Happy October, otherwise known as National Cookie Month! Whether or not you embrace the idea of national food holidays, a month to partake in cookie revelry is a delicious concept.
I am excited to be celebrating National Cookie Month with nine talented and creative bloggers and some fabulous sponsors. Every week in October each blog will feature a new cookie recipe, tips for successful cookie baking, and a few surprises. Holiday baking is around the corner and by the end of the month you will have 50 irresistible recipes to choose from!
For Cookie Month opening day, I baked Gingerbread Fall Leaves cookies with the glorious colors of autumn on top of soft-chewy gingerbread. These cookies take a bit of planning because they require time for first the icing and then the food coloring to dry, but the actual baking and decorating is very easy.
Gingerbread Fall Leaves start with Lilaloa’s gingerbread roll out cookie recipe. I love all of Georganne’s recipes for roll out cookies. They taste great and stay fresh for ages. The cookies don’t rise which keeps the edges defined on the baked cookie shapes. All of the Lilaloa roll out cookie recipes give directions for using the dough right away with no waiting for chilling, an extra bonus. I use the chocolate and vanilla versions for all of my decorated circle cookies and Birthday Cake Surprise cookies. I also use the vanilla version to create Smiling Snowmen. When I find something that works, I stick with it! Though I think that the warm spicy flavor of gingerbread is perfect for a fall cookie, any of the flavor versions would work for Fall Leaves Cookies.
I made only a couple of minor adaptations to the original gingerbread recipe. Georganne’s recipe uses 2 teaspoons of allspice. I don’t like allspice, so I left it out and instead added an additional teaspoon of ginger. The need to change the amount of flour in the recipe surprised me. Both the vanilla and the chocolate variations are the perfect roll out consistency after 4 ½ cups of flour as indicated in the original recipe. The gingerbread, however, was too wet and sticky to roll until I added an additional ½ cup of flour. I repeatedly found that the addition of molasses to the gingerbread creates a wet dough that needs more flour to be manageable.
As I am only an enthusiastic amateur cookie decorator, I iced the Gingerbread Fall Leaves cookies with Bakingdom’s faux royal icing. If you are an experienced royal icing maker, go for it. For the rest of us, faux royal icing is a trouble free way to get a similar smooth iced surface. Having used the faux royal icing on all of my decorated circle cookies, I was confident that it would provide a smooth painting surface on the Fall Leaves cookies.
Remember sponge painting when you or your children were in preschool? The awesome colored designs on these cookies are created by sponge painting with food coloring right onto the iced cookies.
I read about this food coloring “painting” technique on Klickitatstreet.com, where it was used to embellish flower cookies. I wanted to try to mimic Mother Nature’s fall palate on the Gingerbread Fall Leaves cookies. India Tree makes natural food coloring made with vegetable colorants. When used to tint cookie dough, the India Tree colors bake up soft and muted. When they are dabbed onto an iced cookie, they give the vibrant fall hues I was looking for. India Tree food coloring’s gel-like consistency made for dripless dabbing creativity. I was quite pleased with the colorful results but worried (just short of panic) when several hours later, the cookies were still wet. By the next morning, however, the painting had dried (matte not shiny), leaving the colors and textures intact.
Gingerbread Fall Leaves cookies add seasonal color and sweet spice to a care package or a holiday cookie tray. They are also a great Cookie Month baking/decorating project to enjoy with your resident preschool sponge painting expert. When wrapped and stored at room temperature in an airtight container, these long lasting cookies stay fresh for at least 2 weeks.
Gingerbread Fall Leaves
Ingredients
- Cookie ingredients:
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 ½ cups dark brown sugar packed
- 1/3 cup molasses
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ginger
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 4 1/2 – 5 cups all-purpose flour
- Icing ingredients:
- 4 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 3 + tablespoons milk add more to thin icing to desired consistency
- 3 tablespoons light corn syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Decorating materials:
- food coloring gel or liquid
- paper towel squares 1 for each color being used
- plastic wrap 1- 6” strip for each color being used
- twisty ties 1 for each color being used
- small bowl of water
Directions
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COOKIE DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 350˚F.
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In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and molasses and mix until incorporated. Stir in spices and salt.
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Gradually add flour, 1 cup at a time, until the dough is roll-out consistency. When baking immediately, I needed 4 ½ – 5 cups. For dough that will be refrigerated overnight before baking use only 4 cups.
