Description
Delight in the festive spirit with these Halloween Sugar Cookies, featuring a soft and flavorful dough enhanced with both vanilla and almond extracts. These cookies are baked to a perfect golden bottom and decorated with colorful buttercream frosting in classic Halloween themes like pumpkins, ghosts, and candy corn, making them ideal for seasonal celebrations and treats.
Ingredients
Scale
Cookie Dough
- 1 cup butter, at room temperature
- 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup sour cream
- 5 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
Frosting
- ¾ cup butter
- 3 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 3–4 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Orange food coloring (for pumpkin frosting)
- Yellow food coloring (optional, for candy corn frosting)
- Candy eyes (for ghost decoration)
Instructions
- Prepare the Dough: In a large bowl, cream together the butter and granulated sugar until smooth and fluffy. Add the eggs, vanilla extract, almond extract, and sour cream, mixing until completely combined.
- Combine Dry Ingredients: In a separate bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and fine sea salt. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until just combined to form a soft dough.
- Chill the Dough: Divide the dough into two portions, wrap each in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours to firm up and enhance flavor.
- Preheat and Roll Out: Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C). On a baker’s mat or parchment paper, roll out the dough. If the dough is sticky, sprinkle with an additional ¼ to ½ cup of flour. Use floured Halloween-themed cookie cutters to cut shapes.
- Bake the Cookies: Arrange the cut cookies on baking sheets and bake for 8 to 9 minutes until the bottoms are just starting to turn golden. Take care not to overbake.
- Cool the Cookies: Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Make the Frosting: In a medium bowl, beat together butter, powdered sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla extract until smooth and creamy. Divide the frosting into 2-3 bowls. Leave one bowl white for ghost frosting, add orange food coloring to another for pumpkins, and optionally add yellow food coloring to a third for candy corn.
- Decorate: Once the cookies have cooled, frost the pumpkin shapes with orange frosting. Frost the ghost cookies with white frosting and place two candy eyes on each. For candy corn cookies, frost the tip with white, the middle section with orange, and the top with yellow frosting to mimic candy corn colors.
Notes
- Make sure the butter and eggs are at room temperature for optimal mixing and texture.
- Do not overbake the cookies to keep them soft and tender.
- Chilling the dough is essential to prevent spreading and to make rolling easier.
- You can customize frosting colors with different food colorings depending on your Halloween theme.
- Use parchment paper or silicone baking mats to prevent sticking and for easy cleanup.
- Store decorated cookies in an airtight container for up to a week.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 180
- Sugar: 15g
- Sodium: 90mg
- Fat: 9g
- Saturated Fat: 5g
- Unsaturated Fat: 3.5g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 23g
- Fiber: 0.5g
- Protein: 2g
- Cholesterol: 35mg
