Fall spiced Halloween sugar cookies

What's more festive than cookies shaped like pumpkin and ghosts? Well maybe actually pumpkins... Anyway I was deciding ideas for my clubs' Fall Baking day and I wanted something festive but easy to make and cookies are always my go to. I saw other sugar cookies that were more classic and round had frosting on them, but this was more exciting. These pictures are from my first time making them and they came out pretty decent, I was a little shocked. We actually made these with my club on October 29th and everyone had a lot of fun. We had more colors like dark purple and gray which really fit the Halloween mood. I would recommend these to anyone who makes Christmas sugar cookies and wants something similar for Halloween. This was also a very straightforward recipe and was not to hard to teach others. You could even go further with the decorations and add sprinkles, but I always like a plain colored icing.

What you need:

3 c unbleached, all-purpose flour 2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp ginger 1/8 tsp nutmeg (freshly grated, if possible) 1/8 tsp allspice 1/2 c granulated sugar 1/2 c light brown sugar (packed) 2 sticks butter 1 egg 1 tsp pure vanilla extract Preheat oven to 350. 1.Whisk the flour, baking powder and spices, set aside. 2.Cream the sugar and butter. Add the egg and extracts and mix until well-blended. 3.Gradually add the flour mixture and beat just until combined, scraping down the bowl, especially the bottom. (The dough will be quite thick...you may need to knead in stray bits of flour from the bottom of the bowl by hand.) 4.Roll on a floured* surface and cut into shapes. Place on parchment lined baking sheets and bake for 9-12 minutes, depending on the size of your cutter. Let sit a few minutes on the sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack.*

Decorate your cookies however you like!

I make a simple royal icing and color with food dye. This is what I put in mine.

1 cup powdered sugar

about 1tbs. liquid like milk

Few drops of coloring

Be careful with the liquid proportion because it may seem like a little bit but it really turns the powdered sugar into a liquid quickly. You should look for a consistency where if you lifted up the spoon it would slowly drizzle off. You don't want it watery at all or it will not stay on your cookies.

If your icing looks to watery add more powdered sugar, and if it looks to stiff then add more liquid.

*make sure to put a good amount of flour on your surface or else the dough will stick and it is hard to work with, (of course not buckets of flour...)

*if you are adding icing make sure the cookies are cool first or else the icing with get hot and drip over the sides.... that's no good