Fun, quick and delicious these Falling Leaves Sugar Cookies are a fun festive Fall treat that you can make with your kids!
Ad – This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Criscoยฎ. The opinions and text are all mine.
During the holiday season aka Fall/Winter, my kids and I have always made sugar cookies. It’s a tradition dating back many years as my oldest is going to be 13 soon. Oh boy, how time does fly when you’re having fun. And making sugar cookies has always been a way I have had fun in the kitchen and with my kiddos.
I wanted to try and do something Fall themed so what better way then to make these Falling Leaves Sugar Cookies using the Crisco Classic Sugar Cookie Cut Out recipe! When the colors change during Fall we always take a trip over to Wisconsin the weekend that we know that they will be in their peak colors. We’ve been doing this for about 3 years now and it never gets old. It just a thing of beauty.
So I figured I would combined two traditions into one and make these fun colorful cookies using Criscoยฎ All-Vegetable Shortening baking sticks! You guys, these sticks are AWESOME. There are easily portioned into 1 cup sticks that you can cut to use or toss the whole thing in the pool and get to baking. Which was the case for this delicious sugar cookie recipe.
Now there are so many different benefits when baking with Criscoยฎ All-Vegetable Shortening instead of butter. Your cookies will result in a thick light textured and less spread less in the oven (which happens because Criscoยฎ has a higher melting point than butter), for perfectly shaped cookies every time. I hate when you expect to get a tree/leaf/dinosaur and instead you end up with a big blob that you can’t quite make out, so thanks to Criscoยฎ I don’t have that problem anymore!
These Falling Leaves Sugar Cookies are simple and delicious. There are minimal ingredients and the frosting is just a can of Pillsbury vanilla frosting that has been separated and colored using different food coloring. Now if you really wanna get creative you can add some fun sprinkles like my kids wanted me to do. I think it really enhanced these cookies and gave them more of a glistening and “changing” leaves look to them, wouldn’t ya say?
Crisco All-Vegetable Shortening has so many benefits like, 0g trans fat* (*See nutrition information for fat and saturated fat content).Outside of cookies, when added to melted chocolate, Crisco makes it smoother and when used in frosting, Crisco it makes it more malleable and it holds it’s shape better. Being a cake baker, I always love using shortening in my frosting recipes because it truly does help with the texture and ability to design and frost a gorgeous cake!
You can purchase your Crisco All-Vegetable Shortening in the traditional tubs or in either a 1- or 3-pack of 1 cup sticks, which like I stated earlier is really a life saver in be able to just open and use or cut in pre-measured portions to use just a little at a time! What are you going to bake with Crisco this holiday season?
Falling Leaves Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 3 cups Pillsbury BESTโข All Purpose Flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup Criscoยฎ All-Vegetable Shortening
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 can Pillsbury vanilla frosting
- Red yellow and orange food coloring
- Sprinkles if desired
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- In bowl whisk together your flour, baking powder and salt until blended.
- Beat your shortening and sugar in large bowl with mixer on high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
- Add in egg, milk and vanilla. Gradually mix in flour mixture.
- Divide dough in half. Roll out each half on lightly floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness for crisp cookies or 3/8-inch thickness for softer cookies.
- Cut with 2 to 3-inch maple leaf cookie cutter and place 2 inches apart on baking sheet and bake 8-10 minutes or until slightly golden.
- Remove from oven to cool on wire rack.
- Separate your frosting into 3 separate bowls and add in your food coloring to each bowl.
- Once cookies are cooled spread your frosting on top of cookies, removing any that may get in the cracks of the leaf shape.
- Decorate with sprinkles if desired.
Nutrition
Tornadough Alli is not a nutritionist or dietitian, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and nutritional value is important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and values can vary depending on which brands were used.
Ad – This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Criscoยฎ. The opinions and text are all mine.
Shannon @loveatfirstbento
How adorable! I’m such a sucker for autumn themed food. I love how you show the side-by-side comparison of the cookies made with butter versus Crisco – what an incredible difference! Such an incredibly cute fall cookie recipe ๐