These easy Ghost Cookies make a festive and fun Halloween treat. We use a sugar cookie mix to make cookie cups and fill them with frosting; decorate with miniature chocolate chips for the eyes.
Ghost Cookies
These adorable Ghost Cookies are the perfect treat if you’ve put off making treats for a Halloween event. There are only six ingredients and require minimal hands-on time.
While the different elements (cookies and frosting) can certainly be made from scratch, I’m sharing how to make these ghost cookies in under 30 minutes. We accomplish this with a sugar cookie mix and store-bought frosting. Let’s start by talking about how to make the cookies.
Ingredients
- Sugar Cookie Mix: Including the ingredients the cookie mix calls for. Forms the base and structure of the cookie cups.
- Whipped Cream Cheese or Vanilla Frosting: Used as a creamy filling for the cookie cups, adding sweetness.
- Mini Chocolate Chips or Black Pearl Sprinkles: Serve as decorative eyes, adding a chocolate flavor accent to your ghost cookies.
Quick Tip
If you don’t have your own decorating tips, look for cans of prepared frosting that come with disposable tips.
How To Make Ghost Cookies
- Bake: Prepare sugar cookies using your favorite recipe or pre-made dough. Press the dough into mini muffin tins to create small, cup-like shapes.
- Cool: After baking, remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool completely. This step is crucial to ensure the frosting adheres properly.
- Frost: Using a piping bag with a small tip, carefully pipe white frosting into the center of each cookie cup. The frosting should be smooth and evenly spread.
- Decorate: Add mini chocolate chips for eyes and a mouth.
- Set: Let the frosted ghost cookies sit until the frosting is firm to the touch. This ensures they hold their shape and the decorations stay in place.
More Halloween Treats
- Halloween Oreo Balls
- Halloween Oreo Balls
- Mummy Cookies
- Halloween Donuts
- Mummy Bark
Ghost Cookies
These easy Ghost Cookies make a festive and fun Halloween treat. We use a sugar cookie mix to make cookie cups and fill them with frosting; decorate with miniature chocolate chips for the eyes.
Ingredients
- 1 package (17.5 ounces) Sugar Cookie Mix (plus ingredients called for; I used Betty Crocker) OR 1 package refrigerated sugar cookie dough (for a true 3-ingredient treat)
- 1 container (12 ounces) whipped cream cheese or vanilla frosting (or homemade frosting)
- Mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- COOKIE CUPS: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a miniature muffin tin. Prepare the sugar cookie dough according to package directions for drop cookies. Roll balls of dough that will fill the miniature muffin tin 1/2 full (I use a 1 tablespoon measuring spoon filled most of the way full to measure out the dough, then roll it into a ball and put the ball in the muffin tin cavity). Press into the dough with a finger to slightly indent the center.
- COOKIE CUPS BAKE: Bake for 7-10 minutes or until the tops are very lightly browned and no longer glossy at the edges. (The time will vary, based on how much dough you have in the muffin tin, so watch carefully). We don't want the cookies overbaked at all or they yield hard/unpleasant cookies. Remove from the oven and immediately press down the centers with the back of a 1/2 teaspoon measuring spoon. Let cool for a few minutes and then begin gently coaxing them out. Use a table knife to trace around the edges and a fork to help gently ease out the cookie cup. Or pinch the edges and slowly twist the cookie up and out. Once they are out, you can further press down the center if desired. Let cookies cool the rest of the way on a cooling rack.
- FROSTING: Fit a piping bag with an open star piping tip (such as a 1M Wilton Swirl Tip.) Add frosting to the bag and pipe into the (completely cooled) cookie cups to form a swirl barely coming up out of the cookie.
- EYES: Place two mini chocolate chips into the frosting to create eyes. Place the chocolate chips so the flat round side is facing out.
- STORAGE: Best enjoyed the same day they are made. After that, the cookies and frosting harden.
Video
Recipe Notes
Note 1: Remove the cookies from the muffin tin quickly: Don’t let the cookie cups cool in the muffin tin or they’ll be nearly impossible to pull out. Let them cool for a couple of minutes and then start to pull them out. Work the edges with a butter knife and slowly coax the cookies out with a small spoon or fork if needed. Or use your fingers to pinch around the edges and spin the cookie up and out of the tin.
Note 2: Calories below are with the whipped cream filling. There are 125 calories if using frosting as the filling.
Nutrition
Serving: 40cookie cups | Calories: 86kcal | Carbohydrates: 16g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 4mg | Sodium: 55mg | Potassium: 8mg | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 11IU | Calcium: 4mg | Iron: 1mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
