…. these are as fun to make as playing with playdough, Your kids will love to help make these!

Have you made FALL LEAF COOKIES yet? If you haven’t made these with your kids, I encourage you to take an afternoon and make some Fall Leaf Cookies together! There’s lots of recipes for making Fall Leaf Cookies, these have been around a long time! I use to make them with my kids when they were young. Recently I made these with my sister and her kids, and we had a great time together. I didn’t get many photos of the process, as too much fun was happening and I got wrapped into the fun with them.

For these any sugar cookie recipe will work. Below is my tried and true recipe for Sugar Cookies. We use it for everything from Christmas cookies to Valentine hearts! I don’t know where I collected it from, but it’s stood the test of time for my brood. Also below you’ll see my chocolate frosting recipe that tastes just like creamy store bought but without the chemicals. Any leftover frosting can be stored in the fridge for up to 4 weeks, hahaa good luck with that! (…….also leftover chocolate frosting is very yummy spread on graham crackers, in case you didn’t know!)

First, make the cookie dough..

Sugar Cookies
2 1/4 C powdered sugar
1 ½ C butter (not margarine)
1½ tsp. real vanilla extract
¾ tsp. real almond extract (adds very good flavor)
2 small eggs or 1 very large egg
3¾ C all-purpose unbleached flour
1½ tsp. baking soda
1½ tsp. cream of tartar

Beat butter, sugar, extracts and eggs together until very creamy. Set aside this mixture. In a new bowl, Stir flour and soda and cream of tartar together. Then on low as you beat the creamed mixture gradually add in your flour mixture.

Next Divide cookie dough into four bowls (we did orange, red, brown and yellow) and color your dough using cake dye, stirring it in with a spatula. Make your colors a bit brighter than desired as they fade a little when the dough is baked. It’s best to color the dough now, because if you try to color it after you chill it, trust me, it’s much more difficult… and messier! So even if you’re in a hurry to whip a batch of dough up and pop it in the fridge so it’s ready later in the afternoon, color it first now before you chill it!

Now you have your wonderful fall colors of cookie dough and it needs to be refrigerated for about three hours or overnight, so it will roll out easy for the kiddos.

Once your dough is chilled, let the kids pinch off pieces of each color and smoosh them together to form a colorful dough, as you can see we did below. Now just gently Roll to the right thickness and let them cut out as many leaves from that piece as they can. This is like playing with PlayDough and I don’t know any kids of any age that wouldn’t enjoy this!

Next, bake the cut out cookies at 325 degrees until golden, but not browned. Remove them to a wire rack immediately, and let cool completely. Then you can make chocolate frosting to pipe for the leaf veins. This frosting can even be made up the day ahead and stored in frig until needed. Let come to room temp a bit and stir well so it will go into icing bags easily. Icing bags are GREAT for kids to use, just twist the tops with twisty tie, pipe cleaner, or very small chip clips work. Kids catch on quickly how to decorate squishing out there frosting. Give them a few pointers and let them have fun 🙂

Our Favorite Chocolate Frosting (to use for piping leaf lines)
2 2/3 C powdered sugar
2/3 C butter (not margarine)
1/3 C organic baking cocoa
1 tsp. real vanilla extract
1 – 4 Tbsp. of milk (as needed)

Beat all ingredients except the milk in a small mixing bowl and cream it well for at least a minute or two.
Now add 1 tablespoon of milk at a time until it’s nice and spreadable. I usually use about 3 tablespoons, I want it to pipe out of the frosting bags easily for the kids. This frosting can also be thinned by adding water instead of milk for those who are dairy-free. This frosting is really a no-fail recipe and is so versatile.

Now using a number 2 frosting tip, pipe on veins and outline the edges of your leaf cookies.

Fun and delicious – Your kids will love making them! Okaaay I’m so bad at getting the finished pictures. It seems I start cleaning up, everyone is enjoying the tasty results, your joking, visiting, and having a great time together…..and ugh….not to many cookies left later on when I realize I didn’t get a nice final picture of them….so as I’ve written in more post than one you’ll just have to bake some and see how fun and tasty they are to make together.

I know your kids will have a delightful time decorating these fall cookies with just simple chocolate frosting lines. Fall Blessings to you all! If you get some fun pics y’all will have to share them below in the comments 🙂

Fall Leaf Cookies

Ingredients

Sugar Cookies

2-1/4 cup powdered sugar
1½ cup butter (not margarine)
1½ teaspoon real vanilla extract
¾ teaspoon real almond extract (adds very good flavor)
2 small eggs or 1 very large egg
3¾ cup all-purpose unbleached flour
1½ teaspoon baking soda
1½ teaspoon cream of tartar

Our Favorite Chocolate Frosting (to use for piping leaf lines)

2-2/3 cups powdered sugar
2/3 cup butter (not margarine)
1/3 cup organic baking cocoa
1 teaspoon real vanilla extract
1-4 tablespoons of milk (as needed)

Instructions

Sugar Cookies:

Now you have your wonderful fall colors of cookie dough and it needs to be refrigerated for about three hours or overnight, so it will roll out easy for the kiddos.

Chocolate Frosting:

Beat all ingredients except the milk in a small mixing bowl and cream it well for at least a minute or two.

Now add 1 tablespoon of milk at a time until it’s nice and spreadable. I usually use about 3 tablespoons, I want it to pipe out of the frosting bags easily for the kids. This frosting can also be thinned by adding water instead of milk for those who are dairy-free. This frosting is really a no-fail recipe and is so versatile.

Now using a number 2 frosting tip, pipe on veins and outline the edges of your leaf cookies.

Fun and delicious. I know your kids will have a delightful time decorating these fall cookies with just simple chocolate frosting lines. Fall Blessings to you all!