OCTOBER. IT IS OCTOBER, THE BEST MONTH OF THE YEAR AND I AM SO HAPPY.
I have been baking pumpkin spice since August, but it feels so much more real now that the temperature is going down and my Halloween wardrobe has creeped its way out of the closet. With the leaves, and the candles, and the sweaters, and the black tights, I just can’t cope. When life gets hard, THIS is what I’m thinking about.
Aside from it being autumn, IT’S SPOOKY SEASON. Well, I’m a believer of spooky season starting on July 5th, but for most people it starts now. I have a bunch of spooky, cute, and delicious recipes planned. And to kick us off, these pumpkin patch cookies.
These are just like the Lofthouse cookies but, dare I say, BETTER. They’re made from wholesome ingredients, and of course I had to add a little pumpkin spice.
Describe these Cookies to me
Taste: The goal for these cookies was to get them to look like the classic Tollhouse ones, but taste even better. These have a buttery melt in your mouth flavor, with notes of fall spices and sweet vanilla. The flavor here is simple, but delicious.
Texture: Just like you would expect, this are soft and a little crumbly. These are just thick sugar cookies, so they have that sugar cookie flavor but with a soft texture.
Ease: Ok these may not be as easy as frozen Tollhouse cookies, but they’re still pretty simple. The dough is a super quick one bowl recipe that should come together in under 10 minutes. The shaping can be a little tricky, but a little challenge can be fun! Then the rest is easy peasy, just chill the dough, slice it up, bake, and enjoy!
The Dough
The dough here is super simple. Its pretty much just a spiced sugar cookie dough. We start off with creaming some butter, brown sugar, and vanilla. I like to use brown sugar because it yields a softer and more fall tasting cookie. Then we add in some eggs and get that nice and combined. Now comes the dry ingredients, just flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Now you should have a nice soft and thick dough, ready for shaping!
How do we get the Design?
Ok here’s the slightly trickier part. To shape these, we need to start by splitting up our dough and dying some of it orange and green. Then we roll the orange dough into two logs, and put a strip of green dough on top of each. Stick those in the freezer for a few minutes to make them less squishy and easier to deal with. Roll the rest of the plain dough into sheets, and then roll up the colored logs inside each sheet like a cinnamon roll. Chill those logs for a little and then when you slice them into cookies, there will be a cute lil pumpkin design!
Tips for Less Wonky Pumpkins
Ok, so the first few tries I had with these I had some wonky pumpkins. It’s really hard to get the pumpkins to stay round, and the stems to stay evenly on top. But here are some tips to help you get these a little closer to perfection.
Indent for the stem: Make a little indent on top of the orange roll to put the green in. This will help it stay put.
Don’t flour the colored logs too much: You want the colored log to stick to the plain dough, and for the orange and green to stay together so try not to go crazy with the flour on the pumpkins.
But also flour your plain dough: Nothing is more disappointing then when you have a marvelous looking cookie sheet, but when you try and roll it it sticks to the counter. It’s so frustrating! So for the plain dough, make sure you are keeping the bottom very floured and rotating it frequently to make sure it isn’t sticking. I know this is a little confusing because I just said not to use a lot of flour, but it’s about where you are using it.
Chill the colored logs: After you shape your pumpkin filling, stick it in the freezer for 5-10 minutes. It will harden a little in this time which will ensure that it won’t get all squishy and misshapen when you go to roll it up in the plain dough.
Take your time: Take your time and be patient with this one! Shaping dough can be frustrating, I know. But it’s very delicate and requires a gentle touch and patience.
And even if your pumpkins are a little crooked, that’s ok! The wonky ones are always my favorite. And plus, they will always taste good.
Alright that’s it for today! This is the first of my October recipes, and I’ve got lots more spooky stuff headed your way so stay tuned!
Pumpkin Patch Cookies (Like Lofthouse!)
Ingredients
- 3 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 4 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- a few drops green and orange food coloring
Instructions
Make the dough
- In a large bowl using either a hand or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter, sugar, and vanilla on medium speed until combined and creamy. Add the eggs and beat until smooth and combined. Add the flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and salt and beat on low speed until just combined, you may have to use a spatula to combine the bottom bits.
Dye the dough
- Remove about 1 cup of dough and place it in a bowl with a few drops of orange food coloring. Using a spatula, fold in the food coloring until the dough has reached a pumpkin orange color. Set aside. Remove about 1 Tablespoon of the plain dough and place it in a small bowl with one drop of green food coloring. Mix it up with a spatula until evenly green.
Shape the dough (watch the video above for an idea of how to shape, and read through instructions before shaping)
- On a floured surface, roll the orange dough into two separate 10 inch long logs. Using a chopstick or skewer, lightly indent a line on top of each orange log. Place a very thinly rolled bit of green dough in the indent as the stem on each of the logs. Place these pumpkin logs in the freezer while we roll out the vanilla dough. Don't freeze the dough any longer then 7 minutes.
- On a heavily floured surface roll out half of the remaining white dough into a small rectangle, about 10×7 inches long. Make sure you are rotating the dough as you roll it out to make sure it isn't sticking. Place one of the slightly firm pumpkin logs on the dough sheet longways. Slowly and carefully, tightly roll the pumpkin shape up in the plain dough rectangle. Repeat this process with the remaining white dough and the second pumpkin log. You should have two 10 inch logs. Wrap each of them individually in cling wrap and chill for 2 hours, or overnight.
Bake the cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350℉ and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicon baking mat. Set aside.
- Remove one of the logs from the refrigerator and unwrap it. Using a sharp knife, cut the log into circles, about 1/2 inch – 3/4 inch thick. You should have something like 20-25 cookies from one log. Repeat with the second log.
- Place the cookies on the previously prepared baking sheets, about 1-2 inches apart. (these cookies don't spread very much).
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until browned a little on the bottom and sides. Let cool completely before eating.
- Cookies stay fresh stored in an airtight container for up to a week.