Cozy Fall Baking with Ann Clark Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Some fall afternoons practically demand cookies.

You know the kind: the oven is warming the kitchen, the cookie cutters are scattered across the counter, and somehow there is already flour in places flour has absolutely no business being.

For this batch, I turned a few Ann Clark baking goodies into an easy afternoon of chocolate sugar cut-out cookies decorated with colorful royal icing. I used Ann Clark Chocolate Sugar Cookie Mix, Royal Icing Mix, professional-grade food coloring gels, and three classic Halloween cookie cutters: pumpkin, bat, and ghost.

The chocolate dough makes these a fun change from traditional vanilla sugar cookies, and the dark cookie underneath the bright royal icing makes the Halloween shapes really pop. Best of all, the mixes handle much of the measuring while you still get the best parts of fall baking: rolling dough, cutting cookies, mixing colors, and decorating every cookie a little differently.

Disclosure: Ann Clark provided the baking products featured in this post at no cost to me. All opinions and experiences are my own. This post also contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you make a purchase through one of those links, at no additional cost to you.

Why You’ll Love These Chocolate Sugar Cut-Out Cookies

They’re made for cut-out cookies. The chocolate dough rolls and cuts beautifully, so those pumpkin, bat, and ghost shapes stay recognizable after baking.

There’s less measuring. The cookie mix already contains the flour, sugar, cocoa, vanilla flavor, and salt, so you’ll only add butter and an egg to make the dough.

Chocolate makes them different. Instead of the usual vanilla sugar-cookie base, these have a rich cocoa flavor that pairs especially well with sweet royal icing.

Decorating is half the fun. The Ann Clark gel colors make it easy to turn one batch of white royal icing into orange pumpkins, green stems, black bats, and ghostly white cookies.

Perfection is not required. A slightly crooked pumpkin vine or an overly surprised ghost gives homemade Halloween cookies personality. That’s part of the charm.

Watch These Halloween Chocolate Sugar Cookies Come to Life

See the full cozy fall baking process from start to finish—from mixing the chocolate dough and cutting pumpkin, bat, and ghost cookies to whipping the royal icing, adding those bold Halloween colors, decorating, wrapping the finished cookies, and taking them along for a little trunk-or-treat fun.

 

The Ann Clark Products I Used

This baking project starts with four Ann Clark products that work together from dough to decorating.

Ann Clark Chocolate Sugar Cookie Mix
The 16-ounce package makes the chocolate cut-out cookie dough. According to the package, you’ll add 14 tablespoons of room-temperature unsalted butter and one room-temperature egg.

Ann Clark Royal Icing Mix
The 4.3-ounce pouch makes about 2 cups of royal icing when combined with 4 cups of powdered sugar. The package notes that this is enough for approximately 42 small cookies, although your actual decorating yield will depend on cookie size and how generously you use the icing.

Ann Clark 12-Pack Professional Grade Food Coloring Gel
The set includes Bubblegum Pink, Super Red, Pumpkin Orange, Lemon Yellow, Leaf Green, Ocean Teal, Sky Blue, Royal Blue, Regal Purple, Vivid Fuchsia, Mocha Brown, and Super Black.

Ann Clark Halloween Cookie Cutters
For these cookies, I used the three Halloween shapes shown here: pumpkin, bat, and ghost.

Ingredients

For the Chocolate Sugar Cookies

1 package (16 ounces) Ann Clark Chocolate Sugar Cookie Mix

14 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

1 large egg, room temperature

For the Royal Icing

1 package (4.3 ounces) Ann Clark Royal Icing Mix

4 cups powdered sugar

Ann Clark Food Coloring Gel, as desired

Water, 1 teaspoon at a time if needed for thinning

Additional powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time if needed for thickening

How to Make Ann Clark Chocolate Sugar Cookies

1. Beat the Butter

Place the room-temperature butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. You can also use an electric hand mixer.

Beat on medium speed until the butter is just smooth, about 1 minute.

2. Add Part of the Cookie Mix

Add 1/2 cup of the Ann Clark Chocolate Sugar Cookie Mix to the butter.

Beat on medium-low speed until incorporated, about 1 minute, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as necessary.

3. Add the Egg and Remaining Mix

Add the room-temperature egg and the remaining chocolate sugar cookie mix.

Continue mixing until the dough is well blended, stopping to scrape the bowl as needed.

4. Chill the Dough

Wrap the dough tightly and refrigerate it for at least 1 hour or up to overnight.

This is one step I would not rush. Chilled dough is easier to roll and transfer, and it helps your pumpkins look like pumpkins instead of mysterious autumn blobs.

5. Prepare the Oven and Baking Sheets

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Prepare two large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper, or use ungreased baking sheets as directed on the Ann Clark package.

6. Roll the Dough

Roll the chilled dough between two sheets of parchment paper or on a lightly floured work surface to approximately 1/4 inch thick.

If the dough begins feeling soft or sticky while you’re working, return it to the refrigerator briefly before continuing.

7. Cut the Pumpkin, Bat, and Ghost Cookies

Cut the dough with your pumpkin, bat, and ghost cookie cutters.

The pumpkin is approximately 3 inches across, the ghost is roughly 3 1/2 inches, and the bat is the largest of the three at just over 5 inches wide. Because the cutters are different sizes, the cookies may not all finish baking at precisely the same moment.

Carefully transfer the shapes to your prepared baking sheets, leaving some space between each cookie.

Gather the dough scraps, gently reroll them, and continue cutting cookies until the dough is used.

8. Bake

Bake one sheet at a time for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the cookies are firm.

Chocolate cookies make visual doneness a little trickier because you aren’t looking for golden edges. Instead, watch for cookies that look set and feel firm around the outer edges.

