These Halloween cookies are shaped like bats and pumpkins but depending on the cutters you have at home, you can experiment with the design.
We have decorated the cookies using fondant icing but you could colour some icing sugar and pipe designs on instead. You could also make round cookies and then use a selection of carefully selected sweets and chocolates to replicate some spooky designs, such as spiders, mummies and zombie faces. The cookies are perfect for Halloween parties but also make for a great activity to do with kids.
Please note that nutritional info is per biscuit based on this recipe making 18 biscuits, and does not include the icing you use to decorate the biscuits.
Ingredients
- 100g (4oz) butter, softened
- 50g (2oz) caster sugar
- 150g (5oz) sifted plain flour
- ½ tsp ground mixed spice
To decorate (optional):
- Ready to roll fondant icing in black and orange, or royal icing (see tips below)
- Icing pens in green, black and white
WEIGHT CONVERTER
Method
- Put the softened butter in a bowl with the caster sugar and beat until pale and creamy with an electric hand mixer. Stir in the sifted plain flour and ground mixed spice and mix to a stiff dough. Wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan, Gas 4). Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until thin, between 4-6mm is a good target.
- Stamp out about 10 bats and 8 pumpkins, re-rolling the dough as necessary. Transfer to a baking tray lined with paper and bake for 12-14 minutes until pale golden. Cool on a wire rack.
- Decorate the cold cookies with thinly rolled-out coloured fondant icing, cut to the same size as the biscuits. Pipe faces and eyes with icing pens, or cut out faces with the tip of a small knife.
Top tips for making Halloween cookies
If you have time, once you have stamped out the Halloween shapes from your cookie dough, chill the shapes on the baking tray before baking. This will help stop the cookies from spreading too much and losing their shape. For more tips and tricks, continue reading below.
How can I make these Halloween cookies without shaped cookie cutters?
Simply draw an outline of the shape of the cookie you would like to make on a piece of paper, and cut it out. Use this as a template on your biscuit dough, and draw around it with a sharp knife to cut the biscuits out.
If you have a gingerbread person cutter that you usually use at Christmas. Give it a spooky makeover by piping lines of white icing to look like a mummy then finish with some edible eyes.
How do I stick fondant icing to the biscuits?
All you need is a some cold water and a small brush (we use a food grade paint brush; you can get them from cook shops). Simply paint a little bit of water all over the surface of the biscuit and immediately press the fondant icing onto the top.
You could also use your finger to wet the cookie but it is a little less precise.
Be quite firm, to make sure it sticks. For extra stickiness, instead of water some people prefer to use a little bit of jam, heated with a splash of water to make a glaze.
Can I ice these biscuits with flood icing?
Absolutely. You will need to line around the edge of the biscuits first, then fill the middle with icing in the same colour. For full instructions see our flower cookies recipe.
How can I make my cookies look even more impressive?
Dust the top of the icing with a little edible glitter, to give a really cool finish to the biscuits. White or silver looks good over the black bats. Gold is great on the pumpkins.
You could also add some drops of gel food colouring to create orange, green and purple cookies. These colours are often associated with Halloween.
You could also use some cola laces and a chocolate truffle or some Maltesers and stick them onto the cookies to look like spiders. We’d recommend using melted chocolate or some writing icing to secure them. You could also do a thin layer of icing, made up with just icing sugar and water and quickly stick the sweets on top before it sets.
How to make chocolate Halloween cookies?
Replace 20g of the flour with some dark cocoa powder if you would like chocolate flavoured Halloween cookies.
For even, professional looking cookies use this adjustable rolling pin to roll out the cookie dough. It’s one of our best kitchen gadgets under £50.
If you’re looking for more Halloween food ideas, we have plenty of options including these adorable Rice Krispie pumpkins. You might also like to read our ideas on what to do with leftover pumpkin.
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