Halloween Sugar Cookies
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These cute and spooky Halloween Sugar Cookies make a festive Halloween treat. Made with a soft and chewy sugar cookie dough and decorated with a royal icing. Kid’s will love to help make and decorate these cookies!
PIN this Halloween Sugar Cookie recipe to try later!
halloween sugar cookies
Festive Halloween Sugar Cookies are always a good idea to make during the Fall or spooky season! Sugar Cookies are one of my favorite cookies and I love taking the time to decorate them because they are so cute and fun.
These sweet treats are made with an extra chewy sugar cookie dough base that doesn’t spread so you get the perfect shape. You can customize these cookies by cutting them out and decorating them just how you want! Get the whole family involved by having everyone help decorate for even more fun.
Everyone will love these Halloween Cookies so bring them to Halloween parties, add them to lunch boxes, give them away as treats, and make them all season long.
Use your favorite Halloween cookie cutters, we made cute little pumpkins and spooky ghosts. Other popular Halloween cookie cutter ideas to use are black cats, witch hats, and bats.
Other Halloween cookie recipes to try are my Leftover Halloween Candy Cookies, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Monster Cookies.
Why You’ll Love This easy Recipe
key ingredients
- Softened Butter: I use salted butter- it adds just the right amount of salt that’s needed. You could also use unsalted butter and add 1/4 teaspoon of salt.
- Sugar: The main ingredient.
- Egg: One large, whole egg at room temperature.
- Vanilla extract: Gives the sugar cookie dough a warm vanilla flavor. You could also add 1/8 teaspoon of almond extract for a sweeter flavor.
- Flour: All-purpose flour is preferred although you could make these with whole wheat flour however, it will change the flavor.
- Baking powder: Makes these cookies rise just a bit.
- Corn starch: Helps make these cookies extra chewy and soft.
- Royal icing: Recipe listed in recipe card. You could also use a simple buttercream frosting instead if you wanted to have kids help frost the cookies.
how to make halloween sugar cookies
Cream butter: In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, with an electric mixer or paddle attachment, add the butter and sugar to a mixing bowl and beat until smooth and creamy.
Add egg and vanilla extract: Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until combined.
Combine dry ingredients: In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, corn starch and salt.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients: Fold together until combined into a smooth dough.
Chill dough: Shape dough into a ball with your hands, cover in plastic wrap and place in the fridge to chill for 1 hour.
Cut out cookies: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll out the dough out with a rolling pin to approximately ¼” thickness and cut out shapes using your Halloween cookie cutters.
Bake cookies: Place the cookie shapes on the prepared baking sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges start to turn golden brown. Leave on the cookie sheet for about 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Make icing: Mix together the powdered sugar and milk until you have a smooth icing. It should be thick enough to pipe but still pourable. To make the different colors, split between a few bowls and mix through a few drops of the food colorings. I used green icing, orange icing, and black icing.
how to decorate halloween sugar cookies
Outline cookies: Using a piping bag and narrow tip, pipe lines around the edge of each cookie. For the pumpkins, outline green stem and the rest of the pumpkins in orange. For the ghosts, outline in white.
Flood icing: Using a wider piping tip, flood the middle of the lines to fill them in. If you need to make the icing a little runnier, add a few more drops of milk. Add the edible eyes to the ghosts after the icing has set for a few minutes.
Optional layer of icing: If adding a second layer of icing, allow the cookies to dry for at least 30 minutes first. Pipe lines on top of the orange pumpkin icing to represent the ridges of the pumpkin. For the ghosts, you can pipe small black circles underneath the candy eyes for the mouths.
Let cookies dry: Leave the cookies to dry in the open air at room temperature for at least 6 hours or preferably overnight before touching or stacking.
recipe tips & variations
- Dip the cookie cutter in flour before each use. This will prevent the cookie cutter from sticking to the dough.
- Add the icing to a piping bag or ziplock bag and snip a corner off so you can easily ice your cookies to create a heart shape.
- Chilling the cookie dough is essential. You must do this otherwise your cookie may lose its shape and spread.
- Pre-made cookie dough. You could use a pre-made dough to make these easier however the icing may not hold up well since the dough could spread too much.
- Chocolate Sugar Cookies: Add a few tablespoons of cocoa powder to the cookie dough and top the cookies with melted chocolate or a chocolate frosting.
- Colored dough: If you wanted the cookie base to be a certain color, add a few drops of gel food coloring to the dough.
- Other cookie topping ideas: Add Halloween sprinkles, candy corn, edible eyes, or any of your favorite cookie decorations. Get creative, these cookies are so fun!
leftovers & storage
Store any iced or frosted cookies in an airtight container on the counter of a cool area for up to 1 week.
To freeze: Make sure the unfrosted cookies are completely cool. Place them in a large ziplock container, you can carefully stack them or place parchment paper in between each layer. Freeze for up to 3 months. When you are ready to frost and decorate the cookies, remove the cookies from the freezer and let them thaw for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
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Halloween Sugar Cookie Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
For the sugar cookies
- 1/2 cup salted butter softened
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large whole egg
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
For the Icing/Decoration
- 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 2-3 tablespoons milk
- food coloring of your choice I used orange, green, and black
- edible candy eyes optional
Instructions
To make the cookies
- In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, with an electric mixer or paddle attachment, add the butter and sugar to a mixing bowl and beat until smooth and creamy.
- Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until combined.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, corn starch and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold together until combined into a smooth dough.
- Shape the dough into a ball with your hands, cover in plastic wrap and place in the fridge to chill for 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll out the dough out with a rolling pin to approximately ¼” thickness and cut out shapes using your Halloween cookie cutters.
- Place the cut out cookie shapes on the prepared baking sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges start to turn golden brown.
- Leave on the baking sheets for about 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
To make the icing and decoration
- Mix together the powdered sugar and milk until you have a smooth icing. It should be thick enough to pipe but still pourable. To make the different colors, split between a few bowls and mix through a few drops of the food colorings.
- Using a piping bag and narrow tip, pipe lines around the edge of each cookie. For the pumpkins, outline green stem and the rest of the pumpkins in orange. For the ghosts, outline in white.
- Using a wider nozzle, flood the middle of the lines to fill them in. If you need to make the icing a little runnier, add a few more drops of milk. Add the edible eyes to the ghosts.
- If adding a second layer of icing, allow the cookies to dry for at least 30 minutes first.
- Pipe lines on top of the orange pumpkin icing to represent the ridges of the pumpkin. For the ghosts, you can pipe small black circles underneath the eyes for the mouths.
- Leave the cookies to dry in the open air at room temperature for at least 6 hours or preferably overnight before touching or stacking.
These Halloween cookies are super cute. I am always on the lookout for fun treats for the grandkids. I know these would be a hit for sure.
How adorable! I am making these cookies today for a Halloween party this weekend and they taste amazing!
These are cute sugar cookies. I can’t wait to make this for my kids as their Halloween treats!
We tried these out for our Halloween party. They were delicious! We’re definitely going to make them for our party. Thanks!
How fun and festive! I had the girls over for brunch and we made these to decorate for our families. Everyone loved them!
These cookies look really festive and tasty and perfect for Halloween. I never would’ve thought of freezing cookies and using them later on but I really like the idea of doing that with these.
Such a cute idea for Halloween! 🙂 My daughter and I will have to bake up a batch of these together to celebrate.
I make Halloween cookies every year with my boys and we tried a batch of your recipe. They are delicious and so easy to make. Love the cute ghost cookie. On the hunt for those.