Halloween Sugar Cookies
Make these spooky but sweet Halloween sugar cookies. They're fun without being too creepy and you only need a few cookie cutters to make the shapes and designs.
Equipment
- stand or hand mixer
- measuring spoons
- measuring cups
- baking sheets
- oven+timer
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter 2 sticks or 16 tbsp
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Royal Icing
- 4¾ cups powdered sugar 4-5 cups total, as needed for the consistency of the icing
- 2½ tablespoon meringue powder
- ¾ cup water
- 3-4 drops gel food coloring in colors of choice I used white, black, orange, green, yellow and gray.
Instructions
Sugar Cookies
- Beat together your sugar and butter until combined. You can use your stand-mixer or a hand-mixer.
- Add your eggs and combine. Add remaining ingredients and stir for 1-2 minutes for the dough to really come together. It should stick to the paddle of your mixer attachment when it’s ready and not be sticking to the bowl. *If it is sticking to the bowl you might need to add a bit more flour. It should come off easily with a wooden spoon.
- Divide into two parts and roll out your dough. I use two cookie sheets for this amount. Stack them with parchment paper in between the layers. Put in the fridge for a minimum of 30 minutes. Allowing the dough to chill will help it set up and hold the shape of your cutouts.
- Once the dough has chilled, cut out your shapes and preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Take the first cookie sheet full of shapes and place in the freezer for 7-10 minutes. This minimizes spread. Bake for 9-12 minutes. This is a variable that’s really determined by your oven temp and cookie softness preference. Play with it a bit to see what works best for you.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheet, the cookies will finish baking directly on the sheet.
Royal Icing
- Combine powdered sugar and meringue powder in bowl or stand-mixer. Allow to stir for 1-2 minutes to combine.
- Add your water. Run stand mixer for 2-3 minutes to combine.
- Separate into bowls as many colors as you're planning to use, and add your gel food coloring. Bag right away and start decorating!
Making a Monster Face on Your Cookie
- Flood or fill your circle cookie with green icing. Add black eyes as dots or use googley eyes. Make a stitch with black royal icing and a smiley face.
Making a Pumpkin Cookie
- Flood or fill your cookie shape with orange icing. Using black royal icing, add triangles for eyes and a crooked smiley face.
Ghost and Mummy Cookie
- Flood or fill your cookie shape with white royal icing. Use black royal icing or googley eyes and draw on the face. To make a ghost into a mummy drizzle white royal icing across the cookie back and forth once the first layer of icing has hardened.
Spider Cookie Design
- To make a spider design, flood your circle shaped cookie with gray royal icing. You could really use any color. Then, use googley eyes while the icing is still fresh and gently push them into to cookie. Add legs using black royal icing off to the sides.
Candy Corn Cookie Design
- To make a candy corn design, you'll need yellow, orange and white royal icing. Start at the top of the cookie and outline the top of the candy with yellow. Fill or flood that section of cookie. Repeat with your white and orange layers.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!