Everyone loves the colors and flavors of fall, and these beautiful Autumn Leaf Sugar Cookies with Maple Syrup are colorful and delicious. Bake a batch of these easy-to-make cutout cookies to celebrate the season. Everyone loves them!
Want to save this recipe?
Enter your email & I’ll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from me every week!
We have made batches of these fall cookies flavored with maple syrup for fall parties and Halloween, and they are always a hit sitting on my Thanksgiving table.
It’s pretty common with my family to pick out our favorite cookies and set them on plates with our names on them to have after dinner. It’s about getting the prettiest, most colorful fall leaf cookie on the platter.
And if you love the pretty fall colors, make the Candy Corn Jello Cups to serve at your fall parties.
Which fall cookie is your favorite?
It’s hard to pick a favorite when they are all so pretty.
Cookie Ingredients
Leaf cookie making tips
These cookies take just seven ingredients and leaf-shaped cookie cutters. Have fun cutting out the leaf shapes and seeing what colors appear.
- This dough needs to chill for an hour. The dough is not thick and heavy, so plan for a little chillin time.
- Because these cookies are all about color, I have found using just red and orange colors combines to make the prettiest soft hues on the cookies. Of course, you can try different colors, like adding yellow or maybe a tiny amount of green. Experiment with colors!
- Just make sure to keep the colors as separated as possible so they don’t combine into one color of dough. Just press the dough scraps together and reroll.
- You can add extra vanilla extract if you don’t have maple syrup.
- To add extra maple flavor, add maple extract to the dough instead of vanilla.
- Try adding some spice to the dough, like cinnamon or nutmeg; even that would be delicious.
- These cookies bake fast, just 7 minutes.
How To Make Leaf Cookies
How to mix and color the dough for the autumn colors
Step 1. Cream the softened butter in a large mixing bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer. Then add the brown sugar, salt and baking soda and mix at medium speed to combine.
Step 2. Add the egg, maple syrup, and vanilla, mix on medium speed to combine, then scrape the bowl. At this point, the batter will look curdled; that’s OK.
Step 3. Add one cup of flour and mix on medium-low until combined, then add the rest of the flour and mix just until the flour is combined.
Step 4. Divide the dough into three equal portions, about 3/4 cup each. Put two of the doughs in separate bowls and the other dough wrapped in plastic wrap.
Step 5. Add about a 1/8 teaspoon of red gel food coloring to one of the bowls and orange gel food coloring to the other bowl. Mix the food coloring into the dough, turn it out on a piece of plastic wrap, then wrap it up and place all three doughs in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
How to shape the dough for cutout cookies
Step 6 Heat the oven to 375 degrees F.—line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or a Silpat.
Step 7. Take the three doughs out of the refrigerator. Set out a rolling mat and lightly dust it with flour. Cut each dough into thirds and then, using one-third at a time, roll each color into a 10″ rope. Keep the unused dough in the refrigerator until you need it.
Step 8. Place the three colored ropes on the floured mat and twist them together to make a twisted rope.
Step 9. Fold the twisted rope in half and press down with your hand to flatten it. Lightly dust the rolling pin and roll the dough to a 1/8″ thick round.
Step 10. Using different types of leaf cookie cutters, cut out your cookies. Try to keep each cutout as close as possible to the last one so there aren’t many scraps left over. Place each leaf cutout on the baking sheet. The stem part of the cutout is tricky sometimes and tends to break off, so watch for that.
How to reroll cookie dough scraps
Step 11. When all the cutouts are made, gently gather the flat scraps and press them together, leaving them as flat as possible to continue to get the random pattern.
Now, you can reroll the dough to 1/8″ thick and cut out more cookies, or you can push the leftover dough together, roll again and cut out more cookies. Sometimes, I get only one cookie each time, but doing this can mean many extra cookies.
What you don’t want to do is gather all the scraps and roll them into a ball before rerolling, which will result in all the colors combining into one not-so-pretty color.
Step 12. Repeat cutting out cookies with the remaining dough.
Step 13. Bake the cookies for 7 minutes. When done, transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling.
How to make your cookies look leafier
This is a super easy tip to add some character to your cookies. Place the cookies on the cookies sheet then with a sharp paring knife lightly cut in the leaf veins into the dough. Just a line down the center of the cookie and then cut in smaller lines on the sides.
Now that these gorgeous autumn cookies are baked, make a cup of hot tea or coffee, sit down and enjoy a cookie or two. Serve these cookies with a scoop of Spiced Pumpkin Ice Cream for a delicious fall dessert.
Cookie FAQ’s
You can frost these cookies with powdered sugar icing, but it will cover up the pretty colors in the cookies.
You can freeze the cookies after you bake them. Just let the cookies cool, stack them between pieces of wax paper and place them in a freezer container. Let thaw at room temperature before eating.
This dough is soft, and chilling it before rolling and shaping will firm it up so it is easier to work with. Also, when the dough has been chilled, cut-outs won’t spread.
