Halloween Sugar Cookies – How to Make These Easy Treats For Your Next Party
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Last Updated on August 6, 2021 by Katherine
Halloween sugar cookies are a fun dessert to make. Today’s post is how to add a fun seasonal twist to the traditional sugar cookie recipe by adding some pumpkin pie spice. You can use your own special recipe or make use of my favorite sugar cookie recipe that I’ll share below.
I love making cookies because you can vary them as you work through the dough. When you make a cake, you sort of have to commit to one design, but with cookies, you can have some witch’s hats, some black cats, and even some ghosts made all from the same batch of dough!
I have a few Halloween cookie cutters in my arsenal but don’t fret if you don’t have these. Check out the Spruce Eats How to Cut Cookies Without a Cookie Cutter post for more info!
The best part about sugar cookies is you don’t need a ton of fancy equipment to make them. I do, however, recommend using either a stand or hand mixer. It will save your hands, trust me!
Equipment To Get Started:
- Bowl (for mixing and chilling the dough);
- Rolling pin;
- Cookie Cutters (or a substitute);
- Cookie Sheets;
- Cooling Rack; and,
- Paper towel.
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Tips For Mixing
Like most baking recipes, I like to add the wet ingredients first. I start by creaming the butter and the sugar and then add the vanilla and eggs and mix them well.
I mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and then slowly combine them into the wet ingredients in the stand mixer.
The next bit is your choice. I’ve seen some bakers prefer to roll the batter out now or refrigerate the dough in its mixed state in the bowl.
Either way, you need to cool that dough for at least two hours before cutting out your cookies!
Tips for Rolling
The major tip for rolling is you want even cookies. I like to aim for between 1/4inch and 1/2inch. The more even your cookies are, the more even they will bake! A good rule of thumb is whether your cookie cutter can cut them without dough coming up over top.
Don’t worry too much about over rolling, but definitely keep the flour coating your rolling surface because the dough sticks easily!
Cutting & Baking
As with the rolling pin and surface, you’ll want to dust a bit of flour onto your cookie cutter. As you cut your cookies, I recommend placing them on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Leave a bit of space, but the cookies rarely expand a lot on baking.
Bake them until the edges are just starting to brown, as this will give you a softer cookie.
Decorating
This is the fun part of the whole adventure! Once your cookies are all cool, you can start icing them! This is the part where you get to be as creative as you like!
I used royal icing for these cookies. I like royal icing because it’s three ingredients (icing sugar, water, and meringue powder). If you don’t like the taste, you can always add a bit of vanilla extract (I would do only one tablespoon) and reduce your water accordingly.
Your icing should dribble off your mixer blades in about 10 seconds. If it’s too thick, add more water and too thin, add more icing sugar. Another reason I like royal icing is that it’s forgiving and hard to mess up.
Once you’ve mixed the main batch, you’ll want to separate the icing into the colors you’d like to work in. For my Halloween sugar cookies, I chose five colors (orange, red, green, purple, and white).
I just went for more of a freehanded icing technique, but if you want to learn more about “flooding”, I recommend checking out Emma’s Sweets YouTube channel, so helpful! She shows you how to even make the cookies without icing tips!!
Delicious Halloween Sugar Cookies
No matter the season, sugar cookies are a classic cookie recipe that are an instant hit with most people! This recipe has a cinnamon twist just in time for Halloween!!
Ingredients
Cookie Recipe
- 3/4 cup shortening/butter
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Royal Icing
- 4 cups confectioners'/icing sugar
- 3 tbsps meringue powder
- 9-10 tbsps room temperature water
Instructions
Bake The Cookies First!
Combine the shortening and sugar in the mixing bowl and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.
One at a time add the vanilla and each egg and beat until well combined.
In a separate mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Use a whisk to mix up well.
Slowly combine the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients bowl and mix well.
Place a cover or plastic wrap over the bowl and refrigerate the dough for at least two hours (overnight for best results).
Preheat oven to 350F
Cover your rolling surface with flour to prevent sticking.
Divide your dough at least by half (thirds is best) and roll out one third first to about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thickness.
Lightly flour your desired cookie cutter and cut out your cookie shapes from the rolled dough.
Place cut cookies on a lightly greased cookie sheet and work until all your cookies are cut.
Cook for approximately 10 minutes or until the edges are just beginning to brown.
Allow cookies to cool for a few minutes on the sheet before transferring to a cooling rack or paper towel to cool completely before icing or storing.
Mixing The Icing
Combine all ingredients into a stand mixer (or use a hand mixer) and beat until smooth, continue mixing on high speed for about two minutes.
The icing should drizzle off the mixer blades in about 10 seconds for the right consistency.
Divide up the icing into the colors and place in piping bags.
Ice your cookies!! Enjoy!
Final Thoughts
Halloween sugar cookies are a perfect way to enjoy October. I like sugar cookies because the recipe is very forgiving and you can play a bit with your cookie dough by adding cinnamon as I did or many other ideas to put a delightful seasonal twist. Remember when I shared a peppermint sugar cookie recipe in my Christmas Cookie roundup?
What’s your favorite way to customize a classic sugar cookie recipe? Let me know in the comments down below and don’t forget to share this post to your favorite social media platform! I’d love to hear from you!
That is all for this week, my friends. Next week I’m going to show you another necklace tutorial, so definitely check that out. Until then, stay crafty!!
