• Cream together margarine (or butter) and granulated sugar for 2 minutes.
• Add egg, vanilla extract, and butter extract and mix well.
• Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix in flour, baking powder, and salt until dough forms.
• Turn dough onto a clean surface, knead a few times, then roll into a long log shape.
• Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
• When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F (175°C) and slice the dough into 1-inch portions.
• Arrange slices on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
• Bake for 7-12 minutes (depending on cookie size) until edges start to crack.
• Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

Enjoy your homemade slice-and-bake sugar cookies

Coloring The Sugar Cookie Dough

• To color the sugar cookie dough for Pillsbury-style pumpkin cookies, follow these steps:
• After making the cookie dough, set aside about 3/4 cup of dough to dye orange for the pumpkins, and 1 tablespoon to dye green for the stems/leaves.
• If you have gloves, it's recommended to use them to avoid staining your hands with food dye. Otherwise, use a silicone spatula to mix the dye into the dough colors.
• Add orange food coloring to the larger portion of dough and green food coloring to the smaller portion. Mix thoroughly until the desired colors are evenly distributed throughout the dough.
• Once colored, you can proceed to shape the dough into pumpkins with stems and leaves.
• Following these steps will help you achieve the festive colors needed for your Pillsbury Sugar Cookies without the hassle of stained hands.

How do I give my cookies a perfectly round shape?

• To get the perfect round shape for your cookies like Pillsbury's, follow this simple trick. After baking, while the cookies are still warm, place wide-mouth glasses or circular cookie cutters around each cookie on the baking sheet. Gently move the glass in circular motions to round the edges of the cookies into a perfect circle. Then, use the bottom of a glass to lightly press down on the center of each cookie to create the signature Pillsbury shape. This method will help your homemade cookies resemble the classic look you love from store-bought Pillsbury cookies.