These Sugar Leaf Cookies using Refrigerated Cookie Dough are fun and perfect to bake during Fall or Thanksgiving! All you need are 5 ingredients to make these easy and delicious leaf-shaped fall cookies!
You will absolutely love more of my sugar cookie recipes: Cookie Dough Bites, SunButter Cookies 5 Ingredients ONLY Nut & Dairy free, DAIRY FREE Snickerdoodle Cookies!
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Substitutions
- If you’re looking to switch things up, you can use different doughs, like gingerbread or shortbread, for a different flavor profile.
- You can also experiment with colors – why not make these cookies for Halloween, using purple, black, and orange? The possibilities are endless.
Variations
- If you don’t have all the food coloring on hand, don’t worry! You can mix red and yellow to create orange or use other colors to fit different holiday themes.
- Feel like experimenting? Try using chocolate chips or layer with cookie sprinkles for added texture.
- You can add 2-3 tablespoons of softened unsalted butter to the cookie dough for a richer taste. If the dough becomes too soft, chill it in the fridge before rolling and baking.
- Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and swap some of the powdered sugar for brown sugar to give the cookies a deeper flavor. Try using 2 tablespoons of brown sugar along with the vanilla for a richer, slightly caramel-like taste.
Storage
- To keep your cookies fresh, store them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
- If you’d like to make them ahead of time, you can also freeze them. Simply freeze the dough after rolling and cutting it, and bake as needed!
Top Tips
- Use paste food coloring like what I did for brighter colored cookies. The paste food coloring also is easier to handle when mixing into the dough.
- Before rolling out the dough in the wooden board, make sure to sprinkle all-purpose flour or flour cornstarch to prevent the dough from sticking into the wood board.
- Decorating sugar leaf cookies is fun! You can drizzle edible glitters on top of each sugar leaf cookie for a more festive vibe.
- Use maple leaf cookie cutter to achieve the Fall and Thanksgiving theme in your cookies.
Ingredients
These are the ingredients you will need:
- refrigerated cookie dough
- powdered sugar
- red coloring
- orange coloring
- yellow coloring
Instructions
Before coloring the dough for the Sugar Leaf Cookies, don't forget to preheat oven to 350 F.
Divide dough into 3 equal portions and color the sugar cookie dough:
I used these Americolor food colors for this Sugar leaf Cookies:
Here they are! Ready to become edible and delicious Sugar Leaf Cookies! After coloring doughs, place them in separate bowls and secure with saran or plastic wrap. Chill for 30 minutes:
Put each color side by side in order to form a bigger dough. Flatten the dough with a rolling pin and cut the dough with cookie cutters:
Use your imagination in combining the colors of the Sugar leaf Cookies:
You can find many designs of leaf cookie cutters in baking supply shops and even in grocery shops. These are what I used:
Press onto the cookie dough and make as many Sugar Leaf cookies as you can with the colorful dough:
Place them on parchment paper or baking sheet. These cute and colorful Sugar leaf Cookies are ready to be baked! Bake cookies in 350F.
After 8 minutes, check if the cookies are done and if so, take out from the oven and cool them completely in a wire rack. Let them cool before serving or decorating further with a light dusting of sugar powder:
These Sugar leaf Cookies are not just pretty but they are delicious! They are perfect to bake during the Fall season like when you are having a Fall theme party.
Frequently Asked Questions
More fun cookie recipes you can try:
Sugar Leaf Cookies Using Refrigerated Cookie Dough
Ingredients
- 1 package refrigerated cookie dough 16 oz
- ⅓ cup powdered sugar
- Red food coloring 5-7 drops
- Orange food coloring 5-7 drops
- Yellow food coloring 5-7 drops
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
- Divide cookie dough into 3 equal parts and color each part with 5-7 drops of red, orange, and yellow food coloring.
- Wrap each dough color in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Divide each colored dough into 1 cm balls. Roll the balls together to form one large ball.
- Flatten the dough with a rolling pin and use cookie cutters to cut out shapes.
- Bake for 5-8 minutes or until edges are lightly golden.
Watch The Recipe Video!
Have you ever tried coloring rolled sugar cookies? The first time I tried was three days ago and I found it to be interesting. Personally, I don't like getting my hands dirty when I bake, but I thought it was be so cute to make leaf sugar cookies for fall!
I took out my new gel food colorings and squirted some onto a chunk of refrigerated cookie dough and started kneading the cookie. It was so hard, keep in mind that I love baking, but I'm learning as I go, so I wasn't sure if I was doing it right. Eventually the dough turned into the color I was trying to get, but when it was time to roll out the dough, I didn't do a very good job and the cookie actually reminded me of the cereal fruity pebbles. (Do you guys remember that cereal?)
Anyway, below is my first batch of cookies.
I love the color of the dough before it was placed into the oven, 2nd attempt. After it was baked in the oven - 2nd attempt.
Carlee says
Great recipe! Keep it up!
Lainey says
Thank you! Sorry for the very late reply. 🙂
Julius says
Very fun recipe, I would love to try other cookie cutter shapes.