These copycat Pillsbury pumpkin sugar cookies are made with just 4 base ingredients to create soft, chewy, and quite literally identical in taste and texture vegan slice and bake cookies- no eggs nor dairy required! 

And if you just love these festive Halloween Pillsbury pumpkin sugar cookies, you’ll love my slice and bake copycat Pillsbury Christmas sugar cookies too!

Round sugar cookies on parchment paper, each with a bright orange pumpkin-shaped center and a small green stem.

Quick Look: Copycat Pillsbury Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

  • Method: Make the dough, shape the cookies, slice and bake!
  • Why Make THIS Version? Tastes just like the classic Pillsbury cookie with that iconic intricate pumpkin design in the center- and unbelievably vegan!
  • Secret to Success: Using powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar.
  • Key Ingredients: All-purpose flour, powdered sugar, vegan butter, baking powder.
  • Freezer-Friendly: Yes. Freeze your baked cookies for up to 3 months.
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Table of contents

Why these copycat Pillsbury pumpkin sugar cookies work

I know I’m not the only one who took a bite of the raw dough before baking a batch of Pillsbury pumpkin sugar cookies as a kid. Oh my gosh, was it delicious.

(Of course, raw flour isn’t safe to eat without heat-treating it first. If you want to enjoy that nostalgic cookie dough flavor straight from the bowl, try my edible vegan cookie dough made with heat-treated flour instead.)

Sadly, Pillsbury does not make any vegan version of these wonderful holiday slice and bake cookies. So of course, I set out to recreate the iconic nostalgic cookie. The results are uncanny.

These copycat Pillsbury pumpkin sugar cookies taste quite literally identical to the classic Pillsbury holiday sugar cookie. And yet they’re entirely eggless, dairy free, and vegan.

That’s because we’re using the same baking trick that I use in my classic vegan sugar cookies and drop style sugar cookies as well to create that soft, chewy cookie texture!

Bake these as is or even bake them in the viral chocolate chip cookie Pillsbury cookie mega cookie style using my Better Than Tollhouse Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Simple ingredients:

The ingredients for the store-bought Pillsbury pumpkin sugar cookies are as follows:

“Enriched Flour Bleached (wheat flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), Sugar, Palm Oil, Water, Canola Oil. Contains 2% or less of: Eggs, Baking Powder (sodium aluminum phosphate, baking soda), Salt, Yellow 5 & 6, Artificial Flavor, Blue 1, Sodium Benzoate (preservative).” – Pillsbury website.

The ingredients are fairly simple when you break it down: flour, sugar, palm oil, water, canola oil, eggs, baking powder, salt, food coloring, and artificial flavor.

Here’s where we’ll change it and make it even simpler:

vegan pillsbury pumpkin sugar cookie ingredients on a marble table
  • All-purpose flour: I’ve tested these vegan slice and bake cookies a few different ways with cake flour and even with gluten-free 1:1 baking flour. While they were definitely delicious with cake flour, ultimately, it was too soft for the dough. I prefer all-purpose flour because you get a really nice structure, and the soft, chewy texture is still achieved thanks to the next ingredient on the list 😉
  • Powdered sugar: This is the KEY ingredient of these copycat Pillsbury pumpkin sugar cookies! And a trick I learned from my best friend’s mom growing up when baking sugar cookies in general. Teresa always used powdered sugar in her sugar cookie dough over granulated sugar because powdered sugar not only dissolves into the dough so much more easily, but it also contains cornstarch. I’ve found in my own side-by-side comparison, this is key to a chewy soft sugar cookie! In fact, it’s why my cut-out vegan sugar cookies are so delicious!
  • Vegan butter: The quality of your vegan butter MATTERS here. I’m using homemade vegan butter (unfortunately, I can’t share the recipe until September 2027, but stay tuned for that 😉 ). But for store-bought varieties, I recommend Country Crock’s plant butter sticks (avocado oil or olive oil flavors are great). 
  • Baking powder: Just a touch to give our vegan Pillsbury sugar cookies a little lift!
  • Sea salt & vanilla extract: Flavor components.
  • Vegan food coloring: I really like Ann Clark’s vegan food colors here because they’re SUPER vibrant and entirely vegan. The colors hold up just wonderfully in the bakes (I mean, you can just see in the photos!). Whole Foods’ food colors will definitely fade, and while I love Go Supernatural for their sprinkles, their food colors still have much to be desired on the baking front (though wonderful for frostings!).

How to make vegan copycat pillsbury pumpkin sugar cookies

You can see how I make these cookies in my video here.

