Spooktacularly Simple: Easy Candy Corn Iced Sugar Cookies for Halloween Fun!
As the leaves begin to change and a crisp coolness fills the air, my favorite time of year truly kicks off. It’s that wonderful season when the oven becomes our best friend, filling the kitchen with irresistible aromas as we transition from one joyous holiday to the next. And what better way to kick off this festive baking frenzy than with Halloween?
Halloween isn’t just about costumes and spooky decorations; it’s a celebration of all things fun, whimsical, and of course, sweet! From carving pumpkins to trick-or-treating, everyone gets to embrace their inner child. And for me, that often means whipping up a batch of festive treats that are as delightful to make as they are to eat.
These Candy Corn Iced Sugar Cookies are a fantastic way to usher in the holiday spirit. They are not only a perfect treat for school class parties and family gatherings, but their simple elegance also makes them ideal for decorating activities. Imagine setting up a cookie decorating station at your Halloween party – kids and adults alike will have a blast bringing these sweet masterpieces to life!
The Foundation of Flavor: Why Quality Ingredients Matter
Every truly exceptional cookie begins with a strong foundation, and for sugar cookies, that means high-quality ingredients. When your recipe calls for just a handful of components, each one plays a starring role in the final taste and texture. This is especially true for our Candy Corn Iced Sugar Cookies, where the buttery flavor and perfect crumb are paramount.
First and foremost, opt for real butter, not margarine. This isn’t just a snobby baker’s preference; it’s a science-backed decision. Butter and margarine have distinct melting points and fat compositions. Using real butter ensures your cookies spread just right, resulting in that tender, melt-in-your-mouth texture that defines a perfect sugar cookie. Moreover, since these cookies don’t rely on strong flavorings, you want that rich, authentic butter taste to shine through, creating a truly irresistible treat.
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Equally important is your choice of sugar. I highly recommend using a premium pure cane sugar, such as Dixie Crystals Pure Cane Sugar. Their commitment to non-GMO products and consistent quality ensures reliable results every time you bake. Sugar does more than just sweeten; it contributes to the cookie’s structure, browning, and tenderness. A good quality sugar ensures your cookies bake evenly and have that delightful golden edge and soft center.
Simplified Baking: Smart Shortcuts for Perfect Cut-Out Cookies
I used to find making cut-out cookies a bit of a daunting task. The endless rolling, chilling, cutting, and re-rolling of scraps could be tiresome. But over the years, I’ve developed a few ingenious shortcuts that transform this “chore” into a truly enjoyable process. These tips are especially helpful when baking with kids or if you’re new to cookie decorating!
Achieving Uniform Thickness with Ease
One of the secrets to perfectly baked sugar cookies is ensuring an even thickness across all your dough. This prevents some cookies from burning while others remain undercooked. My go-to trick? Chopsticks! The next time you order Chinese takeout, ask for a few extra pairs. Placing them on either side of your dough while rolling it out acts as a perfect guide, ensuring a consistent thickness every single time.
No chopsticks on hand? No problem! You can use clean pencils in the same way. Just be mindful that pencils are often slightly thicker than standard chopsticks, which might slightly affect your baking times. Always keep an eye on your cookies in the oven!
Embrace Simple Shapes for Less Waste
To minimize re-rolling dough scraps (which can make cookies tougher), choose cookie cutter shapes that are easy to cut and tessellate well. Shapes with straight lines, like triangles and squares, are excellent choices. Not only do they reduce waste, but they also make the cutting process faster and more efficient, leaving more time for the fun part: decorating!
Your New Best Friend: The Bench Scraper
A bench scraper is an incredibly versatile tool that will revolutionize your cookie-making process. I absolutely adore using my bench scraper for cutting cookie dough. It’s perfect for creating those clean, straight edges for triangular “candy corn” shapes. And here’s a huge bonus: it’s fantastic for kids! With no sharp blade edges to worry about, little hands can safely participate in cutting out shapes. Beyond cutting, a bench scraper doubles as an excellent tool for lifting and transferring delicate cookie shapes from your work surface to the baking sheet without distortion.
Effortless Enchantment: Simple Glaze Icing and Candy Corn Design
Decorating cookies doesn’t have to be complicated or require a pastry degree. My philosophy for these Halloween sugar cookies is “easy elegance.” We’re aiming for beautiful results with minimal fuss, making the process enjoyable for everyone involved. A simple glaze icing is the key to this approach.
