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Halloween Sugar Cookies

Halloween sugar cookies are buttery, crisp-edged sugar cookies cut into pumpkin and ghost shapes, then finished with crackly vanilla royal icing. The dough is chilled before baking for clean details, and the cooled cookies are flooded and decorated with tinted white, orange, and black icing.
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Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
chilling 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 25 minutes
Servings: 12 servings
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Calories: 150
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

Dry ingredients
  • 2.75 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 0.5 tsp salt
Cookie dough
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 1.5 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
Royal icing
  • 3 cup royal icing, tinted white, orange, and black

Equipment

  • 1 sheet pan

Method
 

Make the cookie dough
  1. Whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt until evenly combined, then set aside.
  2. Cream the unsalted butter, softened, with the granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
  3. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract until fully combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.
  4. Gradually mix in the dry ingredients until a soft dough forms.
  5. Chill the dough for 30 minutes so it’s firm enough to roll and hold crisp shapes.
Cut and bake
  1. Roll out the chilled dough and cut Halloween shapes, then transfer them to a sheet pan lined for easy release.
  2. Bake at 350°F for 9-11 minutes until the edges are just set, and the centers still look slightly soft.
  3. Cool the cookies completely on the pan before decorating so the icing won’t melt.
Flood and decorate
  1. Flood and decorate the cooled cookies with the vanilla royal icing, using tinted white, orange, and black to create pumpkin and ghost designs.
  2. Let the icing dry fully before stacking or storing to keep the top crackly.

Notes

Chill the dough until it’s firm to the touch so cut-out details bake up with cleaner edges. Store decorated cookies in a single layer or stacked with parchment between them for up to 5 days at room temperature. Freeze baked, undecorated cookies for up to 2 months; thaw and then decorate, or freeze fully iced cookies only if you can freeze them flat. For a gluten-free swap, use a 1:1 gluten-free all-purpose baking flour blend in place of the all-purpose flour.