Halloween Cookies!

With Halloween only a few days away, I decided to break out the cookie sheets and mixer and get to baking a special treat for Tony's office. Plus it is always a good excuse to practice my skills. After picking up a new baking magazine this passed weekend detailing a new recipe and technique for applying royal icing/glaze, I decided that I must try it ASAP. I still haven't been feeling well, but really wanted to bake and thought a few stolen bites of cookie dough may help me feel better as well. It really didn't, but it was still a nice afternoon to take my mind off all the tests they ran at the doctor's office this morning.

Anyway, back to our topic at hand. I used the holiday sugar cookie Betty Crocker mix that I always have in the pantry that I buy in bulk at Sam's Club during the holidays. It's really easy to just empty the mix and stir in one stick of melted butter and one egg. I then loaded up my awesome Wilton cookie press with the dough and attached the pumpkin shaped disc. Pressed out about 5 dozen cookies in 4 batches, baked at 375 degrees for 7-8 minutes, removed from cookie sheet onto baking rack and let cool. Once cooled completely it was time to make the glaze.

The glaze was relatively easy to make, however achieveing the right consistency took some work. I halved the oringinal recipe because it said it yielded 3.5 cups, I knew I wouldn't need that much.
Ingredients:
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
2 tablespoons milk (I used skim)
3/4 teaspoon vanilla (it said to use clear, I didn't have any and just used the regular pure vanilla extract and it was fine)
water as needed

Mix all ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer on medium speed for about 2 minutes until desired consistency. I ended up adding about 2 tablespoons water to the glaze as well and then another tablespoon or so when I mixed my colors to frost the cookies. Next I divided the glaze into 4 bowls. The first bowl I mixed to achieve a dark orange color mixing red and yellow food coloring, I just followed the drop directions on the back of the food coloring box. The second bowl I tried to make a black color, but it ended up more a chocolate brown. The third I made a lighter orange. And in the fourth I just added green food coloring to the white glaze. The fun then began as I used a small paint brush to paint on the dark orange frosting onto each pumpkin shaped cookie, I added another 1/2 tablespoon of water to the glaze to thin it a little. Frost all cookies and allow to dry completely on cooling rack. Then I spooned the remaining glazes into separate ziploc bags, cut off the very corner of each and methodically piped on the details, allowing to dry before I piped more. And then allowed to dry completely before packing away. I still need some more practice piping and some real piping bags, but I think they came out pretty cute! Hope Tony's office enjoys them tomorrow!