Starting with Dixie Crystals Powdered Sugar for your glaze ensures a pure white base, which is crucial for vibrant colors. The fine texture of the powdered sugar creates a smooth, quick-setting icing that takes food coloring beautifully, allowing the true shades of yellow, orange, and white for our candy corn design to truly pop.
The beauty of a candy corn design is its simplicity. You don’t need fancy piping bags or intricate tools. A spoon, a few toothpicks, and a little creative flair are all you need to achieve charming, festive results. Yes, there might be a little mess involved, but isn’t that half the fun of hands-on baking and decorating?
Here’s how it works: spoon a small amount of icing onto your cooled cookie. Then, use a toothpick to gently spread the icing to the area you want to cover, creating your distinct colored sections. Don’t fret if the icing isn’t perfectly smooth at first; as it sets, the glaze will naturally settle and flatten, creating a beautiful, glossy, and professional-looking top. This self-leveling property of glaze icing is truly magical for beginner decorators!
So there you have it – cookies that are easy to bake, simple to decorate, and utterly delightful to eat! These Candy Corn Iced Sugar Cookies are bound to become a Halloween tradition in your home, bringing smiles and sweet memories to all who enjoy them.
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Candy Corn Iced Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
For the Cookies:
- 1 cup butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup Dixie Crystals granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
For the Icing:
- 3 cups Dixie Crystals powdered sugar
- 4-5 Tablespoons water (start with 4 and add more if needed)
- Food coloring (yellow and orange for candy corn)
Instructions
- Cream butter and granulated sugar together in a large bowl using an electric mixer until the mixture is light and creamy. Beat in the egg until thoroughly combined.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour and baking powder. Gradually add this dry ingredient mixture to the wet butter mixture, mixing on low speed until just combined. Be careful not to overmix the dough.
- Divide the dough into three equal portions. On a lightly floured surface, roll out each portion of dough to a thickness of approximately 3/8 to 1/4-inch. For the candy corn effect, roll the dough into a roughly 3-inch wide strip, then use a sharp knife or a bench scraper to cut the strip into triangular shapes. Place the cut-out cookies onto an ungreased baking sheet.
- Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C). Bake the cookies for 6-10 minutes, or until the edges are just lightly golden. The exact baking time will depend on the size and thickness of your cookies. Once baked, remove cookies from the baking sheet and transfer them to wire cooling racks to cool completely before proceeding with icing.
For the Icing:
- In a medium bowl, combine the powdered sugar with 4 tablespoons of water. Whisk vigorously until the icing is smooth and free of lumps. Add more water a teaspoon at a time if a thinner consistency is desired, or more powdered sugar for a thicker icing.
- Divide the prepared icing evenly into three separate bowls. Leave one-third white. Add yellow food coloring to one bowl and orange food coloring to the other, mixing each until you achieve vibrant, uniform colors.
- Once the cookies are completely cooled, begin decorating. Using about 1/4 teaspoon of the orange icing, spread it carefully across the middle section of a cookie. Repeat this process with the white icing for the top (pointed) section of the cookie, and the yellow icing for the bottom (wider) section. Allow the cookies to set for at least 4 hours at room temperature, or until the icing is firm to the touch, before stacking or storing them.
Notes for a Faster Set:
For a quicker setting time for your iced cookies, arrange them on a cooling rack, then place the cooling rack on a baking sheet. Place the baking sheet into a cold oven with only the oven light turned on for about 1 hour. The gentle warmth from the oven light helps the icing dry faster and harder, preventing smudges.
Did you make this recipe?
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These versatile triangle shapes aren’t just for candy corn! With a simple change of icing colors, they could easily transform into festive Christmas trees, making this a go-to sugar cookie recipe for various holidays throughout the year.
For more baking inspiration and delicious recipes, be sure to visit the Dixie Crystals website and connect with them on social media:
This post is sponsored by Dixie Crystals in conjunction with a social media campaign through Sunday Supper LLC. As always, all opinions expressed are my own, and I only share products that I genuinely love and use in my kitchen.
More Spooktacular Halloween Treats from Sunday Supper Friends:
Looking for even more inspiration to make your Halloween celebrations extra sweet? Check out these fantastic recipes from my fellow Sunday Supper bloggers:
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- Pumpkin Pie Puff Pastry Coffins by Ruffles & Truffles
- Pumpkin Spice Fudge by Runner’s Tales
- Pumpkin Whoopie Pies by Midlife Road Trip
- Spicy Little Devil’s (Food) Cupcakes by The Crumby Cupcake
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