Ingredients
3 c. all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 c. (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 c. granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tbsp. milk
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
3 c. powdered sugar
1/4 c. light corn syrup
1/4 c. milk, plus more for thinning
1/4 tsp. almond (or vanilla) extract
Black food coloring
Preparation
Step 1In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Step 2In another large bowl, beat butter and sugar together. Add egg, milk, and vanilla and beat until combined, then add flour mixture gradually until just combined. Shape into a disk and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate 1 hour.Step 3When ready to roll, preheat oven to 350º and line two large baking sheets with parchment. Lightly flour a clean work surface and roll out dough until 1/8” thick. Using a ghost cookie cutter, cut out cookies. Re-roll scraps and cut out more cookies. Transfer to prepared baking sheets and freeze for 10 minutes.Step 4Bake until edges are lightly golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Place on a wire cooling rack and let cool completely. Step 5Meanwhile, make icing: In a medium bowl, combine powdered sugar, corn syrup, milk, and almond extract. Step 6Place about 1/4 of icing into a small bowl and dye black with black food coloring. Step 7Place about half the white icing in a piping bag fitted with a small round tip and pipe edges around cookies. Step 8Thin remaining white icing by adding 1 teaspoon milk at a time until icing runs easily on cookies, but isn’t water thin. Place icing in another piping bag with a small round tip and fill in centers of cookies. Use a toothpick to pop any air bubbles and to spread icing to help fill any gaps. Let cookies dry until icing is set, 15 minutes. Step 9Place black icing in a piping bag with a small round tip and pipe eyes and mouths onto cookies.
Use cold sugar cookie dough. A beautiful sugar cookie has to start with a good dough. Our sugar cookie dough (obviously) tastes delicious, but it also holds its shape perfectly while baking. Sugar cookie dough should be stiffer than other cookie dough. It’s also very important to chill it. If you bake the dough before chilling your cookie will lose its edges and you’ll end up with some wonky looking ghosts! We also freeze the cut out cookies for 10 minutes for extra shape security! Trace the edges, then flood. Decorating sugar cookies can be a little bit tricky. A good royal icing is important here and the consistency is key. It’s helpful to trace the edges of your cookies with icing and then fill in the rest by “flooding” the cookie with icing. The same royal icing can be used to trace the edge and to flood the cookie. To trace the edges you want your icing to be thick enough that it holds its shape perfectly when piped, but not so thick that you aren’t able to push it out of the piping tip easily. After piping all the edges we thin the remaining icing by adding a teaspoon of milk at a time until it’s the right consistency. You don’t want it to be so thin that it’s able to run over the piped edges, but it should lose it’s shape slightly when you start piping it onto the cookie. This allows it to flood over the cookie so that there’s no defining lines in the middle of cookie, but a thin smooth surface. Let this set before piping on the faces! Practice makes perfect. This is the most important step. Take your time! Expect to have a couple silly looking ghosts when perfecting your icing consistency and finding your rhythm. Don’t fret and know they will all taste just as delicious.
