October28
There are ghosts flying around my kitchen.
Halloween starts the deluge of sweet treats and eats in my home,* and I’ve finally come up with the best cutout cookie recipe ever! These are so buttery and delicious, I know this will become my go-to cookie recipe for the holidays. The secret is to use superfine sugar!
Since I was making the cookies from scratch, I turned to Wilton to help me make everything else easier.
I’ve always struggled to get the thickness of these cookies just right, so I really liked using the Rolling Pin Guide Rings. You slip the rings on either end of the Rolling Pin and roll out the dough to a perfect ⅛-inch thickness.
I used the Royal Icing Mix to give the cookies a smooth, glossy finish. This is such an easy way to make your cookies look like they came from a fancy-do bakery! The finishing touch? The fun Candy Eyeballs and Black Icing Color I used for the mouth. I ordered these items on line, but you can also find them at Michael’s and other craft stores.
So, go ahead and let the ghosts fly in your kitchen! Don’t forget to print or bookmark this cookie recipe… you’re going to love it for all of your holiday cut-out cookies!
*That’s actually a lie. There are always sweet treats and eats in my home because I have a wicked sweet tooth.
The Best Cut-Out Cookie Recipe
prep: 20 minutes, plus 30 minutes resting
bake: 8 to 10 minutes
makes about 24 cookies (depending on the size of your cookie cutter!)
you’ll need…
2½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup superfine sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter, softened and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
1 package Wilton Royal Icing mix
1 package Wilton Candy Eyeballs
1 Wilton Icing Color (I used black)
let’s get to it…
Mix the flour, sugar and salt at low speed in a stand-up mixer. Add the butter a piece at a time until the dough looks crumbly. Add the vanilla and cream cheese and mix until the dough forms large clumps.
Remove the dough from the bowl and knead by hand once or twice. Cut the dough in half. Form two 4-inch disks. Wrap each disk tightly in plastic and let rest in the refrigerator for 30-minutes.
Place oven rack in the center and heat oven to 375°F. Place 1-dough disk between 2 sheets of parchment paper and roll out to ⅛-inch thickness. Place on a baking sheet. Cut into desired shapes about 1-inch apart. Remove excess dough from around cutout cookies and set aside.
Bake for 5 minutes; rotate pan and bake 3 to 5 minutes longer or until light golden brown. Repeat with second dough disk. Leftover scraps can be mashed together and rolled out to make more cookies. Cool cookies on a wire rack.
decorating the cookies…
Prepare the Wilton Royal Icing mix according to package directions. Decorate with Eyeballs and Icing color, or with whatever candy you have on hand!
When I was a kid growing up in West Texas, we used to pick pomegranates off of trees, throw them to the ground to break them open, and eat the delicious seeds inside.
