Halloween Blood Spattered Sugar Cookies

With Halloween only days away, and all of the little kiddos ready to get their treats on, what better way to whip up a batch of blood spattered sugar cookies to get the heart pumping! These super soft and chewy cookies are my all-time favorite recipe and are so easy to make. This recipe works great with cookie cutters as well!

Halloween Sugar Cookie Recipe – 1 batch makes around 50 cookies (can you tell I use this recipe for when I have parties or to give cookies away!) Feel free to half everything for a more reasonable amount of cookies 🙂

Ingredients:

2 cups  – all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon – baking powder
1/2 teaspoon – baking soda
1/2 teaspoon – salt
1/3 cup – margarine
1/3 cup – shortening (I use Crisco)
1 cup – sugar
1 egg – beaten
2 tablespoons – milk (I use 2%)
1/2 teaspoon – vanilla

Directions:

Step 1: Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl.
Step 2: Cream the margarine, shortening and sugar together in a large bowl.
Step 3: In the large bowl, add in egg, milk and vanilla and mix until combined.
Step 4: Take your dry ingredients from step one and add them gradually to your wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
Step 5: Cover bowl and chill in refrigerator for 2 hours.
Step 6: Once dough is chilled, place it on a lightly floured surface and roll out to 1/8″ thickness.
Step 7: Use a round cookie cutter (this one was 3″) or the open side of a drinking glass will work as well and cut your dough into circles.
Step 8: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Step 9: Place circle cut cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet, 1″ apart from one another. These won’t spread much.
Step 10: Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Icing:

The frosting that I’ve found works best on these sugar cookies is Pillsbury Creamy Supreme – Vanilla. I’m sure somewhere out there is a recipe for a homemade frosting, but honestly, this one tastes amazing, hardens just enough so you can decorate it and softens the cookie texture up slightly. To achieve the blood spatter, mix together 2 cups of powered sugar and 2 tablespoons of water until a slightly thicker runny consistency forms. If it’s too thick, add a tiny bit more water, if it’s too thin, add more powered sugar. Next, add just a small amount of gel food coloring – I use this one and a small amount goes a long way. You don’t want to use too much as you’ll start to taste the flavor of the coloring. You also want to use a gel-based color instead of a typical liquid drop to achieve the rich red color. When the icing is made, take your cookies and line them in rows on a piece of parchment paper (this makes clean up after the spatter much easier!). Take the red icing on a small spoon and start to flick the icing over the cookies. I did this outside just incase the icing went all over the place. This is a perfect kids activity too! When they’re all finished, let them dry (usually about 30mins to an hour) and then place cookies in an air tight container (I place parchment in between layers of cookies, when stacking). Cookies can last for up to 1 week.