First, we will make the vanilla dough. In a bowl, beat the softened butter with a whisk. Add the powdered sugar and continue to whisk until light and fluffy.

Next, add the egg yolks and vanilla and whisk until fully incorporated.

Sift in the flour and fold it in with a silicone spatula, being careful to not overmix. Continue to incorporate the dough together by lightly kneading with your hand.

Roll the cookie dough between two sheets of parchment paper to 5mm thickness and place it on a cookie sheet or other flat surface in the freezer while we work on the chocolate dough.

Make the chocolate dough. Follow the same steps to make the vanilla dough. However, because the chocolate dough is a smaller batch, you do not need to knead the dough with your hand. You can simply use the same silicone spatula to bring the dough all together.

Similarly, roll the chocolate dough between two sheets of parchment paper to 5mm thickness. Switch out the vanilla dough for the chocolate dough in the freezer and let freeze while you cut out the shapes of the vanilla cookies.

The vanilla dough should now be firm enough to cut out the shapes. Use a cookie cutter or knife to cut out the shapes, then place the cookies onto a cutting board and freeze for 10 minutes or while you cut out the chocolate cookies.

Repeat the steps for cutting out the cookie shapes for the chocolate dough. Place the chocolate cookies in the freezer with the vanilla cookies and let them all freeze for 10 minutes.

Arrange the cookies onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake in an oven at 340°F/170°C for 12-15 minutes or until the edges are lightly golden brown. Allow the cookies to cool completely on a cooling rack.

While the cookies cool, prepare the icing. In a bowl, mix together the powdered sugar and egg whites using a whisk or hand mixer. Once it’s about half incorporated, add the lemon juice and vanilla and continue to mix until smooth. The icing should be thick but still thin enough to flow freely. If the icing is too thin, let it sit for a couple minutes to dry out. If the icing is too thick, you can add a little bit of water at a time, stirring between each addition until thin.

Prepare the colors for the icing. We will need white for the bats, ghosts, and pumpkins, and yellow, orange, and green for the pumpkins. I made brown icing as well for the ghosts and pumpkins’ facial details, but you can also use melted chocolate instead!

Start with the bats. They are easiest to do because it is simply two white dots. (You can add more to them if you like.) Next we will work on the ghosts. Pipe around the border of the cookies, leaving a gap of about 3mm. Fill in the icing. You can use a toothpick or other sharp tool to spread the icing around and shake to smoothen out. Let the base color dry before moving on to the face. Fill in the pumpkins in a similar way using their respective colors.

Once the bases are dry, we can begin adding the details. Using the brown icing or melted chocolate, draw on the faces of the ghosts and pumpkins. You can use my picture as an example, or make any design you’d like. Before drawing the pumpkins’ faces though, mix some green and white for the pumpkin stems and use a toothpick or other sharp tool to place it where the stems of the pumpkins would be.

Allow the icing to fully dry for a few hours, and the spooky cookies are done! 完成です！