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Halloween Sugar Cookies are the best chocolate sugar cookies that anyone can make: decorating with buttercream is easier than using royal icing and they taste better too! Seriously, anyone can make these – if I can do it, so can you!
Frosted Sugar Cookie Recipe
These cookies are my classic chocolate cut out cookies (which are just like a delicious sugar cookie, but chocolate flavored.) They are my favorite! Along with their taste–the chocolate color works so well with any Halloween themed decorating. This being said, you can definitely make regular cut out sugar cookies!
Sugar cookies usually use a royal icing to decorate the cookies, but for this recipe I used my buttercream frosting. I find that buttercream is much easier to work with and much more forgiving! Royal icing also needs time to harden and sometimes can have flooding and be messy. With buttercream we don’t need to worry about that! Make these amazing Halloween cookies to get in the spooky spirit!
Ingredients Needed
- Chocolate Sugar Cookie Dough – the recipe has all the ingredients – but you can see how to make them in that post if you need a visual or process photos. You can also use my regular cut out sugar cookies – or your favorite.
- Food coloring: To color the frosting for all your decorating! I prefer gel food coloring for vibrant colors.
- For all my tips and tricks on decorating cookies, check out my guide to decorating cookies with buttercream!
How to make Halloween Cut Out Cookies
- Make your cookies and cut them into desired shapes. I use bats, pumpkins, and ghosts but use any Halloween themed cookie cutters you have.
- Make up a batch of buttercream and color as desired.
- Use a small round tip (I usually use a Wilton #4 tip) to pipe the buttercream all over the cookies, then use an offset spatula to smooth it out.
Semi-Homemade Swap
You can easily use a store bought cookie dough to make these cutouts. Simply bake as directed. I do not recommend using canned frosting; it’s too thin and won’t hold it’s shape.
Expert Tips
- Cooling this dough appropriately is really important and will be helpful in the long run! Chill dough before and after baking to get the best results. Don’t bake the cookies on a hot sheet. If you have multiple batches going on one sheet–wait for the sheet to cool before placing more dough on it.
- Store the cookies in an airtight container. Once they dry you can stack them with minimal transfer (although they won’t dry hard). You can also freeze sugar cookies!
FAQs
Yes you can! Freeze them in an airtight container between pieces of parchment paper.
Yes they are! If your cookies are frosted there could be some frosting transfer.
Halloween Sugar Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
For the cookies:
- 1 cup (226g) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 ¼ cups (250g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ cup (20g) unsweetened cocoa powder (or Dutch Process for a deeper flavor)
- 2 ½ cups (310g) all-purpose flour
For the frosting:
- ½ cup (113g) unsalted butter, softened
- 4 cups (452g) powdered sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3-4 tablespoons milk
- Food coloring if desired
- Sprinkles if desired
Instructions
- Place butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl (or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment). Cream until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes.
- Add egg, vanilla, salt, baking powder, and cocoa and mix until combined, then mix in flour until smooth.
- Lay a sheet of wax or parchment paper on a work surface. Place half the cookie dough in the center and press to form a disk. Cover with another sheet of paper and roll to between ¼-1/2 inch thickness (as desired). Repeat with the second half of the dough.
- Chill dough until firm, at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Remove half the dough from the refrigerator and use cookie cutters to cut desired shapes.
- Place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Chill for 15 minutes then bake cookies until no longer glossy, approximately 10-15 minutes (depending on thickness and size).
- Reroll leftover dough and chill while cutting shapes from the second half. Continue until all your cookie dough is cut into shapes.
- Once cookies are baked, cool completely before frosting.
- To make the frosting, beat butter and sugar with a stand mixer until crumbly. Add salt and vanilla, then add 3 tablespoons of milk and mix until smooth, adding more milk 1 teaspoon at a time until you get a piping consistency.
- Frost cookies as desired. Let sit at room temperature to crust, then you can stack them.
- To decorate as seen in the photos, use a Wilton round tip, #4 or #5. Pipe the edges of each cookie then fill in with the same tip. Use an offset spatula to smooth the frosting and then add any details.
- Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days or freeze for up to 2 months.
Recipe Notes
- Cooling this dough appropriately is really important and will be helpful in the long run! Chill dough before and after baking to get the best results. Don’t bake the cookies on a hot sheet. If you have multiple batches going on one sheet–wait for the sheet to cool before placing more dough on it.
- Store the cookies in an airtight container. Once they dry you can stack them with minimal transfer (although they won’t dry hard). You can also freeze sugar cookies!
- You can also decorate my regular (not chocolate) cut out cookies the same way.
- You can use this decorating method on store bought sugar cookie dough, but make the frosting homemade. Canned frosting won’t pipe like you need it to.
