Here is how to make easy Halloween sugar cookies, plus tips on decorating Halloween sugar cookies, including how to make egg free powdered sugar icing.
When you make a purchase using a link on this page, we may receive a commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. For more information, please see About Us.
This post is all about how to make Halloween cookies and decorating Halloween sugar cookies.
There’s just something about fall that makes it the best time to break out your favorite cookie cutters and whip up a batch of homemade sugar cookies, especially when Halloween and other holidays roll around.
Whether you’re hosting a party, getting ready for trick-m or treaters, or just looking for a fun afternoon activity with the kids, decorated Halloween sugar cookies are the perfect treat to munch on in the fall. They’re super fun to make, easy to decorate, and best of all—totally kid friendly!
So grab your spooky cookie cutters and let’s explore how to turn a simple homemade sugar cookie into a festive—and delicious—Halloween masterpiece.
If you love making Halloween sugar cookies—and making homemade cookies is one of the best fall traditions—then you’ll love this post. There’s just something fun about decorating cookies while sipping on hot cider.
In this post, we’ll walk you through how to make and decorate Halloween sugar cookies step by step, with some fun decorating ideas for Halloween shapes—like pumpkin, bat, ghost, witch hat, and other fun seasonal shapes.
Plus, you’ll learn how to make a delicious homemade sugar cookie recipe that you can use for making other seasonal and holiday cookies, like autumn leaf cookies, Thanksgiving cookies, and Christmas cookies.
In This Post:
- Why You’ll Love This Halloween Cookies Recipe
- Halloween Sugar Cookies: Ingredients and Tools
- How to Make Halloween Sugar Cookies
- Tips for Making the Best Halloween Cookies
- How to Store Halloween Cookies
- Recipe: Halloween Sugar Cookies
Why You’ll Love This Halloween Cookies Recipe
There are so many reasons to love this Halloween sugar cookie recipe, especially if you’re as obsessed with fall baking as I am. Here are my top reasons:
- Sugar cookies can be kid friendly. The dough is easy to work with, and decorating is basically a fun art project with icing and sprinkles! It’s the perfect way to get kids involved in the kitchen.
- You can customize it. You can get as spooky or silly as you want with the icing. From jack-o-lantern faces to cute ghost smiles, the creative possibilities are endless—and you can totally personalize them for any crowd!
- Achieve the perfect balance of sweetness. The cookies have a nice subtle sweetness that pairs perfectly with the royal icing without being too sugary. It’s hard to eat just one!
- They’re fun for any occasion. Whether it’s a family Halloween party, a classroom treat, or just a cozy fall baking day, these cookies fit the bill every time.
- Make ahead. You can prep the dough ahead of time or even freeze the baked cookies for later, so you’re not rushed to decorate everything at once.
Making homemade Halloween sugar cookies it the ultimate fall baking project that’s fun, festive, and totally delicious!
Halloween Sugar Cookies: Ingredients and Tools
Here are the ingredients and some tools that can be helpful for making the Halloween cookies recipe.
For the Sugar Cookies:
- Flour (2 ¾ cups). All purpose flour is the base for making the sugar cookie dough. You’ll need about 2 ¾ cups to keep the cookies sturdy yet soft.
- Butter (1 cup). Use unsalted butter to gives the cookies that rich, melt-in-your-mouth flavor. Make sure the butter is softened to room temperature to make it easier to blend into the cookie dough.
- Sugar (1 cup). Use granulated sugar to sweeten the cookie dough.
- Egg (1 large). Egg helps to bind everything together, and it also makes the sugar cookies light and chewy.
- Vanilla Extract (1 teaspoon). Vanilla extract adds a nice, warm flavor to the cookies.
- Almond Extract (¼ teaspoon, optional). Add a small amount of almond extract to give the sugar cookies a hint of distinct and classic flavor that rounds out the taste of the cookies.
- Baking Powder (1 teaspoon). Baking powder helps the cookies rise.
- Salt (¼ teaspoon). Add a pinch of salt to the dough to balance out the sweetness of the cookies.
For the Icing:
- Powdered Sugar (4 cups). Powdered sugar is the main ingredient used to make royal icing. Four cups of powdered sugar should give you the perfect smooth texture.
- Meringue Powder (3 tablespoons). Meringue powder is essential for giving royal icing it’s characteristic stiff texture once it dries. You’ll need 3 tablespoons to make the royal icing nice and stiff. Look for meringue powder in the baking section at the supermarket. You can also order it online.
- Food Coloring. Grab orange, black, white, purple, and green food coloring for fun Halloween colors. Use orange and green for pumpkins; black for bats and cats; black, green, and purple for witch’s hats, purple and green for monsters, white and black for ghosts, and so on. If you want to make candy corn style cookies, then also grab some yellow icing.
Tools:
You’ll need basic baking tools for making cookies, such as a mixing bowls for holding the ingredients and a mixer for making the dough. It also helps to have tools like a piping bag and tips for decorating the cookies.
- Mixing Bowls. You’ll need a couple of mixing bowls for the dough and the icing. Use a large mixing bowl to make the cookie dough and smaller mixing bowls to make the icing.
