Halloween Cookies

Pumpkin Face Cookies

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/3 cups shortening
2 eggs
3 tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
orange food coloring (or red and yellow)
Raisin Filling (recipe to follow)

Directions:
Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl. Cream shortening sugar, eggs, milk and vanilla thoroughly. Mix in dry ingredients. Color the dough. Divide dough in half, chill for 2 hrs. or until dough is firm enough to handle. Roll out half the dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/8' thickness and cut with a 2 3/4' round cookie cutter. Place half the circles on ungreased cookie sheet. Place 2 tsp. of raisin filling in center of each circle. With a knife, cut out pumpkin faces on remaining circles. Place over raisin filling, seal the edges with the tines of a fork. Repeat with remaining dough. Bake at 375 deg. F. for about 12 min.

Yield 2 1/2-3 dozen cookies

For Raisin Filling

Ingredients:
2 cups chopped raisins
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup boiling water
1 tbsp. butter/margarine
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. grated lemon rind
1/8 tsp. salt

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until thick, about 5 min. Cool.

Halloween Cookie Shapes

Ingredients:
1 pkg. of chilled sugar cookie dough
rolling pin
flour
Halloween cookie cutters (Cooking.com) or Halloween templates (witch, cat, bat, Jack-O-Lantern or ghost) and thin cardboard

Directions:
Roll out the cookie dough with the rolling pin on a floured surface. With the cutters, cut out Halloween shapes (ghosts, witches, cats, etc.). Make cookies according to package directions and let cool. Decorate the cookies with icing. Use food coloring to make different colored icings. Place icings inside plastic bags, cut off the tips and use them to pipe the icing onto the cookies. For control: Pipe an outline onto the cookie where you want a color to be. Place a dollop of icing in the center of the outline and use a toothpick dipped in the icing to spread it out to fill in the outline.

Variation: Print the template of your choice and cut it out. Trace around the template onto wax paper and the thin cardboard and cut them out. Glue the cardboard figure to the wax paper figure using very little glue (be careful not to let the glue seep out from under the shapes). Place wax paper side of the cutout over the rolled out dough and use a knife to cut out the shape using the template as a guide. Note : To make holding the cutout easier, you can glue a small wooden knob to the cardboard side of the cutout for a handle. Decorate your cookies in the same manner described above. To make the features for the cookies:  Fill in the circles with black icing for the ghost, create upside down triangles with white icing on the bats, fill in the triangles and mouth with black icing for the Jack-O-Lantern. You can leave the cat and witch as silhouettes or create eyes (To draw each eye, use yellow icing to draw on the eye shapes and then use a dollop of black icing in the center for the iris).

For Royal Icing
Because it becomes quite stiff, this icing works well on cookies that are to be shipped.

Ingredients:
1 large egg white
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted after measuring
Directions:
Beat the egg white until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and the confectioners' sugar, a little at a time, beating until the mixture forms soft peaks. The icing dries quickly, so keep it covered with a wet cloth until ready to use; it will hold about 12 hours covered this way. Pipe the icing on the cookies using various small pastry tubes. 

Spider Cookies

Ingredients:
Chocolate sandwich cookies
black licorice whips
red cinnamon candies

Directions:
Cut licorice to the appropriate size for the spider's legs. Insert eight licorice legs into each sandwich cookie (four on each side). Position two cinnamon candies on the cookie for the eyes.