Halloween “Sugar” Cookies with a Sugar Free Royal Icing Option!

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I am a huge fan of baking treats; especially around the holidays. By holidays I mean ALL holidays; I will bake for any and every holiday! Easter, Flag day, 4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving and of course December to name a few.

I will make up a holiday if I have to, or just bake for my neighbors when I want to try a recipe my husband and I will not eat. With another set of holidays right around the corner I have been bitten by the baking bug once again!

Halloween, in my opinion, just screams royal icing cookies! Now, with my husband’s and my diet I cannot just whip up a typical sugar cookie and royal icing recipe.

I had to adapt it to fit our life style. So here is my healthier sugar cookie recipe with sugar free royal icing!

I just want to quickly say; please be gentle with your critiques; I am not a master cookie artisan. I am a simple housewife sharing my kitchen with y’all. That being said I did try my darndest!

Finished Cookies (*I promise to get better at my glam shots)*

1. The cookie

Honestly of this entire project I thought finding a gluten free or GI/GL friendly cookie that did not spread would be the trickiest part; however it was surprisingly simple. Since almond flour is fairly dense and does not rise as easily as all purpose flour; a rigid cookie was simple enough to create.

Something I have to constantly remind myself when baking gluten free or low carb is that items with almond flour and coconut flour do not behave the same way you expect flour to behave. Depending on the moisture in the air or the moisture in your almond flour the textures can vary in your dough. Flour compensates for moisture a little more readily than almond or coconut flour. For this recipe the dough was a little soft for me, but I will share how I adjusted to make these adorable cut out cookies.

With the recipe I am about to share, the chill time is essential. I had to chill mine in the fridge for 30 minutes and an additional 10 - 15 minutes in the freezer. Next time I will start with the freezer and skip the refrigerator all together, but it may not be as humid and warm where you are so try 30 minute chill time and then move to the freezer if it is not firm enough.

To create a proper cookie dough you want all of your ingredients to be around room temperature; this allows the dough to form without lumps of any ingredient and creates a cohesive dough.

2. The flour

The main flour in this recipe is almond flour. Almond flour is an excellent gluten free or glycemic friendly alternative to all purpose flour. However, almond flour alone can be rather fragile in structure. To help add structure we are also going to incorporate vital wheat gluten or if you would rather keep the cookies gluten free, you can use coconut flour instead. If the dough seems wet feel free to add a little extra coconut or vital wheat gluten.

Vital wheat gluten adds gluten, but it does not add many carbs to the overall recipe. Vital wheat gluten is the protein found in wheat extracted and dried into a powder. I noticed recently they have changed the name to ‘vital wheat gluten flour’ do not let this scare you; it is not flour. If you are gluten free do not use vital wheat gluten; this is pure gluten.

Which ever secondary flour you choose to use; use that to roll out your cookies. You are free to use almond flour as well; however, it could change the surface texture of your cookie. Since we are covering the surface with royal icing it may not make a difference to you and that is completely fine!

3. The sugar

If you just want a healthier, more glycemic friendly version of a sugar cookie; maple sugar is the best alternative to white sugar. Maple sugar is sweeter, has more vitamins, and does not spike your sugar as intensely as white sugar. Maple sugar is also not as processed as other sugar alternatives including white sugar. I tend to lean into maples sugar and stay away from artificial or alternative sugars.

If you want a sugar free cookie feel free to opt for your favorite sugar alternative. Allulose is my second favorite alternative to white sugar, but Stevia, Splenda, or erythritol will all work for this cookie recipe. You may need to adjust the amount of sugar depending on how sweet your particular choice tends to be.

4. Making the cookie dough

Now that we have our variables figured out; let’s get to making some cookies! In a bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer; cream together room temperature butter and sugar until mixed and fluffy. Add room temperature eggs and vanilla; beat until mixed well.

In a separate bowl whisk together dry ingredients; the flours, the baking soda, and salt. Once mixed well, add to wet mixture one cup at a time. After each cup is added to the wet beat until no dry pockets can be seen. Give the bottom of the bowl a quick scrap to make sure you have everything mixed well.

Scrap dough into a ball and place on plastic wrap. I knew I would not use all of the dough on one pan so I split my dough into two portions so one half was able to chill while I worked on the other half. Place dough in fridge and chill for at least 30 minutes; if you are making this dough ahead of time you can leave it in the fridge overnight. I live in the deep south so even though it is September it is plenty hot and humid here. My dough was too soft when left in the fridge so I popped mine into the freezer when it did not want to roll out properly. If the fridge does not stiffen your dough throw the dough into the freezer for 10 or 15 minutes before working with it.