- Hand Mixer or Stand Mixer. Either a hand mixer or stand mixer makes whipping up the cookie dough and icing a breeze.
- Rolling Pin. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough evenly for perfect cookie shapes. If your dough is slightly sticky, try sprinkling a small amount of flour over the top, or try rolling out the dough between two pieces of parchment paper.
- Halloween Cookie Cutters. Halloween cookie cutters are essential for making classic Halloween cookie shapes. Look for shapes like pumpkins, bats, ghosts, cats, and witch hats.
- Parchment Paper or Silicone Baking Mat. Use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat to keep your cookies from sticking to the baking sheet.
- Cooling Rack. A cooling rack (or racks for multiple cookies) is essential for letting the cookies cool completely before decorating them.
- Piping Bags with Tips. Use piping bags with tips for icing the cookies. You can also use ziplock bags with a tiny corner snipped off in a pinch.
- Squeeze Bottles (optional). Squeeze bottles are optional, but they can make flooding the cookies with icing super easy for kids. Simply thin out the icing a bit, place one color in each bottle, and then use the bottle to squeeze the icing onto the cookies in between the outlines.
- Toothpicks. Toothpicks can be used to spread icing into tight corners or add small details when decorating cookies.
How to Make Halloween Cookies
Here is a basic overview of how to make the best Halloween sugar cookies, and how to decorate Halloween sugar cookies, too.
To make these Halloween sugar cookies, start by whipping up a simple sugar cookie dough with butter, sugar, vanilla, and flour. You can also add a small amount of almond extract to add great flavor to the cookies. If the dough seems a little dry, you can add 1 to 2 tablespoons of milk or water to help the mixture come together.
After chilling the dough for at least an hour, roll out the dough to ¼ inch thickness, and use fun Halloween shaped cookie cutters like pumpkins, bats, ghosts, and witch hats.
Tip: If your dough is slightly sticky, try sprinkling a small amount of flour over the top, or try rolling out the dough between two pieces of parchment paper.
Shop Similar Ideas:
Place the cut out cookies on a baking sheet that is lined with parchment paper, and bake the cookies until they’re lightly golden. Then remove the cookies from the oven, and let them cool completely.
To decorate the cookies, use royal icing or another type of icing to decorate the cookies.
You can make royal icing by mixing powdered sugar, meringue powder (contains egg whites), and water together. Use food coloring to color the icing with Halloween shades like orange, black, green, yellow, and purple.
Tip: You can also use egg free icing—made with ingredients like powdered sugar, milk or water, and vanilla extract—to decorate the cookies. Often, egg free icing tends to be softer than royal icing over time, so if you decorate the cookies with egg free icing use caution when handling or decorating the cookies.
How to Make Powdered Sugar Icing:
To make a simple egg free, powdered sugar icing to use instead of royal icing, start with 2 cups of powdered sugar, 1 to 1 ½ tablespoons of milk or water (add more or less to thin the icing consistency, as needed, and ½ teaspoon vanilla extract. Mix the ingredients together, adding milk or water slowly, until the icing achieves the perfect smooth and spreadable consistency.
Outline the cookies with thick icing—this helps to create a boundary to hold the thinner icing base in place. Then flood the cookies with slightly thinner icing to make a colorful base—then get creative.
Make pumpkins with jack o lantern faces, bats with little fangs, ghosts with funny expressions, and witch hats with colorful bands. You can fill piping bags with different colors of icing to use for making fine details like accents and faces.
Tip: Thin the icing with a small amount of water (about ½ to 1 teaspoon at a time) to give it a thinner consistency for flooding. Use a squeeze bottle to squeeze out the icing for flooding. Leave some of the icing in each color thicker for decorating the cookies with fine details—like eyes, mouths, buckles, and lines. Use different mixing bowls to separate out different colors and thicknesses of cookie icing.
Shop Similar Ideas:
Let the decorated Halloween sugar cookies dry completely before serving the cookies or packaging them. The cookies should last for up to 3 days when stored in an airtight container.
Halloween sugar cookies are the perfect combination of spooky and fun for kids and adults alike—plus, they taste delicious!
Tips for Making the Best Halloween Sugar Cookies
Making the best decorated Halloween sugar cookies definitely comes down to a few key tips. Here’s what you should know to get those perfectly tasty and fun, spooky Halloween cookies.
- Chill the dough. After you make the dough, let it chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour. This can make the dough easier to roll out and help your cookies keep their shape in the oven.
- Roll the out the dough evenly. For cookies that bake evenly, roll out the cookie dough to about ¼ inch thick. If the dough is too thin, then the cookies will be crispy and they might break. If the cookies are too thick, then they won’t bake through properly. A rolling pin with thickness rings can be helpful here.
- Use parchment paper or a silicone mat. Bake the cookies on parchment paper or a silicone mat to help prevent sticking and help them bake evenly. Plus, it makes cleanup way easier!
- Don’t overbake the cookies. You want the cookies to be just barely golden on the edges before removing them from the oven. The cookies might seem a bit soft when you first take them out, but they’ll firm up as they cool. Overbaking tends to lead to dry cookies, and we definitely don’t want that.
