Fall Sugar Cookies Recipe. Soft and sweet sugar cookies made with no spread sugar cookie dough and then decorated in fall themes are the perfect sugar cookies to enjoy during the beautiful fall months. These fall cookies are one of my kid’s favorites to make so they can decorate them too.
Fall Sugar Cookies Recipe
If you are looking for amazing fall sugar cookies then you are in luck. This soft sugar cookie recipe is perfect for making fall sugar cookies that you can decorate. This easy recipe looks like it is going to be hard to make, but my best advice is to just have fun with it. Do not be discouraged by your cookie decorating skills if you have never decorated with royal icing before, the end result is still going to be a tasty soft homemade classic sugar cookie.
You can make these fall cutout cookies into any fall shape that you want to, our favorites are pumpkin cookies, turkey cookies, leaf cookies, and acorn cookies. All of them use the same icing colors to decorate so it is easy to make colorful cookies. These fall decorated cookies made with the best sugar cookie recipe are perfect for the dessert table or just because you want to have fun celebrating the fall season.
If this is your first time making sugar cookies, check out everything you need to know about making sugar cookies for some awesome tips!
If you have never used Royal Icing before be sure to read up on how to use Royal Icing when decorating cookies and how to decorate with royal icing.
Sugar Cookie Recipes
- Christmas Sugar Cookies
- Christmas Tree Sugar Cookies
- Zombie Sugar Cookies
- Minion Cookies
- Rainbow Swirl Sugar Cookies
- Jack Skellington Cookies
- Pumpkin Spice Sugar Cookie recipe
Make The Holiday Easier!
Tips for Making the Best Frosted Fall Sugar Cookies
Use Gel Food coloring. It is best to use gel food coloring to make your royal icing.
Don’t skimp on cooling time. Allow cookies to cool completely before frosting them or the royal icing will melt off the cookies.
Cookie cutters. Use any cookie cutters that you want to, but to make the baking time easier try to make them all the same size if possible.
Outline the cookies with the frosting and then fill in the cookie and then add the small details for decorating.
Clean work space. Making cookies is so much easier when your work surface is cleaned between making the cookies and decorating them.
How long should sugar cookies cool before frosting them?
You want the cookie to be room temperature before putting the icing on them. 30 minutes to an hour is about what it takes depending on the temperature of your house.
How many cookies does this make?
This sugar cookie recipe will make 18-20 cookies if you are using large cookie cutters, if you are using smaller cookie cutters you will get 30-40 cookies.
Can this recipe be doubled
Yes! You can easily double or triple this sugar cookie dough recipe.
How do you put icing on sugar cookies?
I find it best to use an icing piping bag and frosting tips when decorating cookies. It makes things easier and I can put extra details on the cookies.
How to Store Fall Sugar Cookies
Store homemade sugar cookies in an air tight container, in a cool dry place out of sunlight for best results. If they have frosting on them, allow the frosting to fully harden before storing the cookies in a container. If they are frosted it is best to store frosted sugar cookies with wax paper between each layer.
How long do Sugar Cookies last?
Pumpkin sugar cookies will keep for up to 2 weeks after being baked in an airtight container.
Do I need to store cookies with royal icing in the fridge?
No, do not store sugar cookies decorated with royal icing in the fridge.
Can I make Sugar Cookie dough ahead of time?
You can make sugar cookie dough ahead of time and store it in an air tight container for 3-5 days in the fridge. When you want to make the cookies, remove the dough from the fridge and roll out and shape as desired, and then bake according to the recipe directions below.
Can I freeze the cookie dough?
Yes. If you are wanting to make the cookie dough ahead of time to use later, make the pumpkin sugar cookie dough and then wrap it in plastic wrap and place it in a freezer bag. Store in the freezer for 3-6 months. When you are ready to make the cookies, remove the dough from the freezer and let thaw in the fridge. Roll out and shape as desired and then bake according to the recipe directions below.
Can I freeze sugar cookies after they are made?
Yes. After baking the cookies and allowing them to cool completely you can freeze them. Then when it is time to decorate them just remove them from the freezer and bring to room temperature before decorating with royal icing. I find it best to place them in a single layer on a wax paper lined baking sheet and then put them in the freezer. Once frozen I remove them from the baking sheet and put them in a zip close freezer bag.
Can I decorate Fall cookies with buttercream frosting?
Yes. If you are not a fan of royal icing or you want to use buttercream frosting instead you can. I would suggest using vanilla buttercream, or almond buttercream so you can use food coloring to color it the colors you want to decorate the cookies.
Fall Sugar Cookie Ingredients
- 3 cups flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup butter
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Royal Icing Ingredients
- 1 pound confectioners sugar sifted
- 5 tablespoons meringue powder
- 6 tablespoons water and more if needed
- 1 teaspoon clear extract
How to Make Fall Sugar Cookies
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar with a hand mixer on medium speed until it is fluffy. This will take about 5 minutes. You can do this in a stand mixer or with a handheld mixer. I personally prefer to use the stand mixer.
Once the butter and powdered sugar are creamed together add the eggs and vanilla extract to the mixing bowl.
Mix all of the dry cookie ingredients in a separate small bowl and whisk to mix everything together. Then add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture and mix well.
Put half of the freshly made dough between two sheets of parchment paper and roll it out to 1/4 inch thick using a rolling pin.
