How to Make Sweet, Not Spooky, Ghost Cookies for Halloween

These ghost cookies are much sweeter than scary, Delish says, and they are not hard to make. The recipe uses a simple sugar cookie dough and a sugar cookie icing. (As with any baking that uses an oven, ask an adult to help.)

Start with the dough. Stir the dry ingredients together in a big bowl. In another big bowl, beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add an egg, milk and vanilla and beat until everything is mixed. Add the dry ingredients a little at a time, mixing as you go, until the dough just comes together. Shape the dough into a flat disk, wrap it in plastic and put it in the fridge for one hour.

When the dough has chilled, heat the oven to 350 degrees and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Lightly flour a clean counter and roll out the dough until it is about 1/8 inch thick. Cut out cookies with a ghost-shaped cutter. Roll the leftover scraps into a new sheet and cut out more. Place the cookies on the baking sheets and put the sheets in the freezer for 10 minutes, which helps the cookies keep their shape. Then bake them for about 8 to 10 minutes, until the edges turn lightly golden. Move the cookies to a wire rack and let them cool completely.

While they cool, make the icing. Stir powdered sugar, corn syrup, milk and a little almond extract together in a medium-sized bowl. Take out about a quarter of the icing, put it in a small bowl and stir in black food coloring until it is as dark as you like. Put about half of the white icing in a piping bag with a small round tip and draw an outline around each cookie. This makes it easier to fill the cookies in later.

Add milk to the rest of the white icing, one teaspoon at a time, until it flows easily but is not watery. Put it in a second piping bag and fill in the middle of each cookie. Use a toothpick to pop air bubbles and to spread the icing into any gaps. Let the cookies sit for about 15 minutes so the icing can dry.

Finally, use the black icing in a third piping bag to draw eyes and mouths on the ghosts. Store any leftovers in a sealed container at room temperature for three to four days.