A handheld electric mixer blending batter in a glass bowl, with a small bowl of flour nearby.

1. We’ll first start by creaming together the vegan butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, baking powder, and sea salt.

A glass bowl containing thick cookie dough being mixed by a handheld electric mixer, with two small pumpkins sitting on the marble surface nearby.

2. Next, add in the flour and mix on low speed just until incorporated.

A glass bowl containing a large mound of pale dough being portioned with a white spatula, with two small orange pumpkins nearby.

3. Divide the dough into sections. The largest will be for the vanilla dough, the middle for the orange, and the smallest for the green.

Three glass bowls on a marble surface: one containing plain beige dough, one with green-dyed dough, and one with orange-dyed dough.

4. Color the cookie doughs orange and green.

Three blocks of dough—large beige, small green, and medium orange—wrapped in plastic film, next to a pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter and a small bowl of liquid on a marble surface.

5. Then we’ll refrigerate the dough for about 30 minutes. This will make it much easier to handle! You can also grab some aquafaba too if needed for helping to stick the pumpkins together.

A log of orange and green dough on plastic wrap, next to a small pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter and a bowl of liquid.

There are two methods in which we can achieve this, and I’ve tested them both. 

The first method: This is the one I’m showing in the tutorial, uses a tiny pumpkin sugar cookie cutter. It’s about 1.5” big (and the specific brands I recommend, because there are a few, are in the notes section). 

This is Step 6. You form the orange and green sugar cookie doughs into a log and cut individual cookies from the log, to be stacked together. Then cover the dough in the vanilla sugar cookie dough. 

The second method: This is without any equipment. You can form the orange cookie dough into a large cylinder. Then roll the green dough to be a skinny cylinder. Stack the green on top of the orange for the stem. Then proceed covering the dough in the vanilla cookie dough.

A metal pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter sits on a flat piece of orange and green dough, with three small pumpkin-shaped cutouts below.

7. Press the pumpkin cookie cutter into the orange & green cookie dough to create individual pumpkins.

Small orange pumpkin-shaped cookies with green stems scattered on plastic wrap, with a metal pumpkin cookie cutter nearby.

8. Keep re-shaping any scraps to use up as much dough as you can.

A pastry brush glazes small, orange pumpkin-shaped cookies on a sheet of plastic wrap.

9. Brush the tops of the pumpkins with the optional aquafaba. This will help the cookie dough stick together as you stack it.

A log of orange and green cookie dough wrapped in plastic film, with two small pumpkins in the background.

10. Wrap the stacked pumpkins in plastic wrap again and freeze for 10 minutes.

Stacking lots of pumpkin sugar cookies on top of each other before forming the log can be tricky if your dough is not sticking together.

If you notice this right away, brushing a little aquafaba (chickpea jar liquid) on top of each sugar cookie piece before sticking them together will help tremendously! Aquafaba acts like egg whites in baking (one of my many favorite vegan egg replacements to use!), so it’s a hassle-free way to ensure your Pillsbury sugar cookies turn out perfectly- all egg-free!

11. Take a small portion of the vanilla cookie dough and roll it into logs to wrap around the stem of the pumpkin. This is to ensure that the stem doesn’t get smushed in the rolling process! You can see how I do it in the video here.

12. Then roll out the remaining vanilla cookie dough to be about 12×5″.

13. Place the pumpkins into the middle of the cookie dough and carefully wrap the edges of the vanilla cookie dough around the pumpkins (see video). Wrap in plastic wrap and gently roll on the table to shape the cylinder to be more round.

14. Chill the cookie dough for at least 1 hour or overnight. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375F, and slice 1/2″ thick cookies from the cookie dough.

baked pillsbury cookies on a baking sheet with parchment paper.

15. Place the cookie dough onto a baking sheet and bake for 12-14 minutes, or until lightly golden around the edges of the cookies!

Have extra dough scraps? No problem!

So you might have some leftover cookie dough afterwards. All three are able to be saved and re-rolled to be cut out into marbled cookies. Or just plain sugar cookies if you’d like!

I try to use up as much of the orange and green cookie dough as I can for even more Pillsbury pumpkin sugar cookies. In my experience testing these, this has led to maybe a tablespoon or two of plain vanilla dough leftover at the most.

And if you love that soft, buttery sugar-cookie flavor but don’t have time to chill and shape the dough, my soft vegan sugar cookie bars with cream cheese frosting are an easy no-chill alternative.

