These Halloween cookies are a spooktacular bake for little hands!
These simple cookies are perfect for cutting into fun Halloween shapes — pumpkins, bats, ghosts or cats — and decorating with icing pens once cooled. They’re buttery, crisp, and a great half-term baking activity for the whole family to get involved with!
- Prep time: 20 mins
- Chill time: 20 mins
- Bake time: 10–12 mins
- Makes: Around 20 cookies (depending on size)
To make the shapes, we used spooky shaped cookie cutters. You can also have a go at shaping them individually yourself (or not shaping them at all), but we recommend investing in some cutters like these from Hobbycraft for ultra precision!
???? Ingredients
- 125g unsalted butter, softened
- 100g caster sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 egg yolk
- 200g plain flour (plus a little extra for rolling)
To decorate:
- Black, orange or white icing pens
- Optional: sprinkles, edible eyes, or coloured icing sugar
???????? Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan) / Gas 4 and line two baking trays with parchment.
- Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy.
- Add the vanilla and egg yolk, then mix well.
- Sift in the flour and stir until the dough starts to come together. Use your hands to form a smooth ball.
- Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for 20 minutes to make it easier to roll.
- Lightly flour your surface, roll the dough to about ½cm thick, and use Halloween cookie cutters to make shapes (pumpkins, bats, ghosts — whatever you fancy!).
- Place on trays and bake for 10–12 minutes, until lightly golden at the edges.
- Cool completely on a wire rack before decorating.
????️ Decorating time!
Once cooled, grab your icing pens and draw outlines or spooky faces — pumpkins with smiles, bats with wings, ghosts with wobbly eyes! Keep it simple and let the kids get creative.