*Please note that if you are making the cookies ahead of time; do NOT make the icing until you are ready to decorate if you are using artificial sugars. While it is perfectly acceptable to make royal icing with white sugar ahead of time; artificial sugars do not hold up as well and separate without coming back together. I made that mistake and it shows on my bats. The purple filling icing became bubbly and did not want to give me that beautiful royal icing sheen. If you plan to make the cookies and decorate in the same day you can make the icing while the cookies are cooling. Jump to section 6 (if you are new to royal icing) or Section 8 (for the directions) if you want to make the icing now.

5. Roll and cutting your cookies

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. On a flat surface sprinkle your choice of flour and roll your cookie dough to about 1/4th of an inch in thickness. The thicker you roll your cookie dough the softer your cookie will be; they will also take a little longer to bake. As long as you have patience you can roll them on the thicker side.

Using your cookie cutters; I chose pumpkins and bats for my Halloween treats. The pumpkins were rather large about 4 inches at it’s widest points; so I only cut six of them and used the remaining dough to make as many bats as possible. The bats I linked to were nearly 5 inches at their widest point, but were shorter and made about 10 cookies. I probably could have made a few more bats, but 18 cookies is plenty for my hubby and I.

Place cut out cookies on a silicone mat or parchment lined baking sheet 1 to 2 inches apart. These cookies do not spread, but we want to make sure the cookies are not too crowded. Crowded cookies will not be as crisp as a properly spaced cookie.

In your preheated oven, bake your cookies for 13 to 15 minutes. If you went with slightly thicker cookies; you will want to bake them for a little longer. Once the edges of your cookies turn a golden brown they are ready to come out of the oven.

These cookies are very soft right out of the oven; let them cool on the pan for about 5 minutes before moving them to a wire rack to finish cooling completely.

I apologize for the indent; my husband thought it would be funny to poke my cooling cookie (-_-)

6. Royal icing

Royal Icing for the Halloween Sugar Cookies

Royal icing is fairly simple to make; it is a mix of meringue powder, sugar, and water beaten until stiff peaks are formed. then the icing can then be colored with gel food coloring if you so wish. Gel food coloring is preferred because it does not add as much moisture to your icing as traditional food color does and therefore will not affect the texture as easily.

Royal icing is typically the go to for anyone who wants to decorate cookies. You can make different textures by simply adding water. Using my recipe will create a stiff icing that will need to be watered down to create the proper texture for decorating your cookies. When adding water you want to add the water slowly; about 1 teaspoon at a time until you reach the desired consistency.

The consistency is often determined by the length of time it takes for the icing to meld back into 1 cohesive mass. This time is measured in seconds. How thick or how thin you make the icing depends on what your goal is. Stiff icing is used to create shapes like piped flowers and leaves. Stiff icing is also used to make gingerbread houses. Medium is used for borders or lettering. and soft is used for filling in outlined areas.

For a stiff; when making a cut in the icing the icing should not move. It should be the texture of cream cheese.

For piping or boarding; when you make a cut in the bowl the icing should take 25 - 15 seconds to fade away. If you are doing lettering, the thicker end is preferred. When creating a cookie outline 15 seconds is best. The texture should be somewhere between toothpaste and pudding.

For flooding; when making a cut in the bowl the icing should take 6-8 seconds to fade. The texture will should be somewhat like honey.

For decorating your cookies you will need a 15 second royal icing, for your outline and a 6-8 second icing for filling. Pick your colors; I decided to do all my outlines in black and fill in my bats with purple and my pumpkins with orange. This meant I needed a 15 second black icing, a 6-8 second orange icing, and a 6-8 second purple icing.

If you want to use only 1 color for each cookie you will have to create a 15 second orange and a 6-8 second orange as well as a 15 second purple and a 6-8 second purple. You can choose to outline in one color and water down the remaining icing if you wish, but that is 100% up to you. If I were not going for the sort of cartoon look I would have made a 15 second purple and orange, outlined all my cookies and watered down the left overs to a 6 second icing and filled in my cookies. Some bakers choose to make and bag their icings separately and that is completely fine as well.

7. Icing sugar

When making royal icing; powdered sugar is a must. They make alternatives to powdered white sugar; I used powdered swerve to make my royal icing. Typically I would have put some maple sugar in the coffee grinder and made my own powdered sugar, however I wanted to make this icing sugar free since I put maple sugar in my cookies. Feel free to use whatever powdered sugar alternative you wish.

My only note is the same note I made earlier if you are using a sugar alternative do NOT make this icing too far ahead of time. Make your royal icing the day you plan on decorating your cookies. I made my cookies a day ahead of time and made the mistake of making my icing the day before I planned on decorating. I thought I was being proactive, but it bit me in the behind.

