The key to perfect sugar cookies is to (a) wait for the dough to thorough chill and (b) roll the dough out quite thick. Bake until they’re just starting to turn golden on the edges. I like a soft, fluffy sugar cookie piled high with delicious frosting and sprinkles. I’m drooling just thinking about it! Don’t forget to leave some frosting white.
You can use it on pretty much anything if you have a bunch of colored sprinkles. Last year for the first time I made gray frosting for my new tombstone cookie cutter and I thought they were particularly Halloween-y.
Halloween Sugar Cookies
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
Assorted cookie cutters: pumpkin, tombstone, ghost, bat
Purple, black, orange food coloring
Sprinkles, gel pens
- Cream together butter and shortening. Add sugar and mix until thoroughly incorporated. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla extract. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to butter-sugar mixture.
- Divide the dough into fourths, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill at least two hours or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a flat surface sprinkled with flour, roll one disk of dough to desired thickness. (I prefer thick sugar cookies.) Cut out with cookie cutters. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 5-7 minutes or until just turning golden on the edges and cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough. Frost and decorate!
Vanilla Frosting
3 cups powdered sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp milk
- Beat butter until fluffy. Add 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar and blend well. Add 1 Tbsp milk and blend until it’s starting to look like frosting. Add remaining 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 1 Tbps milk, and 2 tsp vanilla extract. Add a bit more milk if you need it to get your desired consistency. Divide frosting into bowls and tint desired colors. I highly recommend orange, purple, gray, and leaving some white.
