I am so happy to bring you another great post from my contributor and daughter, Kristi! And now her daughter Kimmie has also joined our team so this is officially a three generation blogging family!
Take it away Girls!!
Growing up my mom (Evelyn) made every holiday special. From home hole-punched confetti with sparkling cider on New Year’s Eve to decorating our hair with clover on the way out the door on St. Patrick’s Day. It left an impression and it is a tradition that I continue with my own girls. Every holiday is filled with decorations and our own traditions and now I am starting to see the same excitement about upcoming holidays in my girls that I remember feeling.
For Halloween this year, Kimmie and I decided to try some new cookie designs and let our creativity run free. We had a blast sketching the designs and buying supplies. I loved the look of joy on her face when she saw her designs turn into actual cookies. I think this post is less about the cookie recipe, and more about the quality time you spend with you family and the impact it makes on them.
To that end, I have had Kimmie write a little about her experience as well. The recipe is one I have shared before and will link here again, but I want you to take from this post, is the experience.
Have a great Halloween!
Kristi
My mom and I made Halloween cookies. I think the cookies were yummy! They were sugar cookies. There were spider webs, pumpkins, ghosts, and vampires too. They were fun to make! The icing was the best part of all! I love making cookies! I wrote this post for my Grammy. Happy Halloween!
Kimmie
Fun times mixing the black dough!!
Tada!!
Super gross black dough!!
Not gross now the dough is turned into bats and vampires!
Making the Royal Icing designs for the cookies!
Halloween Decorated Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
For the Cookies
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 1 large egg
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cream of tartar
- Gel food coloring (optional, but it can be fun to work with colored dough)
For the powdered sugar icing
- 1 cup of powdered sugar
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 1 tbsp melted butter
- milk
- gel food coloring in the colors of your choice
For the Royal Icing to make the decorations
- 5 Tablespoons of Meringue Powder
- 1/3 cup water
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- Juice from 1 lemon
- Gel food coloring (Colors of your choice for your choice of projects)
Instructions
To make the cookies
1. Beat together the powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, almond extract, and egg, until smooth and creamy.
2. Mix in remaining ingredients using the paddle attachment of the mixer
3. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours
4. Heat oven to 375 degrees
5. Roll dough in portions to about 1/8- 1/4 inch thickness and cut with your choice of cookie cutters. (I even grabbed my Valentine’s Day lips cookie cutter and made vampire teeth) So be creative and feel free to use your other cookie cutters in fun ways.
6. For the Black Cookies: Dye a small portion of the dough black for the bats and the vampire capes. To do this, we separated a small amount of the dough into a separate glass bowl and then, using gloves (to prevent dyeing our fingers), we kneaded the color into the dough until it was all one even color. It can then be worked with the same as the other dough.
7. Bake on a cool cookie sheet lined with non-stick foil or a baking mat for approximately 7 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes then move the cookies to a cooling rack.
For the Icing
1. In a bowl, combine the powdered sugar, vanilla, and melted butter. Stir well.
2. Add milk, 1 tsp at a time until the frosting is of desired consistency to frost cookies.
3. Finally, color with gel food coloring, mixed to your desired color.
(I use almond extract instead of the traditional vanilla for 2 reasons. First, I have found that the flavor is much better. Second, vanilla darkens my white icing, making it look brown and dirty. Since the almond extract is clear, I don’t have that problem)
4. Ice your cooled cookies with the icing and set on a rack to dry
For the Royal Icing Decorations
1. Beat Meringue powder and water on high for approximately 1-2 minutes, until the mixture is slightly thickened.
2. Add the sugar and lemon juice and mix until smooth. You don’t want the icing too thin, so it will not run when you are creating your designs. *Traditionally, Royal Icing is made with Egg Whites. However, I have small children and it is not recommended that children (or pregnant women for you that this applies to) eat uncooked or under cooked eggs. Therefore, I have provided this recipe instead. It worked beautifully and tasted great.
3. This makes for a good amount of icing, divide the icing into separate bowls, one for each color of your choosing and mix in the gel food coloring of each color.
4. Place each color into a plastic squeeze bottle to allow for easy tracing of the decoration designs.
For these designs
1. Draw jack-o-latern mouths, triangle eyes, vampire teeth and widow’s peaks to create the templates for the icing decorations. The possibilities are endless, so feel free to be creative here.
I printed these on a small square of card stock. I then taped it to a rectangular piece of cardboard to create a “handle” on my template (A tongue depressor or popsicle stick works also). I then taped a piece of wax paper, just big enough for my design, to the counter top where I was working. I slid the template between the wax paper and the counter and then traced my design, using the desired colors with the squeeze bottles of icing.
2. After the design is done remove the template from under the wax paper and set aside the design to dry. Repeat this as need for your choice of cookies. It is best to let the icing dry at least overnight, so that it is firm when you remove it from the wax paper.
3. After the the cookies are with the powdered sugar icing, remove the royal icing decorations from the wax paper and arranged them on cookies. Remember to be very gentle removing these from the wax paper to prevent them from breaking or cracking. Either use a toothpick to gently prod the icing decorations off the wax paper, or place the wax paper on the edge of the counter or table and roll it down over the edge. This will easily dislodge the pieces.
4. Then simply arranged them on the cookies with the rest of the decorations and enjoy!!
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PS- To see short video of the procedure on making the Royal Icing designs click thru to the Turkey cookies or here
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Your Halloween cookies look awesome! I think its great that you and your family celebrated Holidays in the fun way that you described when you were growing up!
Those are amazing cookies! Holidays are such a part of our family's traditions too and so many of my childhood memories are tied to them. I love seeing other families that have made them part of their story!
What a great job on the cookies! 🙂 My kiddos would have a ball making and decorating these!
These are so cute and creative! I always struggle with the creative aspect of baking. 🙁 Pinning!