Halloween Sugar Cookies

My 5 year old's creations

It was a very brisk and beautiful day. My kids and I just got back from a long walk to the park. The kids have been begging me to make Halloween cookies for awhile so we decided it would be the perfect afternoon project. I grabbed my old Betty Crocker's cookbook and found a recipe for sugar cookies. I had some butter cream frosting in the cupboard along with some Halloween frosting, chocolate chips and coconut to decorate the cookies with. We made the dough and realized it needed to chill for at least 2 hours. We had friends come for dinner that night and never got a chance to bake the cookies.

After another long walk (it's a good way to get all their pent up energy out) we ended up making the cookies the next afternoon. Both kids enjoyed using the spooky Halloween cookie cutters and watching their cookies bake. They happily frosted and decorated their cookies for over an hour. It was neat to see how proud they were of their masterpieces. It was a fun time spent together and a great way to spend a cloudy and cold afternoon. Oh, and the coookies tasted really good too.

Sugar Cookies:

• 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar
• 1 cup of butter, softened
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 2 1/2 cups of flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cream of tartar

Mix powdered sugar, butter, vanilla and egg together until creamy. Stir in the remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly. Cover the dough very well and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat the baking sheet lightly with cooking spray. Roll dough to 1/4 inch thick on a slightly floured surface. Cut cookies into whatever shapes you desire.

Make sure everyone gets a turn

Place them on cookie sheet and bake for 7-8 minutes or until the edges are light golden brown.

Cool cookies on the baking sheet for a minute before transferring to a cooling rack. Make sure you let the cookies completely cool before frosting them.

Once the cookies are frosted, let your little ones decorate until their hearts content. I let mine decorate with anything I had in the baking cupboard.

I can't tell you how much fun they had and how much I enjoyed watching them. Both my kids said they were the best cookies ever. I must admit they were pretty tasty, messy, but tasty.

My three year old's creations

Click here for a printable version of this recipe