
Expert Tips
- Don’t skip the cream of tartar. That gives the cookies a lot of their softness!
- Don’t over bake them. Err on the side of underdone – they’ll finish cooking and set as they cool. Learn how to tell when cookies are done!
- Add a full teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice to the batter – the result will be a nice warm and flavorful cookie (with or without frosting).
- You could also make these semi-homemade with cake mix: use my cake mix sugar cookies and add pumpkin spice!
- Do you want a pumpkin cookie recipe? Try my Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies.
FAQ
I have a pumpkin cookie recipe but for these I wanted just a pumpkin spice cookie!
You can use 1 tsp lemon juice in place of the cream of tartar in this recipe.
If you have all the spices and not the pumpkin spice, you can make your own DIY Pumpkin Pie Spice.
No these cookies are drop and bake which is why I love them.
Did you use too much flour? They should flatten just fine if baked right after mixing. Also check the expiration dates on your baking soda and cream of tartar.
Chances are your butter was too softened and your cookie dough was too sticky and warm going into the oven. If that happens, chill the cookie dough for 30 minutes.
No these are good plain too!
You can also use milk or half and half, or even nondairy milk. Just know you’ll need less of it – the less fat your milk has the less you need to make the frosting thin enough to spread.
Pumpkin Spice Cookies Recipe
Recipe Video
Ingredients
For the Cookies:
- ¾ cup (170g) unsalted butter softened
- ¾ cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups (248g) all-purpose flour
For the Frosting:
- 4 tablespoons (57g) unsalted butter softened
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups (226g) powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 3 tablespoons (45ml) heavy whipping cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two cookie sheets with silpat liners or parchment paper.
- Cream butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat in egg and extract. Mix in pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Slowly mix in flour.
- Scoop 2 tablespoon balls of dough (use a cookie scoop if you have one) onto cookie sheets.
- Bake for 9-10 minutes. Take them out just as you notice the bottoms start to turn golden (or right before). They’ll finish cooking as they cool. If they get too golden on the bottom before you remove them, they won’t be as pillowy and soft!
- Cool 5 minutes before removing from cookie sheets. Place on a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
- Make the frosting: Beat butter until creamy with a hand or a stand mixer. Mix in salt. Slowly add in powdered sugar until mixture is crumbly. (It will be very crumbly if using a hand mixer, more smooth if using a stand mixer.) Add vanilla, pumpkin spice and 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream. Mix until the frosting comes together and becomes smooth, adding remaining tablespoon of heavy whipping cream as needed for consistency. Frost.
- Store at room temperature loosely covered. Frosting will semi-dry and cookies are stackable but some frosting may transfer.
Recipe Notes
To make the frosting with Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer instead:
Mix 3 tablespoons softened unsalted butter with 2 cups powdered sugar and a pinch of salt. Mix in 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin spice, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 3 tablespoons pumpkin spice coffee creamer until smooth. Frost as desired.Recipe Nutrition
Love pumpkin spice? Make these recipes:
Pumpkin Spice Cookies are the BEST Pumpkin Spice Sugar Cookies with pumpkin spice FROSTING! These are an easy fall cookie with tons of spice and they’re the most popular fall cookie recipe!
My favorite fall cookies! I’ve made these a few times and everyone loves them!
I really loved this recipe! It was a great Thanksgiving treat! I would definitely make again….and again!
Oh my goodness! These are so good!
I just made these! The only thing I did different was add a spoon of maple syrup to the icing! These are so delicious!
Love these! Love using pumpkin pie spice in cookies rather than actual pumpkin as the texture doesn’t get all wonky which can happen so easily when you add pumpkin puree. That may have only taken me about 99879 batches of cookies to figure out when I was writing my cookbook. LOL I love the frosting on these. Mmmm!! And the collage! Pinned 🙂
I put a recipe for pumpkin pie spice in my book and when I was researching it, yes, there’s a million different combos and since I’m a spice hoarder I do always have all the component spices on hand so it’s easier to DIY. Usually. Until those seasonal jars of TJs spices come out for like 1.99. That’s hard to beat!
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