Q1: What is the absolute, number one secret to making cutout cookies that don't spread and lose their shape in the oven?

The secret is cold dough and chilling ! This recipe uses multiple chilling steps. By keeping the butter in the dough as cold and as solid as possible, you are guaranteeing that your cookies will hold their beautiful, sharp, and detailed shape when they hit the heat of the oven.

Q2: What is the difference between "outline" icing and "flood" icing?

This is the key to professional-looking decorated cookies! The "outline" icing is a very thick, stiff consistency (like toothpaste) that you use to pipe a "dam" around the edge of your cookie. The "flood" icing is a much thinner consistency (like honey) that you use to fill in, or "flood," the area inside that dam. The thick outline holds the thin flood icing in place, which is the secret that allows it to dry to a perfectly smooth, flat, and glossy finish.

Q3: Can I make these Halloween cookies ahead of time for a party?

Yes, these are a perfect make-ahead party treat! You can bake the cookies completely and store them, undecorated, in an airtight container for up to a week. The royal icing decorations will also last for a very long time, so you can decorate them several days in advance.

Q4: Can I make this recipe without a stand mixer?

Of course! You can easily make both the cookie dough and the royal icing in a large bowl with a good electric hand mixer .

Q5: What is meringue powder?

Meringue powder is a fantastic baking staple that is made from pasteurized, dried egg whites, with a little cornstarch and some stabilizers. It is the secret to a very easy, stable, and completely food-safe royal icing without the need for raw egg whites. You can find it in the baking aisle of most major grocery stores or craft stores.

Halloween Sugar Cookies (with Royal Icing!)

A from-scratch recipe for classic, decorated ‘Halloween Sugar Cookies.’ This project features a simple butter and sugar cut-out cookie dough that is chilled, rolled, and cut into various festive shapes like ghosts, cats, and pumpkins. The baked and cooled cookies are then elaborately decorated using a homemade royal icing made with meringue powder. The recipe provides detailed, multi-step instructions for creating intricate designs for each shape, utilizing both thick icing for outlining and a thinner ‘flood’ icing for filling.

Author: Grace

Ingredients

For the Cookies:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, slightly beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
For the Royal Icing:
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup meringue powder
Gel food coloring (e.g., black, orange, yellow, green, white)

Instructions

Make the Cookie Dough: In a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. On low speed, gradually add a mixture of the flour, baking powder, and salt until a dough forms. Divide the dough in half, pat into disks, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Bake the Cookies: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment. Roll out one chilled dough disk to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut out Halloween shapes and arrange them on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the bottoms are just golden. Let the cookies cool completely on a wire rack. Repeat with the remaining dough.
Make the Royal Icing: In a stand mixer, beat the confectioners’ sugar, meringue powder, and 1/3 cup of water on medium-high speed for 5 to 6 minutes, until stiff peaks form. Divide the icing into separate bowls and color as desired with gel food coloring.
Decorate the Cookies: To decorate, you will need two consistencies of icing. For ‘flood’ icing, thin a portion of the colored icing with a little water at a time until it flows back together within 10 seconds of a knife being run through it.
Use the thicker icing in a piping bag with a small tip to pipe an outline around your cookie shape. Then, use the thinner ‘flood’ icing to fill in the outline. Let the base layer of flood icing harden completely, which can take 6 hours or up to overnight.
Once the base is dry, use the thicker icing to pipe on final details like faces, stems, or decorative dots. Let these details harden for about 1 hour.

Notes

Special Equipment: The recipe requires Halloween cookie cutters and piping bags with various small round tips.
This is a multi-day project due to the extensive chilling times for the dough and the long drying times required for the royal icing.
Chilling the dough at multiple stages is a crucial step to ensure the cookies hold their intricate shapes and do not spread during baking.
The article references a ‘Cook’s Note’ that is not provided in the text.

Find it online: https://www.eatswithsoul.com/halloween-sugar-cookies/