Weekend Project: Cinnamon ‘n’ Spice Fall Cutout Cookies

When I was a little girl, I looked forward to making and decorating cutout sugar cookies at Christmastime. I loved all the fun decorating materials: nonpareils, colored sugars, silver dragées, cinnamon red hots. My mom would tie one of her aprons around me, put a tray of cutout cookie shapes in front of me, and let me go to town. I think this instilled in me a love of cookie cutters, because I have an ever-growing collection, Christmas and otherwise. In addition to Santa and his reindeer, Christmas trees and snowmen, I have everything from a teacup and saucer to the Eiffel Tower in cookie cutter form. My favorites are the glowing copper cookie cutters you can find at specialty shops.

I started collecting leaf shapes a couple of years ago with fall cookies in mind, along with a pumpkin-shaped cutter. Last weekend, L and I used them to make these Cinnamon ‘n’ Spice cookies, which we frosted and then decorated. Yes, she’s pretty small to get the concept of baking cookies, but she knows what a cookie is and she knows what it means when I put a pan of something in the oven. She wasn’t lost on what was going on. Yes, by the end, there was frosting in her hair and sprinkles all over the floor. But she sure decorated those cookies with glee. She participated in the entire process from rolling out the dough to adding the decorations, perched on a chair in front of me, as you can see.

Kids love to be creative, and these cookies are a great way to let them create something they can then consume. No cookie can be completely healthy, but these are as good as it gets. They contain whole wheat flour, only butter (no hydrogenated oils), and are not overwhelmingly sweet. The frosting is optional – if you don’t want to go that route, just decorate before baking instead of afterward.

These are soft cookies, with just enough chew to them, and not too heavy on the spices. They’re perfect for little people, and for grownups as well. They’re great dunked in milk, but are also a perfect accompaniment to a cup of hot coffee, tea, or apple cider.

The dough can be made ahead and kept in the refrigerator until you’re ready to roll it out (it needs to chill for at least an hour anyway) or even frozen, wrapped well in plastic wrap and sealed in a zippered bag, if you only want to make a small batch of cookies at a time. The frosting will keep in a sealed container in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks.

Cinnamon ‘n’ Spice Fall Cutout Cookies

For the cookies:

1 cup whole wheat flour

1-1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder (I use aluminum-free)

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/2 teaspoon kosher or fine grain sea salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar (I use evaporated cane juice rather than refined white sugar)
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Set aside.

In the bowl of a mixer, beat together the butter and sugars until fully combined and fluffy.

Beat in the eggs and vanilla.

A cupful at a time, beat in the dry ingredients, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed, until a thick dough forms.

When the dough is fully combined, remove from the bowl and separate it into two equal parts. This will make it easier to roll out later. Wrap each one tightly in plastic wrap, shaping into a flat disk as you do. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

When the dough is chilled and you’re ready to roll it out, preheat the oven to 350° and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Remove one of the disks of cookie dough from the refrigerator, leaving the other to stay chilled until you’re ready to use it. Unwrap the dough, and using a rolling pin, roll it out to 1/4-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface.

Cut out cookie shapes with cookie cutters and place them on the baking sheet. Gather the dough scraps into a ball and roll out again to cut out more cookies.

If you’re not going to frost the cookies, decorate them now – use sprinkles, colored sugars, whatever floats your boat. Bake 8-10 minutes, until edges are golden. Allow to cool a few minutes on the baking sheet before removing to a cooling rack. Repeat with remaining dough.

For the frosting (optional):
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
3-4 cups powdered sugar

In the bowl of a mixer, beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth and fully combined. Beat in the pumpkin pie spice until fully distributed throughout the cream cheese mixture. A cupful at a time, beat in the powdered sugar, until frosting reaches a spreadable consistency.