The swerve worked so well on the pumpkins because I remade it the day of. You can see on my bats the royal icing became bubbly and did not smooth out properly. Learn from my mistakes and make the icing while your cookies are cooling or make it the day you plan on decorating. Royal icing with powdered white sugar may separate, but it is easily whipped back into shape; I cannot say the same thing about Swerve royal icing.

8. Make your royal icing

Mix 2 tablespoons of meringue powder with 2 cups of sifted powdered sugar. Add 4 tablespoons of water and beat with a hand mixer for about 3 to 5 minutes until you have a stiff icing. You will know it is stiff when you turn the mixer upside down and the icing stays rigid. Add water if it is not coming together properly, but add very little at a time as to not thin the icing too much. You are also more than welcome to add vanilla extract as well; I do not, but there are plenty of people out there that add vanilla; some even add multiple extracts.

Separate your icing into as many bowls as you need to accommodate your color choices and consistencies. In each bowl put a few drops of your chosen gel food coloring and mix well; make sure to scrape the sides so all icing is properly colored.

I needed 3 bowls, one for my black outline, a second for my purple filler, and a third for my orange filler. Once you have your colors and consistencies you will put your icing into piping bags or you can use a zip-lock bag. There are even ways to make piping bags out of parchment paper. I only have one piping bag so I stored my royal icing in plastic wrap until I was ready for a certain color. Which ever color I needed; I pulled the excess plastic wrap through the pipping bag and cut off the excess before putting on the tip. This helped keep my pipping bag relatively clean so switching colors was easy.

Orange, Purple, and Black Royal Icing in Piping Bags

9. Decorating your cookies

Now that your cookies are cooled and your icing is made; it is time to start decorating! Using your outlining (15 second) royal icing; pipe your outline onto all of your cookies in the appropriate color. Forgive my piping, my outline color was also made ahead of time and separated. The end result looked perfectly imperfect to me.

If you are not outlining all of your cookies; make sure you give your outline time to dry out or stiffen before filling in your cookies. If you are decorating 20+ cookies by the time you have reached the 20th cookie the first should have had plenty of time to set.

After the outline has set it is time to fill in your masterpieces! Using your flooding or 6 second royal icing; fill in your cookies. It is best to stay away from the direct edge and use a toothpick or spoon to push the icing towards your outline. Once your cookies is flooded you can gently tap it onto your flat surface to smooth out the top and to release any bubbles that may be trapped. Do not be forceful the cookies are still almond flour cookies and are more fragile than a traditional sugar cookie.

Give your filled cookies plenty of time to set before you stack them on top of each other. I would give them about an hour or so to completely set and eat a test cookie ;) to see if they are safe to stack. With how moist these cookies stayed I am not confident they should be stacked, but as long as the icing is set you should be fine to at least try it out.

Finished Halloween “Sugar” Cookies with Royal Icing!

I hope you enjoy making these cookies as much as I enjoyed making them. They were delicious and definitely worth a try!

Sugar cookies (Low GL/GI with GF Option)

Servings: 20 - 24 (depends on cookie cutter size)

Prep Time: 50 Minutes (30 minute chill time)

Cook Time: 13 - 15 Minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 Minutes

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cup almond flour, slightly packed
1/2 cup vital Wheat Gluten or coconut flour for gluten free
3/4 cup butter, room temp
1/4 - 3/4 cup maple sugar, allulose or other sugar of your choice
2 eggs, room temp
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

In a bowl, cream butter and sugar with hand mixer; you can also use a stand mixer if you wish. Add eggs and vanilla until incorporated.
In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients (baking soda, salt, almond flour, and coconut flour). Add dry mix into the creamed butter and sugar mix 1 cup at a time. Making sure each cup is well combined.
Form the dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Form dough into a disc and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes up to overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Line 1 or 2 baking sheets with silicone mats or parchment paper.
note: you can make your royal icing while dough is chilling
Once dough has chilled sprinkle your flat surface with vital wheat gluten or coconut flour and roll dough 1/4 inch thick. If dough is too soft, place in fridge for 15 additional minutes.
Cut out your shapes and work somewhat quickly; as the dough warms up it can become fragile.
Gather dough and repeat until all cookies are formed and ready to bake.
Bake each pan for 13 - 15 minutes, until edges are golden brown. Cool for 2 or 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.
Let cool completely before attempting to decorate with the royal icing.

Royal Icing (Low GL/GI with Keto/sugar free option)

Servings: 2 cups

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time:

Total Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:
2 tbsp meringue powder
2 cup powdered maple sugar or allulose
4+ tbsp water
Optional : gel food coloring