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Roll 1/3 of the dough out to ¼” thickness on a lightly floured surface. Hint: Because these cookies spread minimally, cutting them out directly on the parchment paper they will be baked on, eliminates the need to transfer the cut out dough. Roll the dough out on a sheet of parchment paper the size of your cookie sheet. Cut out the cookies about 1” apart. Remove the excess dough from around the cut-out cookies. Slide the parchment onto your cookie sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough.
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Bake for 6-7 minutes. (Cookies will firm slightly as they cool.) Cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
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Icing directions:
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By hand or with an electric mixer, combine sugar and milk until smooth.
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Add corn syrup and vanilla. Continue beating together until smooth and glossy. Add additional milk in tablespoon increments until desired consistency. (Icing consistency should be thin enough to spread easily but thick enough not to drip off the cookies. It should resemble a thin paste but not glue.)
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APPLYING THE ICING: (choose 1 of the following suggested methods)
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SPATULA METHOD: Use icing that is a spreadable consistency. Spoon icing into a piping bag or ziplock bag with a small part of a bottom corner cut off. Pipe some icing onto a cookie and use a knife or offset spatula to spread the icing evenly over the surface of the cookie. Allow the icing to dry overnight.
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OUTLINE/ FLOOD METHOD: Two consistencies of icing will be used. First, spoon about 1 cup of icing (thin paste consistency) into a piping bag or ziplock bag with a small part of a bottom corner cut off. Outline the top of each cookie. Thin all remaining icing to the consistency of glue and spoon into a piping bag or ziplock bag. Set aside and allow the icing outline to dry for about 1 hour. When the outline has set slightly, pipe the remaining icing onto each cookie filling in the outlines. Allow the icing to dry overnight.
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ADDING COLOR: You will need 1 paint dauber for each color. Cut a paper towel sheet into 4 pieces. Scrunch a piece of plastic wrap into a ball and place at the center of a paper towel square. Twist the paper towel around the plastic wrap and secure with a twisty tie.
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Dispense about 5 drops of each color food coloring onto a plate. Leave room between colors.
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Moisten a dauber slightly in the water. Dip the dauber in a food color, blot off excess color, then pat onto the cookie. Use a different dauber for each color.
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Cookies should be dry before they are stored. Drying time varies. My India Tree natural food colors required overnight drying.
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Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.
Packing Tips
Double wrap pairs of cookies (with bottoms together) in plastic wrap, then place in an airtight container or zip lock bag.
**This post is sponsored by India Tree. They are one of our Cookie Month sponsors, partnering with us to create delicious cookie recipes for you to enjoy.**
Be sure to check out my Cookie Month partners and their amazing recipes: Jess at The 104 Homestead – Kathie at Homespun Seasonal Living – Tessa at Homestead Lady – Chris at Joybilee Farm – Sheila at Life, Love, and Good Food – Nikki at Nik Snacks – Shari at Pure Grace Farms – Angi at Schneiderpeeps – Lauren at Wicked Spatula
See all of this month’s cookies on our Cookie Month pinterest board!
The following companies generously sponsored this and other cookie month projects. I may not have used all of them in my recipes, but this project is in no small part thanks to them and their incredible contributions: Bob’s Red Mill, The Daily Meal, India Tree, KerryGold, King Arthur Flour, Products of GIR, KaTom, SunButter & Wilton.
Oh, Wendy! These cookies are too lovely to eat!! And I do love gingerbread! Good job!
Thanks, Sheila! Cookie Month is starting off with a bang! I would happily swap a few leaf cookies for some of your Chocolate Ganache Pecan Shortbread!
These cookies are absolutely beautiful! I’ve always admired decorative iced cookies but thought the process looked too complicated. I’m so excited to learn about this method and will try this with my daughter.
Thanks, Illana! The hardest part of these cookies is waiting for them to dry. The sponge painting is super easy and fun. I hope you and your daughter enjoy them!
So very very cool- what a great technique and the end result is superb! I will HAVE to try this! Tfs x
Thanks, Keren! I this the texture and color this technique produces works particularly well for fall leaves!
What a labor of love. I can sit here and admire your work, knowing that I do not have the skills to achieve the same results. I love that sponge painting effect. The bright yellows against the reds…so realistic! Great job, my friend! Hope all is well. : )
You are seriously too kind, Monica! Truly, a preschooler could do this sponge painting. That’s what it so cool about it. Everyone thinks you are talented when they see the cookies but really it’s just blotting the dye onto the cookie with a tap tap. Painting 36 cookies took about 45 minutes!
