Halloween Cookies

On Saturday it rained like mad so it was a good day to spend the morning in the kitchen. The girls, still their their pajamas, rolled dough and used Halloween themed cookie cutters to cutout: pumpkins, witches, owls, bats and more. See Sugar Cookie recipe here.

After the shapes were cutout, I placed the uncooked cookies in the freezer to bake off the next day. This is a great way to keep the cookies from spreading during baking.

I had a witch cookie too but the broom broke. Darn. I used Royal Icing to decorate the cookies. I wish I had black, orange and white sprinkles because I think the cookies would have looked much better with them. Also, I tried to make the bats purple but when I mixed blue and red I got an awful shade of brown. Tell me I'm right -- blue and red make purple right? I tried adding more blue and instead got this putty grey. I used purple sprinkles to hide the awful grey color. Even still, I think the cookies came out pretty darn good considering.

Royal Icing

3 Large egg whites, free of yolk and at room temperature

2 tspns fresh lemon juice

pinch of salt

1 16-ounce box of powdered sugar

In an electric mixer with the whisk attachment, mix together the egg whites and 1/2 tspn of the lemon juice until frothy and opaque. Then gradually add the salt and powdered sugar {1/2 cup at a time} and whisk at medium high speed. Add the remaining lemon juice and mix on high speed for 3 to 5 minutes until stiff peaks form. Add food coloring of your choice and blend well. Pipe onto cookies using pastry bag or use a small plastic sandwich bag cutting the corner just a little to make an opening to pipe from.

If the icing is too runny, add more powdered sugar. If too stiff, add water, 1 teaspoon at a time until you reach the desired consistency.

Allow cookies to sit out, uncovered, until icing is dry.