Repeat with the rest of the dough.
Put the rolled dough including the parchment paper, on a cookie sheet and refrigerate for 10 minutes or longer. You want the dough to be cold.
Once the sugar cookie dough is chilled it is ready to cut using your fall shaped cookie cutters. After cutting all the cookies out, reroll the dough pieces and use the rest of it to cut out more cookies until you have no dough left.
Place cookies on a single layer with a little bit of space between them on a baking sheet and bake at 325° F for 10 -15 minutes.
Remove the cookies from the baking sheet and cool them on a cookie rack. Be sure the cookies are completely cooled before moving on to decorating them.
Make the Royal Icing
Combine the sugar and meringue powder in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until well combined.
Stir in 2 tablespoons of the water.
Next, add a clear extract to make your frosting take on different flavors if you want to.
If the mixture is still crumbly add the rest of the water.
Mix on medium-low speed for 5 minutes.
Color icing with desired food colors by blending a drop of coloring into the icing. Gradually blend additional drops until you achieve the desired color.
How to Decorate Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing
Outline the cookies with the color of your choosing. Then thin out the frosting and flood the cookie and then add any small details to the cookies that you want to.
How to make fall leaves sugar cookies
It is easy to decorate cookies to look like leaves, if you do not want to get as fancy as I did for the photos, you can do our easy way of decorating leaf cookies. Pick a color that you want to use for the leaves and color the icing. I normally do red, yellow and orange.
Outline the cookie with the icing using a number 4 tip. After doing the outline, thin the icing so it’s a 6-second icing and fill the inside of the cookie frosting outline with the frosting.
Once the icing has hardened a bit, put the frosting into a 20 second frosting and use a small tip with a piping bag and pipe the make a center line in the middle of the leaf, then add accent lines to make it look like a leaf.
How to Decorate Sugar Cookies like a pumpkin
Pipe the outline of the pumpkin with a #4 round tip by breaking it into quadrants and start with the middle quadrant as a pointed oval in the middle.
Let them dry then water down half of the orange icing so it’s a 6-second icing.
Flood in the quadrants with a 6-second icing in the orange. If you need to use an icing stick to spread the royal icing after you have filled the quadrants.
Let it dry for 10 minutes then pipe the lines of the pumpkin with the 20-second icing.
Water it down to be about a 20-second icing. Pipe on the streams and some vines with green icing if you want to add them.
Leave cookies to set the frosting with out touching them for 10-15 minutes.
Fall Dessert Recipes
- Pumpkin Trifle
- Pumpkin Dessert Lasagna
- Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino
- Pumpkin Chocolate chip cookies
- Pumpkin Gingersnap Cookies
- Crustless Pumpkin Pie
- Pumpkin Pudding
- Pumpkin Chococlate chip Cake
- Pumpkin Brownies
- Pumpkin Snickerdoodle cookies
- Maple pumpkin Pie
- Pumpkin Dessert Lasagna
- Pumpkin Coffee Cake
Want delicious cookies that come out perfect every time? Check out some of our favorite tools to make super easy cookies with fun decorations!
Fall Sugar Cookie
Ingredients
Fall Sugar Cookie Ingredients
- 3 cups flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup butter
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Royal Icing Ingredients
- 1 pound confectioners sugar sifted
- 5 tablespoons meringue powder
- 6 tablespoons water and more if needed
- 1 teaspoon clear extract
Instructions
How to Make Fall Sugar Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
- In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar with a hand mixer on medium speed until it is fluffy. This will take about 5 minutes. You can do this in a stand mixer or with a handheld mixer. I personally prefer to use the stand mixer.
- Once the butter and powdered sugar are creamed together add the eggs and vanilla extract to the mixing bowl.
- Mix all of the dry cookie ingredients in a separate small bowl and whisk to mix everything together. Then add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture and mix well.
- Put half of the freshly made dough between two sheets of parchment paper and roll it out to 1/4 inch thick using a rolling pin.
- Repeat with the rest of the dough.
- Put the rolled dough including the parchment paper, on a cookie sheet and refrigerate for 10 minutes or longer. You want the dough to be cold.
- Once the sugar cookie dough is chilled it is ready to cut using your fall shaped cookie cutters. After cutting all the cookies out, reroll the dough pieces and use the rest of it to cut out more cookies until you have no dough left.
- Place cookies on a single layer with a little bit of space between them on a baking sheet and bake at 325° F for 10 -15 minutes.
- Remove the cookies from the baking sheet and cool them on a cookie rack. Be sure the cookies are completely cooled before moving on to decorating them.
Make the Royal Icing
- Combine the sugar and meringue powder in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until well combined.
- Stir in 2 tablespoons of the water.
- Next, add a clear extract to make your frosting take on different flavors if you want to.
- If the mixture is still crumbly add the rest of the water.
- Mix on medium-low speed for 5 minutes.
- Color icing with desired food colors by blending a drop of coloring into the icing. Gradually blend additional drops until you achieve the desired color.
How to Decorate Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing
- Outline the cookies with the color of your choosing. Then thin out the frosting and flood the cookie and then add any small details to the cookies that you want to.
Follow Us For More!
Be sure to share your review in the comments below and follow us on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram or Tiktok for even more food + family fun!