Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my favorite movies, so this year I decided to try making Jack Skellington Halloween sugar cookies. I’m not a great cookie decorator, but all in all I think these came out pretty cute. They are nowhere near perfect, but that’s what makes them fun!
I love classic soft sugar cookies, but since it’s Halloween I decided to make Halloween sugar cookies that are packed the flavors of fall. They have the same great texture as my original sugar cookie recipe, but these cookies get a hint of warm spices from the brown sugar, cinnamon, and molasses.
In addition to being a fun treat to share with friends, these Halloween sugar cookies make the perfect morning pairing with a steaming cup of coffee!
Sugar Cookies:
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon molasses
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (if you don’t have vb paste, sub with 2 tsp vanilla extract)
- 1 large egg
Royal Icing:
- 1 ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon merengue powder
- 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon water
- (to dye the icing black) 1 teaspoon black cocoa powder ***I’ll explain this in the recipe
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
In a separate bowl, whisk the flour and baking powder to blend. Using an electric mixer, beat the sugar, butter, cinnamon, molasses, salt, and vanilla bean paste in a large bowl to blend. Beat in the egg and mix to fully combine. Add all of the flour mixture in 2-3 batches, and beat just until mixed and the dry ingredients are all moistened.
Split the dough in thirds and place 1/3 of the dough on a floured surface. I usually put a large piece of parchment paper or cutting board down and put flour on top of that for easy clean up.
Make sure you use enough flour on your work surface and rolling pin to ensure that the dough doesn’t stick to anything. If you don’t use enough flour, your dough will become a sticky mess.
Working with one disk at a time, roll out the dough to about ¼ inch thick and cut out with pumpkin cookie cutters. Place the unbaked Halloween sugar cookies on your lined baking sheet and be sure to leave about an inch in between each cookie.
Bake at 350 degrees for 7 minutes. Let cool on pan for an additional 7 minutes, then transfer to wire rack. Since the cookies are soft, it’s important to let them cool on the pan before moving them or else they may break. This recipe makes about three dozen cookies with a few extra depending on how big your cookie cutters are, so it’s great to serve a crowd!
To make the icing, mix the powdered sugar and merengue powder, then add in the water and stir it together until a thick and smooth white icing forms.
NOTE** This icing recipe is a guideline, and I tend to add more powdered sugar or water depending on what I want to do with the icing. If you want it thicker, add more sugar. If you need to thin it out a bit, add a few drops of water at a time until you get your desired consistency.
Make sure the cookies are fully cooled before you ice them. If you ice them when they are warm, the icing will just run off. To make these Jack Skellington faces, I frosted each cookie with the white icing using a knife. By the time I had frosted each cookie with the white base, that layer of icing had set up.
I took the remaining icing and added the black cocoa powder to it to dye the icing black. Note that black cocoa powder is used to color frostings and baked goods and is not used for flavor. You don’t want to use this instead of traditional cocoa powder in your brownies! With that said, it is a nice natural way to color baked goods or icing black.
Once I colored the remaining icing black, I put the icing in a reusable pastry bag fitted with a tiny round tip (I bought this set and it has been a game changer! It has everything you need!) to pipe the faces onto these cookies.
Let the iced cookies set up and dry for about an hour so icing dries and hardens, and share these Jack Skellington Halloween sugar cookies with your friends! Trust me, they will be a hit!