Jack Skellington Halloween Sugar Cookies
12 cookies
A small batch cut out sugar cookie recipe for halloween that is super easy to mix up and to decorate. Only two colors needed to make these spooky skulls and spiders!
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour plain flour in the UK
- ¼ cup cornstarch cornflour in the UK
- 1 pinch salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
Royal Icing
- 2 large egg whites
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- black gel food coloring
Instructions
Sugar Cookies:
- Preheat your oven to 350°F/180°C, or 160°C if you have a fan oven. And line your baking tray with parchment paper and keep aside.
- In a large bowl, sift the dry ingredients (flour, cornstarch, and salt) together. Mix and set aside.
- In a stand mixer (you can also use a hand mixer for this) add in the butter, and sugar and beat it at medium speed for at least 2-3 min or until the mixture is creamy. scrape the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Add in the egg and almond extract and beat until everything is incorporated well.
- Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in batches and mix till the dough is formed (the dough should pull away from the sides of the bowl).
- Flatten the dough to form a disc and wrap it with a cling wrap. Refrigerate for at least an hour.
- Once chilled, roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to ¼ inch thickness and cut out round cookies using a 3-inch or 2 ½ inch cookie cutter.
- Place the cutouts on the prepared baking tray and bake in the preheated oven for 12-14 minutes, or until just starting to brown on the edges.
- Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes on the baking tray before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Royal Icing:
- Pour the egg white into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whip attachment and beat on high till it foams up. (You can also use a hand mixer for this, but it takes longer)
- Lower the speed and add the powdered sugar, a little at a time to avoid creating a mess. Return to medium speed, and beat until the mixture becomes thick and starts to hold soft peaks.
- Remove 1/4 of the icing from the bowl and tint it black using 3-4 drops of black food coloring. Remove another 1/4 of the icing (this will be our white outlining icing) so that there is half of the icing left in the bowl. Add 2-3 teaspoons of water to this icing to thin it out enough to fill in the cookies.
To Decorate:
- Add the three icings to piping bags fitted with small round tips, or simply cut the end of the bag to create a small opening.
- Outline the cookies with the thicker white icing, then flood the cookies with the thinner white icing. Use a toothpick to move the icing into the edges if needed. Let the white icing dry completely before adding details.
- Use the black royal icing to make skeleton faces, spiders, and spider webs on the cookies.
Notes
- Replace the almond extract with 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract if you prefer it.
- If you would rather not do the black and white designs with the icing, you can just decorate with white or orange icing and top with Halloween sprinkles.
- This recipe makes a small batch of cookies. You can double or triple it if you'd like to make more of them.
- Clean your mixer bowl before making royal icing. Any residual butter from the cookie dough will keep the eggs from whipping properly.
Nutrition
Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 312kcal | Carbohydrates: 57g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 36mg | Sodium: 21mg | Potassium: 41mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 38g | Vitamin A: 259IU | Calcium: 9mg | Iron: 1mg