Copycat Pillsbury Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Then set aside.

In a separate bowl (or in a stand mixer fit with the paddle attachment) mix together the softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy. About 2 minutes on low speed.

Add the egg and vanilla to the butter mixture and continue to mix until fully combined and smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as you go.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until a soft dough forms.

Once you have a nice dough formed, remove about 3/4 cups of it to dye orange. Next, take out 1 Tbsp. of dough to be dyed green. Keep the remaining dough in the bowl.

Use gloves if you have them to dye the first removed portion of dough orange, then the small amount green. To do this, add a drop of food gel at a time to the dough and work it into the dough until it is evenly distributed and has reached the perfect shade.

Flatten each color of dough into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap to chill in the fridge for at least two hours.

After two hours, take the uncolored dough and roll it out to 1/4″ thick on top of parchment paper. Slide this onto a cookie sheet and let sit in the fridge while we move onto the next step.

Remove the orange dough from the fridge and roll it out into a log about 1″ in diameter. Take a skewer to make an indent along the top of the log to create more of a pumpkin shape and to leave an indent where the green stem will go.

Next, take the green dough and roll into long skinny pieces and place these pieces along the top of the indent made from the skewer on the pumpkin.

Wrap the pumpkin log in plastic wrap and let set in the freezer for at least 10 minutes.

Remove the rolled out, uncolored dough from the fridge – let it sit out for about 5 minutes to become more flexible. Then place the pumpkin log in the center of the uncolored dough then wrap the rolled out dough around the pumpkin log. You can pinch the seams together to help the two sides meet.

Thoroughly squeeze and roll the log of dough to ensure the uncolored dough and the pumpkin log are joined together nicely. Wrap the entire roll in plastic wrap again and let sit in the freezer while preheating the oven to 375°. While the oven is preheating, prepare a cookie sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper.

Once the log has chilled, slice the log into about 1/4″-1/2″ slices. Place each cookie about 1 1/2″ – 2″ apart on the prepared cookie sheets.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges just barley look brown. We want these nice and soft so as soon as you see a bit of browning on the edges, take them out of the oven and let sit on the cookie sheet for an additional 10 minutes on the sheet to firm up a bit/ finish baking and cooling.

Enjoy!🎃