I love the sponge painting idea! These are so fun, I think the children in my preschool co-op class would have fun painting on cookies like this. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Angi! Given some iced cookies as their palate, I think preschoolers would have a great time dabbing away with food coloring paint! The mixing of colors would be a teachable moment! 🙂
I LOVE the technique you used to do the leaf colors, Wendy! They turned out so beautifully, and the cookies underneath look delicious: i’ll take a gingerbread…well, anything…any time of year. 🙂 The Wee One would love to make something like this; so much fun for her.
Thanks, Shannon! This cutout recipe is awesome for soft chewy gingerbread year round. I swear as I was daubing away making these, I thought, “This is such a Shannon and Wee One activity!” 🙂
Love this recipe and how gorgeous they look afterwards!
Thanks, Judith! Making these cookies feels like capturing a bit of fall. 🙂
These look so good! This will definitely be one recipe we try!
Thanks, Faith! I hope you enjoy them!
Your cookies are beautiful! I can’t believe how real the colors look!
Thanks, Mackenzie! I think that using the dauber gives a splotchy look that is a lot like real leaves. I also think that the India Tree colors probably look like nature because they come from nature! 🙂
Wendy these are fantastic! What a beautiful creative way to decorate cookies. You nailed the leaves! Love, love, love them – hope you have a great weekend 🙂
Wendy these are so so pretty! I cannot get over that sponge-painting type look! I usually make a batch of sugar cookies with royal icing for thanksgiving and may just have to give these a go! I especially love that gingerbread base!
Thanks, Ashley. You really do have to try the sponge painting. Everyone will be so impressed with your Thanksgiving cookies (though I am sure they always are) and you can keep it a secret that they are so easy to do! 😉 The gingerbread base is awesome. Great for making ahead because the dough or plain baked cookies can be frozen for months and once iced they stay delicious for at least 2 weeks!
These are gorgeous, love the colors Wendy. You did a fantastic job, they look like they came from a fine bakery!
Thanks, Chris! The India Tree colors were perfect for creating a “natural” look. Your grandkids would have so much fun with this. Perhaps snow sponge painted onto Christmas cookies?
Wendy, these cookies are stunning! I have never thought of use sponge painting to decorate cookies. The blend of colors are perfect!
Thank you so much, Lokness! I was so pleased with the effect the sponge painting created. They are amazingly easy to do, but it is fun to pretend one is actually talented. 😉
These are beautiful! Pinned to my Fall board!
Thanks, Heidi! Colorful leaves are my favorite part of fall!
I made these for my pumpkin carving party. They turned out wonderfully and I received a lot of compliments! Thank you for the recipe and this really cool technique!
Kristy, thank you so much for taking the time to let me know! I am really happy that your leaves were a success! I am not surprised that you got compliments. The leaves really do look wonderful with this fun easy technique! (Not to mention how good they taste! 🙂 )
These are just STUNNING!! Look almost too pretty to eat BUT I think that icing deserves a good lick or two! Love how you dabbed the colors on to mimic fall leaves. I do the same with paper crafting but never thought to do it on a cookie, can’t wait to give it a try! I’ve chosen your beautiful fall cookies as my feature this week for the Friday Favorites Linky Party – have a wonderful weekend!
Thanks so much, Dawn for your kind words and for the feature! These cookies are my attempt at edible art. Dabbing with color is the extent of my painting ability! 🙂
These gingerbread leaves are gorgeous!!!
Thank you, Erin! The natural food dyes (rather than regular food coloring) create the real fall leaf colors!
I love these! They are so pretty!
Thank you, Emily! The pretty colors are so easy to create!
Your sponge painting technique is beautiful! These sound so delicious, too – I love a good gingerbread cookie! Thanks for linking up with Merry Monday!
Thanks, Emily! The sponge painting is so easy, a preschooler could do it, but I love how it resembles the colors on fall leaves! Thanks for hosting Merry Monday!
I love your fall leaves, they are just beautiful! Thanks so much for sharing with us at Full Plate Thursday,we are so happy to have you join us. Have a wonderful week and come back to see us real soon!
Miz Helen
I love these gorgeous, seasonal cookies, Wendy! They are so pretty – and they are gingerbread too,a real favourite of mine! Sharing around. Thank you for being a part of the Hearth and Soul lInk Party.