Because the bat cutter is considerably wider than the pumpkin and ghost cutters, keep an eye on the different shapes rather than assuming every cookie will finish at exactly the same second.

9. Cool Completely

Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let the cookies cool on the pan for about 5 minutes.

Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and let them cool completely, about 15 minutes or longer.

Do not decorate warm cookies. Royal icing and warm chocolate cookies are not a productive relationship.

How to Make the Ann Clark Royal Icing

Pour the entire pouch of Ann Clark Royal Icing Mix into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.

Add 4 cups powdered sugar.

Mix on low speed for about 45 seconds.

Increase the mixer to high speed and beat until completely combined, about 3 minutes.

The finished batch yields approximately 2 cups of royal icing, according to the package.

Adjusting the Royal Icing Consistency

The consistency you want depends on what you’re decorating.

Use thicker icing for details such as pumpkin vines, outlines, eyes, and small accents. For covering larger areas of the cookie, you can loosen some of the icing slightly.

If the icing is too thick, add 1 teaspoon of water at a time.

If it becomes too thin, add 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar at a time.

Make small adjustments. Royal icing can go from “just right” to “why is my pumpkin icing running off the cookie?” surprisingly quickly.

Coloring the Royal Icing

Divide the prepared white royal icing among small bowls before adding color.

The Ann Clark gels are concentrated, so start with a small amount and add more until you reach the shade you want.

For the three cookies in this post, you’ll primarily need:

Pumpkin Orange: for the pumpkin cookies

Leaf Green: for pumpkin stems and vines

Super Black: for the bats and facial details

Untinted white royal icing: for the ghosts

You have plenty of other shades in the 12-color set if you want to get creative. Purple bats, pink ghosts, or a blue pumpkin are all fair game. Halloween cookies are not known for enforcing dress codes.

How to Decorate the Three Halloween Cookie Shapes

Pumpkin Cookies

Cover the pumpkin with Pumpkin Orange royal icing. Once the surface has started to set, add curved lines to define the pumpkin sections.

Finish the stem and optional curling vines with Leaf Green icing.

Bat Cookies

Cover the bat with Super Black royal icing, working carefully into the points of the wings.

Add small white eyes once the dark icing has begun to set. You can leave them simple and sleek or give each bat its own expression.

Ghost Cookies

Cover the ghost with untinted white royal icing.

Once the white icing has begun to set, add tiny Super Black eyes and a mouth.

This is an excellent place to abandon uniformity. One ghost can look surprised, another suspicious, and another like it has already eaten three cookies.

Tips for Clean Chocolate Cut-Out Cookies

Start With Room-Temperature Butter and Egg

The Ann Clark package specifically calls for both ingredients to be at room temperature. This helps them incorporate evenly into the mix.

Give the Dough Its Full Chill

The dough needs at least 1 hour in the refrigerator. Properly chilled dough is much easier to roll, cut, and transfer without distorting the shapes.

Keep the Dough About 1/4 Inch Thick

Even thickness encourages even baking and gives the finished cookies enough structure to decorate comfortably.

Remember That the Bat Is Larger

The bat cutter is considerably wider than the pumpkin and ghost cutters. If you mix shapes on one baking sheet, pay attention to each cookie instead of relying only on the timer.

Keep Royal Icing Covered

Royal icing begins drying when exposed to air. Cover any bowls you’re not actively using while you decorate.

Let the Cookies Cool Completely

Warm cookies can soften or melt your icing. Wait until the chocolate cookies are fully cooled before decorating.

How Many Cookies Does One Bag Make?

The exact yield depends on the cookie cutter you use.

The Ann Clark package nutrition information is based on a much smaller cookie than these Halloween cutters, while the package directions recommend approximately 3-inch cutters. Since the pumpkin, ghost, and especially the bat are different sizes, there isn’t one reliable cookie count for this batch.

For that reason, I would rather give you an honest variable yield than promise a specific number of cookies your dough may not produce.

Can You Make the Dough Ahead?

Yes. The package specifically instructs you to chill the dough for 1 hour to overnight.

That makes this a great two-day baking project: prepare the chocolate dough in the evening, then roll, bake, and decorate your cookies the next day.

Can Kids Help Decorate?

Definitely.

An adult can handle the mixer, hot baking sheets, and oven while younger bakers help press the cutters into chilled dough and decorate cooled cookies.

For a decorating party, place the cooled pumpkin, bat, and ghost cookies on the table with small bowls or piping bags of icing and let everyone make their own.

Turn It Into a Cozy Fall Baking Night

This recipe is practically begging for a rainy afternoon or Halloween movie night.

Put the finished cookies on a big platter, pour mugs of apple cider, hot chocolate, or coffee, and set out the remaining royal icing for anybody who decides their ghost urgently needs purple eyebrows.

You can also let the royal icing dry completely and tuck individual cookies into clear treat bags for Halloween parties, neighbors, or classroom treats where permitted.

How to Store Decorated Cookies

Let the royal icing dry completely before stacking or packaging the cookies.

Once dry, place the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.

If you’re stacking decorated cookies, place parchment or wax paper between the layers to help protect the icing.

Cozy Fall Baking Made Easy

There’s something wonderfully nostalgic about rolling out cookie dough and reaching for the Halloween cookie cutters.

Using Ann Clark Chocolate Sugar Cookie Mix and Royal Icing Mix takes some of the measuring out of the process without taking away the fun. You still get the flour-dusted counter, the smell of chocolate cookies coming from the oven, bowls of bright icing, and a tray full of pumpkins, bats, and ghosts that don’t look quite like anybody else’s.

That’s exactly how homemade Halloween cookies should be.

And the cookie that disappears before decorating?

Quality control.