These delightfully soft cutout sugar cookies are packed with pumpkin flavor and simple to make. They don’t spread at all during baking, so they keep their shape perfectly.
I love the smells, sights and flavors of fall, and baking with my favorite pumpkin butter (just a reduced, slightly sweetened and spiced form of cooked pumpkin/squash) is a true pleasure. Believe it or not, though, I’m restraining myself this year by not presenting you with 3 or 4 pumpkin recipes a week. These soft gluten free pumpkin cutout ? sugar cookies with a simple maple glaze made the cut, though, by a mile.
Naturally egg-free (adding an egg to the cookie dough makes them taste like cake, not cookies), these soft cutout sugar cookies don’t spread at all during baking so you can cut the dough into truly any shape you like. I happen to have one silly pumpkin cookie cutter, so I made some of those shapes.
But unless you really make it obvious, your 10-year-old might hold one of the soft pumpkin-shaped cookies upside down and say something like, “oh look, a heart!”
So you might want to go old-school and just do rounds. Or maybe you’re better-prepared for the season than I am, and you have a perfectly suited pumpkin cookie cutter.
*DIY Pumpkin Pie Spice: In a small bowl, place 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice, 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves and 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg. Mix to combine.
Directions
Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line rimmed baking sheets with unbleached parchment paper and set them aside.
In a large bowl, place the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt, pumpkin pie spice and granulated sugar and whisk to combine well. Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the butter and pumpkin butter, mixing to combine after each addition, then kneading with your hands until a smooth dough forms. Place the dough between two sheets of unbleached parchment paper and roll out a bit less than 1/3-inch thick. Using a 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter (or any other shape you like), cut out rounds of dough and place them about 1-inch apart on the prepared baking sheets. Gather and reroll any scraps.
Place the baking sheet in the center of the preheated oven and bake set in the center and just beginning to brown on the edges, about 10 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
When the cookies are nearly cool, make the glaze. In a small bowl, place the confectioners’ sugar and 2 teaspoons of maple syrup, and mix well. Add more maple syrup by the half-teaspoon until you have a smooth but very thickly pourable glaze. Using a wide, flat knife or a small offset spatula, spread the glaze in a thin, even layer on the top of each cookie. Set the cookies on a flat surface until set.
P.S. Did you know there are 4 Gluten Free on a Shoestring Cookbooks? If you’ve already purchased a copy of each, thank you for helping the blog grow and thrive!