Halloween Sugar Cookies Recipe
My viral rolled sugar cookie recipe is now ready for spooky season! My daughter and I make this Halloween Sugar Cookies Recipe every year on Halloween weekend-it's a tradition in our fam, and once you see how easy and perfectly soft and tender these sugar cookies are, they'll be a tradition in your house, too!
🔍 Recipe At-A-Glance: Halloween Sugar Cookies Recipe
- ⏰ Prep Time: 10 minutes
- 🕰️ Chill Time: 20 minutes
- ⏱️ Bake Time: 5-8 minutes
- 🍪 Flavor Profile: Buttery, sweet and you choose the flavor-vanilla, mint, coconut, almond, oh my!
- 🧈 Crunchy or soft-baked: Soft and chewy! These aren't cakey or crisp, they are the perfect tender, chewy sugar cookie texture
- 🧁 Cookie Icing: The best icing for sugar cookies. It's easy to make. It's hardens enough to stack, but is still tender to bite into.
- 🧡 Difficulty: A super simple cookie recipe that uses pantry ingredients!
"Best sugar cookies I've ever made! Not only do they look good, but they taste wonderful, too. Not too sweet or sugary, just the perfect blend of goodness! Thank you for sharing this recipe."
- KEILEE -
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🧡 Why You'll Love This Recipe
Ready to fall in love with a sugar cookie recipe? I got you. I've been making this exact cut out sugar cookie recipe for decades, and they turn out perfect every. single. time. I first posted my sugar cookie recipe to the internet in 2010, and they've been incredibly popular ever since!
Here's why you'll love this recipe:
- No spread, no puff: No deformed ghosts or puffy pumpkins here. Your cookies go in and come out of the oven looking like your cookie cutters.
- Easy to work with: Non-sticky dough that is easy to roll, easy to cut, and-maybe best of all-easy to clean up.
- The perfect sugar cookie texture: Not cakey, not crisp, these cookies are the glorious chewy, soft texture we all love. Although if you do enjoy a good cakey sugar cookie, my Lofthouse sugar cookies recipe will do the trick!
- Customizable flavor. My go-to is to flavor these cookies with vanilla extract, but these are so good with almond for Halloween!
🎃 The Ingredients You Need
- Butter: You want it to be softened before making the cookies. Check my Expert Tips & Trips below for two easy ways to soften butter fast!
- All purpose flour: Just regular ole white flour is what works best here.
- My simple sugar cookie icing: Literally the best sugar cookie icing you're going to find on the internet. Hardens enough to stack while still being soft to bite.
Make sure to check the recipe card below for the full ingredients list, along with quantities and my expert tips and tricks.
🔁 Variations & Substitutions
- Make it gluten-free: I've had good luck making this recipe with many of the gluten-free all purpose flours on the market. It's especially good with Better Batter and Cup4Cup.
- Make it dairy-free: This recipe works great with vegan margarine sticks like Earth Balance.
- Change up the flavor: Vanilla is classic, but you can use any extract you like. Peppermint, coconut, almond (my fave for Halloween), maple-get creative!
🥣 How to Make My Halloween Sugar Cookies Recipe
Step 1: Cream together the softened butter and sugar, then add in the eggs and the extract of your choice. You can do this using a stand mixer, hand mixer, or in a bowl with a spoon.
Step 2: Add in the flour, baking powder, and salt, and mix until well-combined.
Step 3: Divide the dough into quarters, then form into discs and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in the fridge for at least two hours, or 20 minutes in the freezer.
Step 4: Serve cold topped with additional cinnamon, if desired.
Step 5: Grab your favorite cookie cutters and go to town!
Step 6: Bake the cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet for 6-8 minutes in a 400° oven.
Step 7: Watch the cookies very closely! The cookies are done with the bottoms are just barely brown. Immediately transfer the cookies to a wire baking rack to cool. Allow cookies to cool completely before decorating.
Step 8: Now the super fun part! After the cookies have completely cooled, decorate them with our easy sugar cooking icing and your favorite sprinkles.
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🙋🏻♀️ Halloween Sugar Cookies recipe FAQs
Yes! Chilling the dough makes it so the cookies won't spread in the oven and will keep your beautifully cut out shapes.
Once the frosting has hardened, stack them between layers of parchment paper in a glass food storage container and leave them on the counter for up to a week.
To freeze the dough: Form into discs, and then wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Place the wrapped disc in a freezer-safe glass food storage container or zip-top freezer bag. Freeze for up to a year.
