One of my favorite things about the holiday season is that you get to make all sorts of seasonal cookies! Christmas cookies are definitely my favorite to make and I love to go all out when it comes to decorating them. This is actually the first time I've made Halloween cookies and I loved how well they turned out. I'll definitely have to go out and get a wider variety of Halloween cutters!
I realized that the last time I posted decorated cookies I didn't share the cookie recipe or royal icing recipe I like to use! So naturally, it's time to share! I have a deep obsession with allrecipes.com. They have a wide and varied database and the user comments are helpful in determining whether or not a recipe is worth using. I like to use this cookie recipe:
The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
- 2 cups white sugar
- 4 eggs
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 5 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
Directions
- In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Roll out dough on surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
- Bake 6-8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.
TIPS:
This recipe is exactly as written from allrecipes with the only change made is an added teaspoon of vanilla extract. The directions for this recipe are fine, but I do like to do one more thing before I actually bake the cutout cookies. I like to let them chill again in the freezer for 30-60 minutes before baking. I feel that this helps the cookies retain their shape. Also to make cutting the cookies easier, dip your cutters in flour before making each cutout.
Royal Icing
Ingredients
- egg whites from 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons water
- 4 cups confectioner's sugar, sifted
- 1 teaspoon of any clear flavored extract
Directions
I am very adamant about safe food handling procedures, so I scoured the internet to find information about the proper way to handle raw eggs whites in an icing recipe. Luckily I found wonderful information from here on how to handle egg whites properly.
- In a double boiler or metal bowl placed over water in a saucepan, stir together the egg whites, half of the confectioner's sugar and the water.
- Cook over low heat or simmering water, beating constantly with a portable mixer at low speed, until the whites reach 160 degrees F.
- Pour into a large bowl and add the remaining sugar and clear extract and beat until you reach soft peak consistency. This is the consistency you'll use to pipe your borders, lines, dots, etc.
To color your icing:
I like to use gel or paste food coloring for my icings or frosting. Gel food coloring is much more concentrated than liquid coloring and doesn't affect the consistency. Just add a little coloring at a time until you get the colors you want.
To change the consistency:
To get a runnier consistency for filling spaces, simply add water a little at a time till you reach the consistency you want.
Extra Tips:
Don't let your icing sit out uncovered. I like to take a wet paper towel and cover the bowl until I'm ready to use more icing.
A cute little ghost dude! I still definitely need to work on my piping it's not as clean as I'd like! >_<
To make this cute little spider web just pipe black circles onto the white when it's still wet and drag a toothpick through to get a web pattern. Then just pipe blobs for the spider's body and little lines for legs.
A silly jack-o-lantern
A witch with a not so spooky face!
A vampire bat that's just had dinner!
A black cat that happily crossed my path until I bit his head off! hahahahaha
That's all for this week folks! Go out and make your own cute and fun cutout cookies! Next week is Halloween so we'll be debuting our costumes for this year! ♥
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