- Icing consistency is key. You may need to experiment to find the perfect icing consistency for decorating the cookies. For outlining the cookies, the icing should be thick enough to hold its shape but not so thick that it is hard to pipe. For flooding—or filling in the outlines—you’ll want a slightly thinner consistency so that the icing spreads easily without running off the cookie. Thin the icing out with a tiny bit of water at a time until you get the perfect consistency.
- Let the icing dry between layers. If you’re adding multiple layers of decorations (like making jack o lantern faces on your pumpkins), let each layer dry completely before moving on to the next. This helps to prevent the icing from smudging and gives you clean lines.
- Get creative with colors and textures. You can use sanding sugars, candy sprinkles, or edible glitter to add a little extra flair to Halloween cookies. And don’t be afraid to mix up the icing colors to make your cookies pop. Kids love helping with this part!
- Store the cookies properly. After the cookies are decorated, make sure they’re fully dry before stacking them. Place the cookies in single layers between parchment paper in an airtight container to help keep them fresh and prevent your hard work from smudging.
Shop Similar Ideas:
How to Store Halloween Sugar Cookies
Once the Halloween cookies are decorated and the icing has had time to dry (overnight is best, honestly), you can store them in an airtight container to help keep the cookies fresh and prevent the icing from smudging.
Layer the cookies between sheets of parchment paper to keep them separated. You can leave the container at room temperature or refrigerate it for up to 3 days.
Recipe: Halloween Sugar Cookies
Here’s how make and decorate delicious Halloween sugar cookies.
Halloween Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
For the Sugar Cookies:
- 2 ¾ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract optional
- ¼ teaspoon salt
For the Royal Icing (includes eggs):
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons meringue powder
- 5 to 6 tablespoons water
- Food coloring orange, black, white, purple, and maybe green
Instructions
Make the Sugar Cookies.
- In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a larger bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until the mixture is light and fluffy (about 3 to 4 minutes). Add the egg and vanilla extract (and the almond extract if you’re using it), and mix the ingredients again until combined.
- Next, combine the wet and dry ingredients. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing until it forms a dough. Don’t overmix the dough, however. If the mixture seems a little dry, you can add 1 to 2 tablespoons of milk or water to help the dough come together.
- Shape the dough into a disc, wrap it in plastic wrap, and pop it into the fridge for at least 1 hour (chilling the dough can help the cookies to hold their shape).
- After the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Roll the chilled dough on a floured surface until it’s about ¼ inch thick. Use Halloween cookie cutters to cut out the shapes.
- Transfer the cut out cookies to the baking sheet and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden. Let the cookies cool completely before decorating (or the icing will melt!).
Make the Royal Icing (with Egg Meringue Powder):
- Add powdered sugar, meringue powder, and water to a large bowl, and then whisk to combine the ingredients. You want a thicker consistency for outlining the cookies, and a slightly thinner consistency for flooding the cookies (using the icing to fill in the outlines). You can adjust the thickness of the icing by adding more water or powdered sugar.
- Divide the icing into separate bowls and color each bowl with your spooky colors (such as orange for pumpkins, black for bats, white for ghosts, purple or green for witch hats or monsters).
To Decorate Pumpkins:
- Outline the pumpkin with orange icing, then flood it with a thinner consistency of orange icing. While the icing is still wet, add some vertical lines in a darker orange or brown color to create a ridged “pumpkin” effect. Once the orange icing dries, you can add a little green or brown icing for the stem.
- For a spooky twist, use a piping bag and tips filled with black icing to draw a jack o lantern face on top of the orange icing.
To Decorate Ghosts:
- Outline the ghost cookies with white icing, and then flood the area inside the outline with white icing. After the base layer hardens, use black icing to give the ghost cookies expressive faces—some can look spooky, some can look surprised, and some can even have a cute little smile!
To Decorate Bats:
- Outline and flood the bats with black icing. Once the base coat dries, use white icing to add little eyes or make the bat look like it’s flying through the night.
To Decorate Witch Hats:
- Outline and flood the hat cookies with black or purple icing. Once the base layer of icing is set, you can add a band around the base of the hat in another color (orange or green look great!).
- Add a tiny buckle with black or yellow icing to give it that classic witchy look. For a little extra flair, pipe tiny stars or dots on the hat to make it look magical!
Let the Cookies Dry:
- Once you’ve finished decorating the Halloween cookies, let the cookies dry for a few hours (or overnight) so the icing can set completely. This helps to prevent the icing from smudging when you store or serve the cookies.
Notes
And there you have it—a bunch of adorable, spooky, and fun Halloween cookies! They’ll definitely be a hit at any Halloween party or even just for spending cozy family time at home this fall. Happy baking and enjoy the festive vibes this season!
Looking for more of the best Halloween decorating tips and Halloween costume ideas?
- The Best Halloween Front Porch Ideas–D.I.Y. Ideas and Inspiration
- How to Make Easy DIY Halloween Decorations
- The Best Trio Halloween Costumes | Easy DIY Costume Ideas
This post was all about how to make Halloween cookies.
Credits
- Featured photos by pixelshot via Canva.com
- Photos and images are for illustration purposes only.
Related Posts