Copycat Pillsbury Pumpkin Sugar Cookies FAQs

Can I eat this cookie dough raw?

Ah, I’d love to say yes (because I won’t lie, I’ve done it before. Very eerie how identical it tastes to store-bought variety). But technically no, you shouldn’t because these cookies contain raw flour before baking. However, if you heat-treat the flour before making the dough, then you absolutely can eat the dough!

Can I make these copycat Pillsbury pumpkin sugar cookies gluten-free?

Yes! I’ve tested these slice and bake cookies with gluten-free 1:1 baking flour and they work wonderfully! I recommend using King Arthur measure-for-measure gluten-free baking flour.

Are Pillsbury’s sugar cookies vegan?

Unfortunately, no. Which is why I created this recipe! Because vegans deserve a little Y2k nostalgia too 😉 

Is there pumpkin in these pumpkin sugar cookies?

Nope! This is truly just a copycat version of the Pillsbury holiday pumpkin sugar cookies. Check out my vegan pumpkin sugar cookies, which contain pumpkin puree in the actual cookie if you want a true pumpkin-spiced cookie!

A stack of round shortbread cookies with a decorative orange pumpkin design in the center, surrounded by more cookies on parchment paper.

More Vegan Cookies You’ll Love:

Soft Baked Vegan Cream Cheese Cookies

5-Ingredient Vegan Shortbread Cookies

Brown Butter Vegan Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies

Vegan Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies

Soft Vegan Lemon Sugar Cookies

🌟MADE THIS RECIPE & LOVED IT?🌟I’d love it if you’d like a comment and a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below! This helps others to find the recipes! As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there as well!

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Round sugar cookies featuring a centered orange pumpkin design with a small green stem, arranged on parchment paper.

Copycat Vegan Pillsbury Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 8 reviews
  • Author: Britt Berlin
  • Prep Time: 45
  • Chilling Time: 180
  • Cook Time: 15
  • Total Time: 4 hours
  • Yield: 12 1x
  • Category: Cookies
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: American
  • Diet: Vegan
Print Recipe

Description

These copycat Pillsbury pumpkin sugar cookies are made with just 4 basic ingredients to create soft, chewy, and quite literally identical in taste and texture vegan slice and bake cookies- no eggs nor dairy required! 

Ingredients

Scale

Cookie Dough:

  • 1 cup (226 g) vegan butter, room temperature
  • 2 cups (240 g) organic powdered sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt
  • 2 1/2 cups (313 g) all purpose flour*
  • 2–3 pea-sized drop vegan orange food coloring*
  • 1–2 drops vegan green food coloring*
  • 1 tbsp aquafaba, optional, for stacking pumpkins

