I am a huge fan of anything Halloween. From spooky decorations to treats to eat while watching horror movies I am so here for it. Halloween is just such a fun holiday, and it has always been my absolute favorite. This recipe for Halloween tombstone sugar cookies is no exception. It’s so much fun to make and eat!
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This cutout sugar cookie recipe uses a familiar Christmas cookie cutter as the base for a fun Halloween tombstone with a cute little ghost hiding behind it. It does take a little bit of time to layer the decoration on this Halloween sugar cookie so I recommend baking them one day and then decorating them the next if you can.
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How to Make Halloween Tombstone Sugar Cookies
This recipe uses my absolute favorite sugar cookie dough. I use it in all of my sugar cookies and it always comes out absolutely perfectly. It is important to keep an eye on the temperature of your ingredients to ensure a perfect sugar cookie dough. I always recommend letting things come to room temperature before beginning.
1 C unsalted butter, softened
1 C granulated sugar
1 medium egg
1 tsp vanilla extract ( I prefer to use this one for baking )
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
3 C all-purpose flour
For the Decorations:
1 bottle spray on gray icing
1 tube black decorating gel
1 tube green decorating icing
Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer on medium speed until it is smooth and fully combined.
Add the egg and vanilla to the bowl of the stand mixer and blend another minute or so to ensure that everything is fully incorporated.
Add the cinnamon and baking powder to the mixture and blend until fully combined.
Slowly add the flour to the bowl of the stand mixer and blend until just combined.
Turn the cookie dough onto a powdered sugar-dusted surface and roll out to about 1 or 1 1/2 inch thickness. A pastry mat is a great way to tell the thickness of your sugar cookie dough if you are having trouble eyeballing it.
Use a Santa’s glove cookie cutter to cut out the cookies we will use for our tombstone. Transfer the cookie cut-outs to a parchment paper-lined baking pan.
Bake the cookies for 7 to 9 minutes or until they start to brown slightly around the edges.
Let the cookies cool in the pan for 5 minutes then move to a cooling rack to finish cooling completely before decorating.
Add a layer of white royal icing to the cookies once they have cooled completely. Let this layer of icing dry completely before moving on to the next step.
Use a piece of parchment paper or cardboard to cover the “thumb” of the cookie and then use a spray icing to color the tombstone gray. If you prefer to not use spray icing you can use a little bit of vodka and a decorating powder to color your tombstone. Let this layer dry completely before moving to the next step.
Use a black decorating gel to add the RIP and the eyes to your ghost on each cookie. You can add a little mouth to the ghost if you like but I prefer them with just the eyes. Again, let this layer dry completely before moving to the next step.
Finally, add a layer of grass to the bottom of the tombstone with a tube of green decorating icing. Allow this layer to dry completely before storing the cookies.
How to Store Tombstone Sugar Cookies
These cookies will store just fine on the counter for about 3 to 4 days as long as they are kept in an airtight container.
You can definitely freeze these cookies well, and they will last for about a month if frozen. However, I highly recommend using a piece of parchment paper between layers of cookies to help keep anything from sticking together.
Halloween Tombstone Iced Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 C unsalted butter softened
- 1 C granulated sugar
- 1 med egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 3 C all-purpose flour Preheat the
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° F.
- Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer on medium speed until smooth and fully combined.
- Add the egg and vanilla to the bowl of the stand mixer and blend another minute or so to fully incorporate.
- Add the cinnamon and baking powder to the mixture and blend until combined.
- Slowly add the flour to the bowl of the stand mixer and blend until just combined.
- Turn the cookie dough out onto a powdered sugar-dusted surface and roll to around 1 to 1½ inch thickness.
- Use the Santa's glove cookie cutter to cut cookies and place each of them on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
- Bake the cookies for about 7 to 9 minutes or until they start to brown slightly around the edges.
- Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes on the pan and then move to a cooling rack to cool completely before decorating.
- Once the cookies have cooled completely add a layer of white royal icing to each one to start the decoration. Let this layer dry completely before moving to the next step.
- Use a piece of parchment paper to cover over the "thumb" of each cookie and spray the glove part using a grey spray on icing color. Allow this layer to dry completely before moving to the next step.
- Use a black decorating gel to add the RIP to each of your grey tombstones. You can also use the decorating gel to add two eyes (and a little mouth if you like) to each of the ghosts that are now popping out from behind the tombstones. Let this layer of decoration dry completely before moving on to the next step.
- Uses green decorator icing to add grass to the bottom of each tombstone.
