Jack-O'-Lantern Pops

Directions

Early in day or day ahead:

1. Into large bowl, measure first 9 ingredients.

With mixer at low speed, beat ingredients until well mixed, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula.

Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a disk; wrap each with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour or until dough is firm enough to roll. (Or, place dough in freezer 30 minutes.) 2. Preheat oven to 375℉ (190℃). 3. Between 2 sheets of waxed paper, with rolling pin, roll half of dough. Remove top sheet of waxed paper. With 3½ inch pumpkin-shape cookie cutter, cut as many pumpkin shapes from dough as possible. Place pumpkin cookies on ungreased large cookie sheet. 4. Place a lollipop stick on each cookie so that 2 inches of stick is in. Place 1 teaspoon of cookie dough from trimmings on top of each stick, pressing gently to seal onto cookie. 5. Bake cookies about 12 minutes until browned around edges. With pancake turner, carefully remove cookies to wire rack to cool. 6. Repeat steps 3, 4, and 5 with remaining dough, trimmings, and lollipop sticks to make about 15 cookies in all. 7. Prepare Ornamental Frosting. In small bowl, with mixer at low speed, beat the sugar, warm water, and meringue powder until mixture is an easy spreading consistency. Keep bowl covered tightly with plastic wrap to prevent frosting from drying out. Spoon frosting into as many small bowls as needed. Tint frosting with different food colorings as desired, but reserve a portion of the frosting untinted. Keep bowls covered with plastic wrap to prevent frosting from drying out. With small metal spatula and artists’ paintbrush, decorate cookies with frosting as desired. (For painting frosting on cookies with a brush, you may need to thin the frosting with a little water to a softer spreading consistency.) Set cookies aside to allow frosting to dry completely, at least 1 hour. If not using right away, store cookies in tightly covered containers.