Instructions

  1. Prep: Measure out all ingredients, except for the food coloring. Read through all instructions before beginning. If you don’t have a pumpkin cookie cutter, see below instructions for making these cookies without a cookie cutter.
  2. Make the dough: In a large bowl, use a whisk or hand mixer to cream the vegan butter until fluffy, about 1-2 minutes. Then add in the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, baking powder, and sea salt, and mix again until well combined. It will resemble a buttercream frosting. Then add in the flour. I recommend using a hand mixer here to continue mixing the dough on low speed, but you can also switch to use a silicone spatula to fold the flour into the wet ingredients. The flour will take a bit of work to fully incorporate, and that’s okay/normal. It will come together.
  3. Color the dough: Divide the dough into thirds, then divide one third of the dough .into thirds again (so you have 3 sections in one third of the dough). Remove one third of the third of the dough and place it into a small bowl (this will be for the green food coloring). Then divide the remaining sections of that third of dough for the orange food coloring). The dough in the large bowl should have roughly 2/3 the full batch of dough.
  4. Orange: To the bowl with the quarter dough, add the vegan orange food coloring. Use food-safe gloves to mix the coloring into the dough like play dough. You can also use a separate spoon or spatula, but it takes a bit more time for the color to evenly distribute. Adjust the color accordingly to your preference.
  5. Green: To the eighth cookie dough, add the drop vegan green food coloring. Use food-safe gloves to mix the coloring into the dough like play dough. You can also use a separate spoon or spatula, but it takes a bit more time for the color to evenly distribute. Adjust the color accordingly to your preference.
  6. Wrap and chill the cookie dough: Wrap each cookie dough (vanilla, orange, and green) in separate plastic wrapped discs. Place the cookie dough into the freezer to chill for at least 10 minutes. This makes it much easier to handle.
  7. Form the pumpkin log: Remove all cookie dough from the freezer. Set aside the vanilla cookie dough to just rest at room temperature. For the orange and the green, we’ll form a log to use our 1.5″ cookie cutter. Take the orange cookie dough and shape it into a long log that’s about 1/2″ wide and 1 1/4″ in height (about 12 inches in length and roughly 4.5-5″ in width). It will look long and semi-flat. Use a rolling pin to roll the top to get it smooth (see video here). Then take the green, and shape the cookie dough into a long log again that’s about 1/2″ thick, and this time, about 1/4-1/2″ in height (about 10-12 inches in length). Line up the green cookie dough along the orange cookie dough, so you have one large log with green and orange cookie dough. To make it easier to stick together, you can brush the tops of each pumpkin with a bit of aquafaba.
  8. Cut the pumpkin cookies: Take your pumpkin cookie cutter, and start to cut the pumpkin cookie shapes along the log, lining the stem of the pumpkin up with the green, and the orange for the main pumpkin. Place each pumpkin cookie stacked on top of each other (either stacked up tall or lengthwise,  lining up- see photos in blog or video). Any scraps, you can reform into a smaller orange and green log, and begin cutting again. You can also use some of the scraps to connect the log all together if the stems need to be lined up more or there are gaps between the orange pumpkin shapes, being careful to maintain the integrity of the pumpkin shape. Once the cookie dough is used up, carefully wrap the log of pumpkin cookie cut outs in one of the plastic wrap pieces, and place into the freezer to chill for 20 minutes.
  9. Roll out the vanilla cookie dough: While the pumpkin cookies are chilling and setting together, we’ll roll out the vanilla cookie dough. Lay the plastic wrap from the vanilla cookie dough flat. You can take one of the extra plastic wrap pieces from the remaining cookie dough discs and place it on top to roll out the vanilla cookie dough. You’ll roll the dough to be about 12″ by 4-5″ long. Remove the top plastic wrap piece and discard. We’re going to slice the cookie dough a bit to help mold the pumpkin cookies perfectly into the vanilla.
  10. Finish shaping the Pillsbury pumpkin sugar cookies: Remove the pumpkin sugar cookies from the freezer, and place the log onto the vanilla cookie dough right in the middle, aligning the length of the log with the length of the rolled out cookie dough. Pick up each side of the vanilla cookie dough, and gently wrap the pumpkin cookies, seeing where the dough will overlap. Then use a sharp knife, and slice off the overlapping pieces. Take those pieces and roll them to be two long 12″ logs. Place those logs on either side of the pumpkin stems. Press them into the pumpkins to shape the pumpkins into one large cylinder (so that the stem’s integrity is maintained when we roll it into one large cookie dough log). Then wrap the vanilla cookie dough over the pumpkin sugar cookies, gently rolling the log so that the vanilla cookie dough presses into the pumpkin cookies and forms one large log. Wrap the log again in plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour in the fridge, preferably overnight.
  11. While the dough is chilling: Preheat the oven to 375F, and line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. 
  12. Slice the cookies: Remove the cookie dough from the fridge, and slice the cookie log into 1/2″ thick cookie slices. Place the cookies onto the baking sheets, spacing them about 2″ apart. 
  13. Bake: Place the cookie sheets into the oven to bake for 12-14 minutes, or until the edges of the cookie dough are slightly golden. Remove the cookies from the oven, and allow them to cool for 5-10 minutes before enjoying.
  14. Enjoy! Enjoy your copycat Pillsbury pumpkin sugar cookies, and store any leftover unbaked cookie dough for up to 2 weeks well wrapped in the fridge or 3 months frozen in the freezer!

Notes

Food coloring: See blog post for tips on different vegan food colors. 

Pumpkin cookie cutter alternative: This is the specific pumpkin cookie cutter I use. If you don’t want to purchase a pumpkin cookie cutter, you can also roll the the orange cookie dough into a large 12″ oblong log (semi-flat cylinder, similar to the shape of a pumpkin). Take a skewer and press it into the top of the oblong log. Then roll the green cookie dough into a 12″ long log. Place the green cookie dough where the indent of the skewer is. Then wrap the cookie dough in plastic wrap again and freeze.

Gluten free: Use King Arthur Measure for Measure gluten-free flour. 

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1 large cookies
  • Calories: 311
  • Sugar: 19.7 g
  • Sodium: 51.9 mg
  • Fat: 15.6 g
  • Saturated Fat: 9.6 g
  • Carbohydrates: 40.1 g
  • Fiber: 0.7 g
  • Protein: 2.9 g
  • Cholesterol: 40.7 mg