Get ready for the most charmingly spooky treats! These Sweet Ghost Sugar Cookies are perfectly tender and slightly sweet, making them the ideal canvas for adorable ghost decorations. They’re simple to make, fun to decorate, and guaranteed to bring a smile to everyone’s face, whether for a Halloween party or just because.
These delightful cookies are wonderfully soft with a hint of sweetness, topped with creamy icing and topped off with playful ghost faces.
Recipe Details
- Flavor Profile: Sweet, buttery, with a subtle vanilla hint from the cookie and creamy sweetness from the icing.
- Texture: Tender, soft, and melt-in-your-mouth cookie with smooth, set icing.
- Total Active Time: Approximately 30 minutes (plus 1 hour chilling time and decorating time).
- Difficulty Level: Easy. Perfect for bakers of all skill levels.
What You’ll Need
To bring these sweet ghost sugar cookies to life, you’ll need a few key components: a simple sugar cookie dough, a smooth white icing for their spectral appearance, and a touch of black food coloring to give them their characteristic spooky faces.
Ingredient Notes
- All-purpose flour – This forms the base of our cookie, providing structure.
- Baking soda & Baking powder – These leavening agents work together to give the cookies a delicate lift and tender crumb.
- Unsalted butter, softened – Softened butter creams beautifully with sugar, creating that essential tender texture. Make sure it’s softened, not melted.
- Granulated sugar – Provides sweetness and helps create that classic cookie crispness at the edges.
- Large egg – Binds the ingredients together and adds richness.
- Vanilla extract – A touch of vanilla enhances all the other flavors and adds a comforting aroma.
- Royal icing or white cookie icing – This forms the perfect ghostly base for our decorated cookies. You can use store-bought or make your own!
- Black gel food coloring – Essential for drawing those cute and spooky ghost eyes and mouths. Gel coloring provides a concentrated pigment without adding too much liquid.
Add-ins and Substitutions
While these ghost sugar cookies are wonderful as they are, you can get creative! For a bit of extra flavor, consider adding a pinch of cinnamon or a tiny bit of almond extract to the dough along with the vanilla. If you don’t have ghost-shaped cookie cutters, any simple shape will do, though the ghost theme is especially fun for occasions like Halloween.
How to Make Sweet Ghost Sugar Cookies Recipe
Let’s get baking! These cookies come together quite easily. First, we’ll prepare the dry ingredients, then mix them with the wet ingredients to form a delightful dough.
- Whisk Together Dry Ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk together your 2.75 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder. This ensures the leavening agents are evenly distributed throughout the flour, leading to consistently puffed cookies.
- Cream Butter and Sugar: In a separate, larger bowl, cream together 1 cup of softened unsalted butter and 1.5 cups of granulated sugar using an electric mixer until the mixture is light and fluffy. This process incorporates air, which is key to a tender cookie.
- Add Wet Ingredients: Beat in 1 large egg and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract into the creamed butter and sugar mixture until well combined.
- Combine Wet and Dry: Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing on low speed until just combined and a cohesive dough forms. Be careful not to overmix at this stage.
- Chill the Dough: Wrap the dough securely in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour. This chilling period is crucial; it firms up the butter, making the dough easier to roll and cut, and also helps prevent the cookies from spreading too much during baking.
- Preheat Oven and Prepare Baking Sheets: While the dough chills, preheat your oven to 375F (190C). Line your baking sheets with parchment paper for easy removal and cleanup.
- Roll and Cut Dough: On a lightly floured surface, roll out the chilled dough to about 1/4-inch thickness. Use your ghost-shaped cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Gently transfer the cut cookies to your prepared baking sheets, leaving a little space between them.
- Bake the Cookies: Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are just beginning to turn lightly golden. They will continue to firm up as they cool.
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Cool Completely: Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. This is very important for decorating.
