You see pumpkins everywhere you turn during the colder seasons, and now they'll be on your dinner plate in the form of these no-bake pumpkin desserts. Celebrate this all-American harvest vegetable with this easy recipe that turns cookie dough into mini pumpkins that taste just like creamy pumpkin pie!
What You Need:
- 1/2 stick butter
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- 1 tablespoon canned pumpkin
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- Red food coloring
- Yellow gel food coloring
- Green gel food coloring
- Pretzel sticks
- Sandwich bag
What You Do:
- Have your child cut the butter into small pieces and let them soften at room temperature for about 15 minutes.
- Add the softened butter into a mixing bowl along with the cream cheese. Have your child mix them together well.
- Add the pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice to the bowl and mix until everything is evenly combined.
- Mix in four cups of powdered sugar, half a cup at a time.
- Have your child experiment with some color mixing. Blend in a few drops of red and yellow gel food coloring to make a bright orange dough.
- Refrigerate the dough for half an hour to an hour.
- Show your child how to roll a spoonful of orange dough into a ball and place it on a plate. Repeat this until you've used up all of the dough.
- Mix the remaining powdered sugar with a dash of water and a couple drops of green gel food coloring to make a bright green icing that is as thick as toothpaste.
- Break off small pieces of pretzel about 1 inch long, and have your child coat them in green icing.
- Press the pretzels into the top of the orange pumpkin cookies for the stems.
- Spoon some green icing into a sandwich bag and cut a tiny slit in one corner.
- Squeeze the bag gently to pipe curly vines around the pumpkin stems.
- Refrigerate the pumpkin sweets until they're firm, then enjoy!
Baker's note: Margarine, imitation butter spreads, whipped cream cheese and liquid food coloring won't work with this recipe, because they don't create a firm cookie.
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