Blood Spatter Cookies

These cookies remind you of Dexter, don’t they? Dexter was one of the best shows of all time, but also one of the absolute worst (THAT ENDING. AMIRIGHT?! I AM STILL ALL-CAPS ANGRY ABOUT IT.) Dexter, for those of you who don’t know, was a blood spatter expert who worked for the Miami police department. His hobbies included cooking breakfast foods, sulking around like a moody teenager, and oh yeah, rockin’ it as a serial killer. No biggie. You’re intrigued, aren’t you? Netflix the show. The first four seasons are amazing. But it goes quickly downhill from there. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Anyway, what better way to celebrate Halloween than with some ooey, gooey blood spatter cookies?! These were so easy to make and really fun — cause you get to be suuuuuper messy!

If you are a new to decorating with royal icing, here are some helpful tips and links:

• I used my grandma’s sugar cookie recipe, which is listed below.  Another good cut-out cookie recipe can be found at Bridget’s wonderful Bake at 350.
• I used a royal icing recipe from Annie’s Eats, which is listed below.
• If you are new to decorating with royal icing, please visit this post by Annie’s Eats, which will teach you about outlining and flooding.  Bake at 350 is also a great resource for cookie decorating and ideas (I love Bridget’s book, too!).

Here are the specifics on how I made these cookies:

• I used a round cookie cutter — any size larger than 2″ will work.
• I outlined and flooded with white icing and allowed the cookies to dry for at least a couple hours.
• Now comes the fun part. Dye a bowl of royal icing red. Use AmeriColor’s Super Red — because nothing else will even come close to blood red. If you can’t quite get your red to be dark enough, add a little black food coloring; but do this very carefully and conservatively because you don’t want to add too much… and have your batch of icing ruined because it’s too dark.
• Spread a generous layer of paper towels or newspapers all over your kitchen floor. I cannot stress this enough: cover as much of your floor as you can. Set your cookies on the floor. Using a fork, fling the red icing onto the cookies. There’s no great way to explain this. I just scooped up some red icing with a fork and flung it onto the cookies. You’ll make a mess and it won’t be perfect — embrace this!
• Side note: if you want to take photos of your cookies, don’t wait until the next day. The red icing will bleed (no pun intended) into the white as time goes on.

Omi’s Sugar Cookies
Print Recipe
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Beat butter and sugar. Add eggs, sour cream, and nutmeg. Add dry ingredients gradually. Chill the batter overnight or for at least 4 hours. Roll out dough and cut with cookie cutters. Bake at 350F until golden (in true fashion, my grandma didn’t give a specific baking time. I baked the cookies for about 8 minutes).

White Royal Icing
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 Tablespoons meringue powder
5 Tablespoons water

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the sheen has disappeared and the icing has a matte appearance (about 7-10 minutes).  Transfer the contents of the mixing bowl to an air-tight container. This will be the stiffest consistency of the icing, and at this point it is still too stiff to use for decorating. Add water a very small amount at a time and stir by hand until fully incorporated. Continue until the icing has reached a consistency appropriate for piping. Depending on how large your cookies are, you may need to make more than one batch of this icing.