Have I mentioned how much I love fall? I feel like maybe I have, but just in case you didn’t know already- I love fall! The colors, the weather, the holidays… all of it. And of course, I love the cookie and dessert options that lend themselves to this time of year too. This cookie is a blend of two of my favorite fall things: apples and Halloween! And an awesome thing about this tutorial is that it’s only four steps. You’ll be done faster than you can say trick-or-treat!
I’m not kidding when I say this cookie is easy. I know, I know… people always say that things are Just.So.Easy. to make and then it’s 1,000 advanced steps and you end up with something that looks like it could be on Nailed It! But this is easy, ghoul’s honor. With just a little bit of practice, you’ll be knocking these cookies out left and right. This cookie went from baked to bagged and delivered in one day for me, which is something of a record!
Materials Needed for Poison Apple Sugar Cookies
- Sugar cookies, cut into an apple shape, baked and cooled. My favorite recipe is at the bottom of this post, and is also written about in depth here.
- Royal icing in red (flooding consistency), green (flooding consistency), and black (piping consistency). Find the recipe at the bottom of this post, or learn everything you need to know about icing in my tutorial!
- Three #2 piping tips (red, green, and black), one small leaf tip (black)
- Edible gold pearl dust (available here) and lemon extract, small paintbrush
- A counter top fan to speed drying time (OPTIONAL but recommended)
A word about painting cookies: If you’ve never painted a sugar cookie before, have no fear- it’s easy! Grab a small bowl or ramekin and gently tap some of the gold dust into it- you can eyeball the amount, but I usually use about 1 tsp of dust to begin. Add to that 2-3 tsp of clear lemon extract and mix well. It will appear thin at first but this mixture evaporates quicker than you might expect. If it’s thinner than you prefer, add a touch more dust. If it gets too thick as you spend time painting, add more extract. To actually paint your cookies, dip your paintbrush into the gold paint and then lightly run it across the area you want to paint. It’s much better to do a second coat later than to over saturate the area in one go. This paint dries quickly, so a few minutes after you’re done you can decorate on top of it if you need to.
Well, let’s get our poison apples on! Halloween waits for no witch!
Begin by flooding your apple shape with red icing. Leave the stem and leaf parts bare for now. Give your cookies about an hour under the fan to harden up (if you don’t have a fan, double all resting times in this post).
TIP: Don’t go crazy adding red gel dye to your icing to make the perfect shade of red in the mixing bowl. Icing colors darken over time, both in decorating bags and on cookies. Just get it close and expect it to darken about 25% within a few hours.
When you’re ready to proceed, it’s time to make the green poison drips. Starting halfway up the left side of your cookie, pipe around the top, following the apple shape. When you are even with where you started on the other side, create some drips! I had no pattern in mind when I made these, and you don’t need one either. Just keep them at random lengths, with one or two extra-long drips, and continue until you reach where you started.
TIP: I achieved this particular green shade by starting with ‘leaf green’ and adding just a drop or two of ‘lemon yellow’ gel dye to eerie it up a bit.
Working quickly, pipe two large ovals that lean inward at the tops for eyes, and a triangle in between them. You want these shapes to be a little larger than they’ll end up, because the icing spreads a bit. Fill in the entire slime shape, using your etching needle to push the icing around to fill in all the nooks and crannies. Put your cookies back under the fan for another hour.
The hard part is already over! Now we’ve just got to tackle the stems and leaves. Pipe a simple black stem onto each cookie. When you’ve done them all, switch the #2 tip out for the small leaf tip, and go back and make your leaves. You can make this particular shape by doubling back a bit as you squeeze the icing tube. The icing will gather like a ribbon. Allow the leaves an hour to harden.
Now it’s time to paint! Mix up your gold shimmer dust with some lemon extract (you can use another extract or even vodka if you prefer, but I like lemon) and grab your small paintbrush. Gently brush each leaf with the gold- two coats should be plenty! This paint dries quickly, so no need for them to go back under the fan. Do give the entire batch about two hours if you’re going to bag them for gifts.
What did I tell you? Easy peasey pumpkin squeezey. Make sure to leave your thoughts or questions in the comments below and I’ll do my best to respond. Until next time, happy baking!
Foolproof Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- In bowl, mix together 3 cups of the flour and baking power. Set aside.
- In separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add in the extracts and the egg and beat until combined.
- Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Dough will be crumbly.
- Press dough together with hands, and roll out on a well-floured surface. Cut shapes and place on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper.
- Refrigerate baking sheet for at least 10 minutes.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes, remove when cookie edges are just barely golden. Allow several minutes to cool on sheet before moving cookies to a rack.
Royal Icing
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup water
- 3 Tbsp meringue powder
- 4 cups confectioner's (powdered) sugar sifted
- 1/2 tsp Karo syrup (optional)
- 1/8 tsp clear flavored extract (optional)
Instructions
- Combine water and meringue powder in a bowl and beat with mixer until frothy.
- Sift powdered sugar into the same bowl and mix to combine
- Add syrup and extract if desired
- Beat the icing for 4-5 minutes until it is glossy and holds a peak if the beater is turned upside down
Medium Consistency
- Continue to add water ½ Tbsp at a time until at desired consistency (icing should disappear into itself in about 5 seconds after being dripped back into the mixing bowl).
Flooding Consistency
- Continue to add water ½ Tbsp at a time until at desired consistency (icing should disappear into itself in about 3 seconds after being dripped back into the mixing bowl).
