Description
Celebrate Halloween with these festive Halloween Royal Icing Cookies, featuring soft, buttery sugar cookies decorated with vibrant royal icing in spooky orange, black, and white colors. Perfect for parties, these cookies are enhanced with fun candy skulls and sprinkles to bring the Halloween spirit to your table.
Ingredients
Scale
For the Cookies:
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, chilled
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 1 whole egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 cups + 2 tbsp (375 g) all-purpose flour
For the Royal Icing:
- 4 egg whites
- 2 lbs powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp butter emulsion (or butter flavoring)
- ¼ tsp almond emulsion (or almond extract)
- Water, as needed
- Gel food coloring: orange and black
- Halloween candy skulls (for coffin cookies)
- Sprinkles (for cauldron cookies)
Instructions
- Make the Cookie Dough: Cream the chilled butter and granulated sugar together until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the whole egg, egg yolk, vanilla extract, and salt. Gradually incorporate the all-purpose flour until just combined to form the dough.
- Chill the Dough: Place the dough in the refrigerator and chill for at least 60 minutes. This step ensures the cookies will hold their shape during baking.
- Cut and Bake: Roll out the chilled dough on a lightly floured surface to your desired thickness. Use Halloween-themed cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Bake the cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet at 350°F (175°C) for approximately 11 minutes or until they are set but not browned, which keeps them soft.
- Cool the Cookies: Transfer cookies to a wire rack and allow them to cool completely before decorating.
- Prepare the Royal Icing: Beat the egg whites until they become frothy. Gradually sift in powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Add vanilla extract, butter emulsion, and almond emulsion. Adjust consistency by adding water a little at a time, until the icing is suitable for piping and flooding.
- Color the Icing: Divide the royal icing into separate bowls. Tint portions with gel food coloring to create orange and black icings, leaving some icing white for contrast.
- Decorate the Cookies: Using piping bags fitted with #1 or #2 tips, outline and fill the cookies with the colored royal icing. While the icing is still wet, apply Halloween candy skulls on coffin-shaped cookies and sprinkles on cauldron-shaped cookies for decorative effect.
- Dry the Icing: Allow the decorated cookies to dry completely by placing them in front of a fan or small heater. This step ensures the icing hardens with a shiny finish.
Notes
- Chilling the dough is crucial to prevent spreading during baking and to keep cookie shapes defined.
- Use gel food coloring for vibrant colors without affecting icing consistency.
- Adjust royal icing consistency: thicker for outlining, thinner for flooding the cookie surface.
- Drying time for royal icing can vary; using a fan or small heater helps speed up the process.
- Store decorated cookies in an airtight container at room temperature to preserve freshness.
