Our spiced cookies have a consistency that is similar to gingerbread – but with our own unique spice blend. We chose to make and decorate our cookies to look like autumnal leaves – but you can use any shape and decoration you like.
These cookies are great for a treat on a rainy autumn afternoon. They also look effective and make great edible gifts.
Spiced Autumn Cookies
For the cookies:
- 230g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 50g unsalted butter
- 100g golden caster sugar
- 100g golden syrup
- 2 heaped tsp of spice mix
Spice mix:
All spices should be ground.
- 3 tablespoons of cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons of nutmeg
- 2 teaspoons of ginger
- 1 teaspoon of allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon of cloves
Decoration:
- Maple leaf cookie cutters
- Fondant icing in autumn colours (you can make your own but most supermarkets have a great range of ready-made colours these days)
- Tool for marking the icing
- 2 tablespoons of maple syrup
Spiced Autumn Maple Leaf Cookies – Method
In a pan on the stove, heat the butter, sugar and syrup until dissolved. While the butter mixture cools, sieve the flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda, and spice mixture into a large bowl. Mix the slightly cooled butter mixture into the dry ingredients to form a dough. Chill the dough in the fridge for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, heat oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5 and line a large baking tray with baking parchment.
Once the dough is cool, dust the rolling surface with flour and roll out the dough to around a quarter-inch thickness. I used maple leaf cutters in three sizes to make my leaves, but you can choose whichever shape you would like.
Place your cookie shapes on the lined trays, allowing space for them to spread. Cook for around ten minutes. The larger leaves took the full 10 minutes for our cookies but the smaller ones only needed around 8 minutes – so use your judgment and keep an eye on them based on the size of cookies you are making. Remove from the trays and transfer onto a cooling rack after ten minutes.
Leave to cool completely before decorating.
Decoration – Icing Method
To decorate our cookies, I used red, orange, yellow and green fondant. I worked the fondant together to create graduated/ombre colour. To do this, get a small ball of the two colours you would like and roll them into cylinder shapes. Push the two cylinders together and roll out into a long flat shape.
Fold the fondant over, matching the colours on each side, and roll again. Repeat this process, folding the fondant over and tucking in the sides, until the colour is graduated from one colour on the left to the other on the right.
Next, use the same cutters to make the leaf-shaped fondant in the colours you would like. As the cookies will have expanded in the oven, the same size shape should now be a little smaller than the cookies. If you wish, you can scratch a leaf pattern onto the fondant.
Finally, brush each cookie with a little maple syrup before applying the icing – this will help it stick to the cookie firmly.
You can leave your cookies for the icing to firm a little and they are ready to eat – the perfect treat with a warm drink on a rainy autumn afternoon.
Please note, this post contains affiliate links. This means that if you click a link and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission at no cost to you. For more information, see our Disclosure Policy.
If you enjoyed this recipe, you may also like:
- Chocolate Planet Cookies with Marble Icing
- Rainbow Cake with Petal Icing and Smartie Surprise
- Double Chocolate Blondie Recipe
These look great. It would be great to make them with the Granddchildren.