Vanilla & Chocolate Halloween Cookies

By pamdabear3383

Homemade rolled vanilla and chocolate cookies are cut into Halloween shapes, and decorated with Royal Icing when baked and cooled.

Ingredients

• Decorations:
• VANILLA COOKIES
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• Pinch salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature, 1 1/2 sticks
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Chocolate Cookies (recipe follows)
• Royal Icing (recipe follows)
• Orange, red, green and yellow food coloring, cocoa powder, chocolate jimmies, assorted colored sugar

Details

Servings 48
Preparation time 30mins
Cooking time 180mins
Adapted from familycircle.com

Preparation

Step 1

VANILLA COOKIES
In bowl, mix flour and salt. In medium bowl, beat together butter and sugar on medium speed until fluffy, 2 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla. On low speed, beat in flour mixture in thirds. Shape into disk; divide in half. Wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Heat oven to 350°F.

Using half the dough at a time, roll out between waxed paper to 1/4-inch thickness. (You can also roll out on well-floured surface.) Remove top sheet; cut out shapes. Reserve scraps. Transfer cookies from paper to ungreased baking sheets.

Bake at 350°F for 11 to 13 minutes or until browned around edges. Transfer to rack; cool. Repeat steps with scraps.

Prepare Royal Icing (recipe follows).

Decorate: Add food coloring to thin Royal Icing for base coat as desired. Use a thin spatula to spread icing to edges of cookies. Add food coloring to thick Royal Icing for piping as desired. Place in pastry bags with writing tips. Using the cookies pictured here and on our cover as a guide, pipe edging and designs on cookies. Sprinkle with cocoa powder, chocolate jimmies or assorted colored sugars as desired. To make a spiderweb: Paint cookies with white icing. Pipe contrasting spiral on top. Draw a knife through spiral, starting at center.

CHOCOLATE COOKIES
Make dough as in step 1 above, but substitute 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder for 1/4 cup of the all-purpose flour. Cut out cookies and bake, following the directions for the vanilla cookies.

ROYAL ICING:
For thin icing for base coat, in small bowl, beat together: 1 box (1 pound or 4 cups) confectioners’sugar, sifted; 3 tablespoons powdered egg whites; 8 tablespoons warm water until consistency of honey, about 6 minutes. For thick icing for piping, make a second batch as above, but use only 6 tablespoons warm water; beat until consistency of sour cream.

Note: Powdered egg whites are available from Baker’s Catalogue, bakerscatalogue.com.

Nutrition Facts
Servings Per Recipe about 48 cookies
Amount Per Serving
Calories 99
Total Fat (g) 3
Saturated Fat (g) 2
Cholesterol (mg) 12
Sodium (mg) 8
Carbohydrate (g) 17
Fiber (g) 0
Protein (g) 1