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Pro Tip: For perfectly shaped ghosts, chill the cut-out cookies on the baking sheet for about 10-15 minutes in the freezer before baking. This helps them hold their shape beautifully.
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Decorate Your Ghosts: Once the cookies are completely cool, spread them with about 2 cups of royal icing or white cookie icing. Let the icing set for about 30 minutes. Once the white icing is firm, use black gel food coloring to draw on your ghost eyes and mouths. Get creative with their expressions!
Recipe Tips
- Don’t Overmix: Overmixing the dough after adding the flour can develop gluten too much, resulting in tougher cookies. Mix until just combined.
- Proper Chilling: Don’t skip the chilling step! Cold dough is much easier to handle and bakes with better results.
- Even Rolling: Try to roll your dough to an even 1/4-inch thickness. This ensures that all your cookies bake uniformly.
- Watch the Edges: Keep an eye on your cookies as they bake. A slight golden edge is perfect. Over-baking will make them crispier than intended for this tender cookie.
- Complete Cooling: Ensure your cookies are completely cool before icing. Warm cookies will melt the icing, creating a mess.
FAQs
- Q: My cookies spread a lot in the oven. What went wrong?
A: This can happen if the dough wasn’t chilled long enough, if the butter was too soft when you started, or if the oven temperature was too low. Ensure your dough is well-chilled and your oven is accurately preheated. - Q: Can I use a different type of icing?
A: You can! While royal icing or a thick white cookie icing works best for decoration, a simple buttercream or glaze could also be used, though it might give a different finish. - Q: How long do these cookies stay fresh?
A: Stored in an airtight container at room temperature, these cookies should stay fresh for about 5 to 7 days.
Serving Suggestions
These adorable ghost cookies are perfect on their own as a sweet treat. They are also wonderful served alongside a cold glass of milk, a warm cup of tea, or coffee. For parties, arrange them on a platter with other Halloween-themed goodies for a truly festive spread. They make a delightful addition to any dessert table.
Make This Recipe in Advance
You can prepare the cookie dough up to 2 days in advance and keep it wrapped in the refrigerator. You can also bake the cookies a day or two before decorating; just make sure they are completely cooled and stored in an airtight container at room temperature. The decorating, of course, is best done closer to when you plan to serve them for the freshest look.
Print
Sweet Ghost Sugar Cookies Recipe
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes (plus decorating time)
- Yield: N/A
Description
These Sweet Ghost Sugar Cookies are perfectly tender and slightly sweet, making them the ideal canvas for adorable ghost decorations. They’re simple to make, fun to decorate, and guaranteed to bring a smile to everyone’s face.
Ingredients
2.75 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1.5 cups granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups royal icing or white cookie icing
Black gel food coloring (for ghost eyes and mouths)
Instructions
Combine flour, baking soda, and baking powder in one bowl.
Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy in a separate bowl, then add egg and vanilla.
Slowly mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients to create a dough, then wrap and chill for one hour.
Warm your oven to 375F (190C) and prepare baking sheets with parchment paper.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4-inch thickness and cut out ghost shapes.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until the edges are lightly golden, then let them cool completely.
Decorate the cookies with white icing, allow it to set for 30 minutes, and then draw on ghost faces with black gel food coloring.
Notes
Don’t Overmix: Overmixing the dough after adding the flour can develop gluten too much, resulting in tougher cookies. Mix until just combined.
Proper Chilling: Don’t skip the chilling step! Cold dough is much easier to handle and bakes with better results.
Even Rolling: Try to roll your dough to an even 1/4-inch thickness. This ensures that all your cookies bake uniformly.
Watch the Edges: Keep an eye on your cookies as they bake. A slight golden edge is perfect. Over-baking will make them crispier than intended for this tender cookie.
Complete Cooling: Ensure your cookies are completely cool before icing. Warm cookies will melt the icing, creating a mess.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 8-10 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Calories: N/A
- Fat: N/A
- Carbohydrates: N/A
- Protein: N/A