One Hot Oven cookie inspirations
- Try these Orange and Black Sprinkle Cookies for Halloween; ghosts and goblins love them.
- These Chocolate Shortbread Cookies are filled with crunchy cacao nibs for extra flavor.
- Ginger Spice Cookies are a family favorite baked with three types of ginger.
- If you like lemon, bake a batch of these Frosted Lemon Cookies.
- Instead of coloring the dough for the marble effect, try these Marbled Sugar Cookies and color the icing for the marbling.
Baking Supplies
- Red food color and Orange food color, and a flavorful maple syrup
- You also need 2- to 3-inch leaf-shaped cookie cutters; my cutters are maple and oak leaves.
Subscribe here for more great recipes, and follow One Hot Oven for more tasty sweet and savory recipes! Pinterest | Instagram | Facebook
Autumn Leaf Maple Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter softened
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 egg I use large eggs
- 4 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1¾ cups AP flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon maple extract optional
- ⅛ teaspoon red gel food color
- ⅛ teaspoon orange gel food coloring
Instructions
Mixing the dough
- Add the softened butter to a large mixing bowl and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy.
- Add the brown sugar, baking powder and salt, and mix it in on medium speed until incorporated.
- Add the egg, maple syrup, and vanilla and mix on medium to combine. The mixture may look curdled or separated. For more maple flavor add maple extract.
- Add one cup of flour, and beat on medium speed to combine, then add in the rest of the flour, and beat in until combined.
- Alternately, use a kitchen-aide mixer to complete the steps above.
Coloring the Dough
- Separate the dough into thirds. This should be approximately 3/4 cups each or 6 ounces each.
- Wrap one of the doughs in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator, and put the other two doughs in two bowls.
- Place the other two pieces of dough in bowls and add about an ⅛ teaspoon of red and orange food coloring to each dough. Stir until the dough changes color. If the dough is not dark enough, add small amounts of food coloring to achieve the desired color.
- Wrap both of the doughs in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
Cutting out the Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 375° and prepare baking sheets with parchment paper or a Silpat
- Take the three doughs out of the refrigerator and cut into thirds. Using one third at a time place the doughs on a lightly floured surface for rolling.
- Roll each piece of dough into a 10"-12" rope and place all three ropes together on the floured surface. Holding one end of the dough, start rolling the dough toward you so the dough starts twisting. You will end up with one large twisted rope.
- Fold the dough in half and then using a lightly floured rolling pin roll out the dough to a 1/8" thick.
- Using leaf cookie cutters, start cutting out cookies, try to cut out the shapes close together so you do not have a lot of excess dough. Place the cut-outs on the baking sheet, then using a small paring knife, cut veins into each leaf.
- You will have scraps left from cutting out the cookies, place these to the side, and leave as flat as possible. When done cutting out each batch of cookies, take the scraps and start placing them close together, pressing with your fingers to form the dough. Lightly reroll the dough and cut out more cookies. You don't want to handle the colored pieces of scraps too much, or they will become one color of dough.
- Repeat cutting out the cookies. If you find the dough is getting soft, put it back into the refrigerator to chill.
- Bake the cookies for 7 minutes. Remove from the oven and place the cookies on a cooling rack
Notes
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Nutrition
First published: Sept 15, 2020, Last updated: Aug. 25, 2023, for better readability.
Thank you for stopping by the One Hot Oven blog. Please leave a comment to say Hello, or just let me know what you are baking these days, I always love hearing from fellow bakers. Have any questions or want to chat about the recipe? Please visit my About page for information, and I’ll be happy to help!
About Jere’
From learning to cook on a farm in Indiana to culinary school in California, my passion for food is never-ending. Turning on my oven to bake something for friends and family is my happy place, and I am glad to be here at One Hot Oven sharing both sweet and savory family-friendly recipes for your cooking and baking inspiration.
It was very sticky I had to add extra flour to be able to cut them into a shape
can these be made with gluten free flour
I have not tried other flours for these cookies. I do occasionally use the Bob’s Red Mill 1 for 1 flour and I always have great success with it.
I would make a batch and roll a little of the dough out and bake a few cookies for a test. If they come out ok, then go ahead and color the dough per the recipe.
These cookies did not come out right at all. The dough was very soft and mushy and I had to keep adding lots of flour. In the end they tasted terrible.
I wouldn’t make them again.
I am sorry this recipe didn’t work for you, but it has been made many time and the proportions are correct. You can see in the process shots that after mixing you will get a nice firm down.
Can these be made vegan?
To make these vegan I would use a plant-based butter like Miyoko’s, and for the eggs, I have never tried any egg substitutes but here are some ideas from Gemma – https://www.biggerbolderbaking.com/egg-substitutes-for-baking/ She has quite a few substitutions, however, I do not know how well these changes will work on rolled cookies.
I don’t feel I am much help in this matter, but I have found when I want to use different types of flour I just have to test them out to see if they work and taste good.