Are you a pumpkin spice fan? It’s one of my favorite flavors. I love fall because it means I get to bake with as much pumpkin spice as I want. I absolutely adore all things pumpkin spice. If you follow my recipes, you know that I’ve created a lot of pumpkin spice recipes over the years. (cookies, ice cream, coffee cake, bars, pancakes, just to name a few). This year, I wanted to try something completely new. My cousin-in-law recently made these pumpkin spice shortbread cookies, so I knew I had to give this recipe a shot – and my own spin.

I used the base of his pumpkin spice shortbread recipe, but I wanted to decorate them differently than he had. I wanted them to feel more like Halloween than like fall. If you’re looking for a more elevated version of these cookies, definitely check out what he made.

To make them feel more Halloween-y, I tried two different things. First, I tried making them into jack-o-lanterns using melted chocolate to decorate the faces. It looked a little too crafty, so I wanted to try something else. Then, I found this recipe for glazed shortbread and knew it was something I wanted to try.

I love the way the frosting looks, almost tie-dyed. I thought the brownish shortbread cookies would look great with the white glaze and streaks of orange running through them.

The process of glazing the cookies is actually super simple. Once you make the glaze, you simply dip a toothpick into the food coloring and then make little streaks in the glaze.

I’m super happy with how these pumpkin spice shortbread cookies turned out. The shortbread isn’t very sweet, so adding the glaze on top gave them the perfect combination of sweet and salty. My kids gobbled them up, so I am confident this cookie recipe will stay in my house for awhile.

Want more pumpkin spice recipes? Here are 8 different pumpkin spice recipes I’ve made.

Pumpkin Spice Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients:

8 oz. Cold unsalted butter cut into cubes1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2-1/4 AP flour (sift 1st, spoon into measuring cup, level)
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground clove
1 tsp nutmeg

Directions:

Combine and mix all dry ingredients. Using a pastry cutter, cut in butter until pea-sized clumps form (I used my fingers since I don’t have a pastry cutter). Bring dough together with hands to form a flatted ball.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. On a floured surface, roll dough to 1/4″ thick. Tri-fold dough 1 time and roll again to 1/4″.

Using favorite cooking cutter, cut dough.  Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes, or until baked through. Oven temperatures and times will vary. Do not over bake. Make sure to watch your cooking time. I rolled one batch too thinly so they cooked in under 20 minutes.