Halloween Chocolate Cookies - Sally's Baking Addiction (2024)

Make Halloween cookies using my rich and flavorful chocolate sugar cookies as the starting point. Once your cookies have cooled, have fun decorating them for Halloween using royal icing or an easy glaze icing. Feel free to leave the icing white or tint it festive colors. This post shows many different ways to decorate the cookies based on skill level, so this is definitely something beginners can accomplish too!

Decorated Halloween Cookies

Today’s post brings a few published recipes together to show you fun ways for decorating Halloween-themed cookie cutter sugar cookies. The recipe below is my chocolate sugar cookies, which has its own page if you ever want to read more about them. You can, of course, use my plain sugar cookies instead or your own recipe for sugar cookies with these fun decorating ideas! I love these chocolate sugar cookies because they’re flavorful and if you don’t accidentally over-bake them, they’ll remind you of brownies.

Carefully follow the order of steps in the printable recipe below. The dough is sticky and you can use cocoa powder when rolling/handling the dough. (I use it instead of flour for shaped chocolate cookies!) To prevent the cookies from over-spreading, the cookie dough must chill in the refrigerator. Roll out the dough right after you prepare it, and then chill the rolled-out dough. (Because at this point the dough is way too soft to cut into shapes.) Don’t chill the cookie dough and then try to roll it out because it will be too cold and impossible to roll. I divide the dough in half before rolling it out because smaller sections of dough are simply more manageable.

• Another trick! Roll out the cookie dough directly on a silicone baking mat or parchment paper so you can easily transfer it to the refrigerator. If you don’t have enough room for two baking sheets in your refrigerator, stack the pieces of rolled out dough on top of each other.

Some quick pictures of the process:

Choose Royal Icing or Easy Glaze Icing

The pictures in this post show chocolate Halloween cookies decorated with 2 icing options. Let me explain both options and then you can choose which you’d like to use. And, of course, you don’t have to use either if you have another sugar cookie icing you love more!

1. Royal Icing: I have a separate post for royal icing where you can find many FAQs, make-ahead instructions, and a video tutorial. It’s simply too much to include here and I don’t want to leave anything out, so hop over to that printable recipe to learn how to make it. Meringue powder is an essential ingredient. Royal icing dries quickly and because it’s so sturdy, you can pipe sharp detail. This is ideal for intermediate or advanced cookie decorators. If you’ve made my Valentine’s Day cookies, Easter cookies, or watermelon sugar cookies, you’ll be familiar with decorating with royal icing.
2. Easy Glaze Icing: I have a separate post for easy cookie icing. I LOVE this icing because you don’t need meringue powder or a mixer. It’s like a very thick glaze. This icing takes awhile to dry, about 24 hours, and you can’t pipe detail very well (like a Jack-O-Lantern face). But if you’re a beginner and want simple decoration, this is your recipe!!

The picture at the top of this post shows the cookies decorated with royal icing. Here is that photo again, as well as a photo of Halloween cookies decorated with the easy glaze icing:

Royal Icing Decorating Video

This following video shows me decorating each Halloween cookie with royal icing. You can use the easy cookie icing for these same looks with the exception of the Jack-O-Lantern’s face. (Almost impossible to pipe layers & sharp detail with that glaze icing.)

Decorating Tools For Halloween Cookies

No matter which icing you choose, here are some helpful decorating tools you need. I am not associated with any of these brands—I personally use and love all these items! Some of the following links are affiliate links.

1. Rolling Pin: If you have difficulty evenly rolling out dough, try thisadjustable rolling pin instead—it’s incredibly handy!
2. Parchment Paper or Silicone Baking Mats: You need either for rolling, chilling, and baking the cookie dough.
3. Halloween Cookie Cutters: The cookie cutters I used are no longer available, but this 5-piece Halloween set has some of the same shapes I used in the photos in this post. The mini ghosts you see in the royal icing photo are actually upside-down mini tulips! Here is the set it came from.
4. Piping Tips: I use Wilton piping tip #4 for outlining and flooding the cookies with icing. This is a wonderful basic piping tip to have in your collection. (Wilton piping tip #5 works for this too, but it’s a little larger.) For piping royal icing in fine detail, such as the Jack-O-Lantern’s face and leaves, I use a thinner round tip Wilton piping tip #2.
5. Gel Food Coloring: Tinting the icing different colors is completely optional. No matter which icing you use—royal icing or the easy glaze icing—if you want to tint it different colors, use gel food coloring because liquid food coloring will alter the consistency. I used the Orange, Super Black, and Mint Green on the cookies in these photos.
6. Disposable Piping Bags or Reusable Piping Bags
7. Couplers: Couplers are needed if you’re switching around your piping tips and icing colors. For example, if you’re flooding a bat cookie with black icing, but then you need a smaller tip for black icing detail on a Jack-O-Lantern cookie. Or if you only have one piping tip #4 but want to use this tip for multiple colors of icing. A coupler makes it easy to switch tips between bags of icing.
8. Toothpick or Needle Scriber Tool: A toothpick or needle scriber is helpful if you need to spread/move/smooth icing. You can see me using a toothpick to create neater icing edges in the video above.
9. Eyeball Candies & Sprinkles:I used orange and green nonpareils on the royal icing witch hats and chocolate sprinkles on the royal icing bats. The ghosts decorated with easy glaze icing had the black balls from this Halloween sprinkle mix as eyeballs. (That sprinkle mix also has eyeballs!) On the cookies pictured below, I used sprinkles from the brand Neon Yolk.

For even more recommendations, see this full list of my favoritecookie decorating supplies.

PS: If you plan to make Halloween cupcakes, you’ll use many of these tools again!

Coloring Success Tip: As Icing Sits & Dries, It Darkens

As icing sits in a piping bag before using AND as it dries on a cookie, its color darkens. This is the case with most colors, particularly red and black. When I make black icing, it’s usually blue-ish gray in the bowl and piping bag and then as it dries, it darkens into a black shade. Don’t go overboard on food coloring because the color will deepen as the icing dries.

Can I Use Natural Food Coloring For Cookie Icing?

Yes, absolutely! I am not affiliated with it, but I’ve used the brand Supernatural and they have a line of natural powdered food coloring that’s available in a few colors. You need to dissolve the coloring in a little water before using, so make sure that you very slightly reduce the amount of water needed in either icing recipe. (Note: If you ever need to thicken the icing back up after adding the coloring, you can whisk/beat in a little more confectioners’ sugar.)

Wilton piping tip #4 is my go-to for outlining and flooding:

Can Beginners Make These Halloween Cookies?

Yes. You do not need to be an advanced cookie decorator to get started. (Experts had to start somewhere, right?!) Your Halloween cookies do not have to look exactly like these pictures—the decorated cookies can be as ornate or simple as you wish. Here are some tips if you’re a beginner.

• Skip The Tips & Use Buttercream: You can skip the piping tips, bags, and icings and decorate these cookies with vanilla buttercream (feel free to tint it) or chocolate buttercream using a knife. Top with festive sprinkles if desired.
• Use Easy Glaze Icing and Squeeze Bottle: If you choose the easy cookie icing, you do not have to use piping bags/tips—I often use squeeze bottles when decorating with that icing. (Note: I did use piping tips in today’s pictured cookies.)
• Decorate with Sprinkles: Pipe either icing on the cooled cookies and top with Halloween sprinkles as pictured below. (I used easy glaze icing on the pictured cookies below, but this look also works with royal icing.) Feel free to tint the icing your desired color or leave white. This look is what I usually do when I’m decorating cookies with children. It’s easy, fun, manageable, includes sprinkles, and perfect for beginners:

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