Having spent nearly two weeks sick, the kind of sick where changing scenery means laying on the couch instead of your bed (and wondering how people survived illness before Netflicks). Not being without fever or leaving the house for some 9 days (have you ever tried watching an intense show feverish?!), means I kind of missed the transition of summer to fall. It is fall now, without a doubt. The calendar says so of course, but so does the weather and the colours on the trees. Even with the gorgeous midday sun, the mornings and evenings are also decidedly cooler. So when I finally found myself well enough to be in the kitchen again, I felt I wanted to bake something autumn inspired for my daughter’s classes. These leaf shaped autumn sugar cookies seemed the perfect thing.

Welcome Fall

I had a set of shaped cutters, that also imprint the cookie, intended for pie dough, to decorate the top of a pie. But I thought if I actually coloured the sugar cookie dough itself, I could rely on the leaf impression and not actually have to frost the cookies. This seemed like a great idea to me, since although I was feeling better finally, my energy was at about a zero.

Directions

I started with my usual sugar cookie recipe, that can be found here.

1. Once the dough has come together, form it into a ball and then cut it into four equal pieces.

2.  Using Wilton Gel Colours – red, green, yellow and orange – use knife or toothpick to add colour to each section of dough.

3. Knead the gel into each section (I did this by hand, and any food colouring washed off my fingers with soap after), until evenly dispersed and the colour I wanted.

4. Next pull or pinch small pieces of dough from each colour, combining into a multihued cookie dough and then roll it out together on a well floured board until a 1/4 inch thick, making sure to get the different hues all mixed together.

5. Use the leaf shaped cookie cutter and cut out all the leaves. Variety is the key here, some leaves had all the colours on them while others only had one or two (as do real leaves). Re-roll the scraps after and this achieves an even more variegated colour scheme (personally I liked this look the best, but found that re-rolling the scraps a third time, made the colours all become one and too muted and I didn’t care for it as much).

6. Bake on a parchment lined baking sheet in the oven at 350 degrees for 8 – 10 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies.

7. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely. Store in an airtight container up to a week.

Send to school (or wherever cookies are eaten and applauded) and celebrate the beautiful season that is autumn!

Autumn Acorn Cookies make another great fall inspired choice!!