Easy Halloween Sugar Cookies Recipe

At the weekend, I decided I needed to do something more productive than sitting around watching Netflix. So what better autumnal activity than to bake! I wanted to try making some sugar cookies for the first time. Although I used to bake quite a lot, for some reason I’ve never made these delicious little biscuits. Here’s an easy Halloween sugar cookies recipe for you.

Ingredients

For the cookies

200g unsalted butter

200g caster sugar

2 large free-range eggs

330g plain flour

60g cornflour

Pinch of salt

For the icing

400g icing sugar

Hot water

Food colouring of choice (I used red, yellow and black)

You’ll also need Halloween shaped cookie cutters like these and a piping kit like this one to do your fun Halloween designs.

Method

1. Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl until the mixture is light and fluffy. Use an electric whisk on low to start with. 
2. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Make sure everything is well mixed and smooth.
3. Add in the flours and a pinch of salt then combine until you have a doughy texture.
4. Split the dough in half, roll into balls and wrap them in cling film. Then put in the fridge to chill (ideally overnight but around 1 hour should be enough).
5. Once you’re ready to bake the cookies, preheat your oven to 180 degrees C.
6. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
7. Roll out the dough to a thickness of about 1cm on a well-floured surface. Cut out your shapes using the cookie cutters. Roll up the leftover dough and repeat until you’ve used all of the dough.
8. Bake the cookies for 10 minutes. 
9. Remove them and transfer to a wire cooling rack immediately (they’ll keep on cooking slightly even out of the oven). 

To decorate

Once the cookies have completely cooled, it’s time to decorate!

1. Sieve your icing sugar into a large bowl and add water gradually until it’s a thick, custardy consistency.
2. Divide the icing into multiple bowls and add food colouring (be sparing as it can be very strong!). 
3. Using a piping bag and small nozzle, pipe around the edges of the cookies first.
4. If you’re planning on filling the icing border, use a spoon or thicker nozzle to add more icing to the middle of the cookie and then use a cocktail stick to spread and even it out.

Finally, enjoy your spooky cookies!

Storage tips

The icing in this recipe will harden on the outside but isn’t as hard as royal icing that you get on cookies you buy in the shops. You can still stack and store them but be aware it might slightly upset your designs.

If you don’t need all of the cookie dough, put one ball in the freezer ready to use later (maybe for Christmas cookies in a month or so?).