To freeze the uniced baked cookies: Lay cooled cookies flat on a baking sheet, and freeze until solid-about 3 hours. Then transfer to a freezer-safe glass food storage container or zip-top freezer bag for up to three months.
I don't recommend freezing sugar cookies frosted with my simple sugar cookie icing because while the taste is fine, this particular icing recipe tends to crack and lose its luster in the freezer
👩🏻🍳 My Expert Tips & Tricks
- Soften butter fast trick #1: Fill a metal bowl with hot water, let it sit for a sec to warm up the bowl. Dump out the water. Place the sticks of butter under the inverted hot bowl on the counter. Wait 5 minutes or so.
- Soften butter fast trick #2: Place the butter in a zip-top bag and submerge it in warm (not hot!) water. Wait a few minutes.
- The wet ingredients may look curdled: Don't stress! I promise the final dough will turn out perfect.
- Don't overbake. They could be done in as little as five minutes! You're looking for very slight color along the edges. Err on the side of underbaked!
- Get those cookies off the pan ASAP. The cookies will keep on cooking if you leave them on the hot metal pan. Use a large thin spatula to move them to cooling racks as soon as they are out of the oven.
- Cool completely before decorating. If not, the best icing for sugar cookies will run everywhere.
- This recipe makes a lot! It's the perfect sugar cookie recipe for decorating so if you're having a cookie decorating party make the full batch. But if you want less, you can easily half the recipe. Or do as I do, and freeze the extra dough discs for other holidays. This recipe makes a perfect Christmas cut out sugar cookie recipe, Easter sugar cookies, and Valentine's Day sugar cookies!
I hope you enjoy these sugar cookies as much as my family does! They are now a Halloween tradition for us. We usually have them after carving pumpkins, roasting homemade pumpkin seeds, and while watching a spooky movie. Happy spooky season!
👻 More Spooky Halloween Eats
If you tried these Halloween Sugar Cookies or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the comments!
📖 Recipe
Halloween Sugar Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
For the cookies:
- 1 ½ cups unsalted butter 3 sticks, softened to room temperature
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 5 cups all-purpose flour plus more for rolling (see notes)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Easy sugar cookie icing
- Halloween sprinkles and candied eyes optional
Instructions
- In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, using a hand mixer, or mixing with a wooden spoon, cream together butter and sugar.
- Mix in eggs and vanilla extract until well combined.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the remainder of cookie ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the wet in 2 batches, until combined.
- Divide dough into quarters, form into discs, and wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 20 minutes in the freezer, or 2 hours in the fridge. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400°F.
- After chill time, remove one disc from the freezer or fridge and roll out on a floured surface until the dough is ⅛"-¼" thick.
- Cut with cookie cutters and bake on a parchment-lined cookie sheet for 6-8 minutes, watching closely. Cookies are done when bottoms are just barely golden. Remove immediately from cookie sheet, then let cool completely on wire racks before frosting. (Make sure cookie sheets are cool to touch before placing more cookie dough on them.)
- Decorate with simple sugar cookie icing (keep it as white icing or add a few drops of food coloring to dye it) and sprinkles, as desired. If you'd like to use sprinkles, apply them before the icing dries.
Notes
- Don't stress if the wet ingredients look curdled while mixing! I promise the final dough will turn out perfect.
- For rolling out the cookies: you can just a little more flour, or you can use powdered sugar. The powdered sugar absorbs into the cookie while it bakes and doesn't leave any flour residue.
- Do not overbake. These cookies could be done in as little as five minutes! You're looking for very slight color along the edges. Err on the side of underbaked.
- The cookies will keep on cooking if you leave them on the hot metal pan. Use a large thin spatula to move them to cooling racks as soon as they are out of the oven.
- Cool completely before decorating.
- This recipe makes a lot! If you want less, you can easily half the recipe. Or do as I do, and freeze the extra dough discs for other holidays.
We love these sugar cookies for Halloween! We typically use almond extract in both the dough and the frosting for spooky season—something about the nutty flavor feels cozy and festive. When I worked in an office, I brought a big batch of these each Halloween, and it was always a huge hit! I hope you love them as much as I do.
Is there any way to make this recipe smaller.
Hi Makayla! You could make a half batch if you're looking for a smaller amount. But we love making the full batch and then stashing some in the freezer for later. When the recipe says to "divide the dough into quarters, form into discs, and wrap in plastic wrap and chill," just tuck the discs you want to use later in the freezer. This dough freezes beautifully, and then you'll have some ready when you want to make other holiday cookies (Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, etc.). We use this dough for all of them!