Description
Celebrate the vibrant spirit of Day of the Dead with these festive sugar cookies. Perfectly soft and buttery, these skull-shaped cookies are adorned with colorful royal icing in a variety of bright hues for a fun and traditional treat that’s as delightful to decorate as it is to eat.
Ingredients
Scale
For the Cookies:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 Tbsp milk
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
For the Icing:
- 5 cups powdered sugar
- 6 Tbsp milk, plus more for thinning
- 1/4 cup light corn syrup
- 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
- Black food coloring
- Teal food coloring
- Orange food coloring
- Green food coloring
- Purple food coloring
- Yellow food coloring
Instructions
- Mix Dry Ingredients: In a large bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking powder, and kosher salt until combined well. Set this mixture aside for later use.
- Cream Butter and Sugar: In another large bowl, beat the softened butter with granulated sugar until the mixture is fluffy and pale in color. This process usually takes a few minutes with an electric mixer.
- Add Wet Ingredients: To the fluffy butter mixture, add the egg, milk, and vanilla extract. Beat until fully incorporated and smooth.
- Combine Dough: Gradually add the dry flour mixture to the wet ingredients, mixing until the dough is completely combined and forms a cohesive mass.
- Chill Dough: Shape the dough into a flat disk, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 1 hour to firm up for easier rolling and cutting.
- Prepare for Baking: Preheat your oven to 350ºF (175ºC). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Lightly flour your clean work surface.
- Roll and Cut Shapes: Roll out the chilled dough to approximately 1/8-inch thickness. Use a skull-shaped cookie cutter to cut out shapes. Transfer cookies to the prepared baking sheets, then freeze for 10 minutes to help them hold their shape while baking.
- Bake Cookies: Bake cookies in the preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until the edges turn lightly golden. Remove from oven and allow cookies to cool completely on a wire rack.
- Make Icing: While cookies bake and cool, mix powdered sugar, 6 tablespoons of milk, light corn syrup, and vanilla extract in a medium bowl until smooth. Transfer about a quarter of this icing to a piping bag fitted with a small round tip for outlining.
- Outline Cookies: Pipe outlines around the edges of the cooled cookies using the prepared icing.
- Flood Cookies: Pour about half of the remaining icing into another bowl and thin with additional milk, one teaspoon at a time, until it reaches a good flooding consistency. Transfer to another piping bag with a small round tip and fill in the centers of the cookies completely.
- Color Icing: Divide the remaining icing into six small bowls. Tint each portion with a different food coloring: black, teal, orange, green, purple, and yellow.
- Decorate: Fill piping bags fitted with small round tips with each colored icing. Pipe decorative skull faces and details onto the flooded cookies for a festive Day of the Dead look.
Notes
- Freezing the cut-out cookies before baking helps maintain their shape and prevents spreading.
- Use gel or paste food coloring for more vibrant icing colors without thinning the consistency.
- Adjust the milk quantity carefully when thinning icing to avoid it becoming too runny.
- Store decorated cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
- Allow icing to fully set before stacking cookies to avoid smudging decorations.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 180
- Sugar: 15g
- Sodium: 80mg
- Fat: 9g
- Saturated Fat: 5g
- Unsaturated Fat: 3g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 23g
- Fiber: 0.5g
- Protein: 2g
- Cholesterol: 30mg
