Oh, boy, was it was a busy week and an even busier weekend? But we made time for Halloween cookies!  It was a wonderful Saturday evening that my daughter and I dedicated to the ritual. The cookie cutters were a lot of fun. Decorating the cookies, though, was very challenging. These shapes needed more precision than  our decorating accessories could afford us. We enjoyed it nonetheless and they were very yummy.  We also took some to a baby shower on Sunday, just before we went wild trick-or-treating.   Candy anybody? Save for the cookie cutters and the decorations, the recipe is a simple sugar cookies recipe that you can use anytime with other cookie cutters with or without decorations.   I got it from  allrecipes.

Happy Halloween!

Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• some flour for rolling the dough flat
• your favorite cookie cutters
• your choice of decoration accessories

How to make: Use a mixer to beat the butter with the sugar. Add the eggs and the vanilla extract and beat again until well blended and smooth. Put the mixer in ‘stir’ (lowest) speed and add the flour, baking powder and salt. Wrap the dough in  cling film and let it stand in the fridge for at least an hour. Prepare a flat surface and keep some flour handy.  When the dough is ready (firm but soft), roll it flat with a roller pin (do it cupful banches) and cut the cookies with the cookie cutter.  Pre-heat the oven at 400F/ 200C and bake each sheet of cookies for about 8 minutes.  Let them cool off before you start decorating.

Notes and tips: I have invested in a few baking accessories and have no regrets for it. Here’s the list of things I have in my kitchen: a) silicone baking mats that I put on the baking sheets, b) a dough mat that I use to roll the doug, c) a roller pin, and a collection of cookie cutters. The Halloween shaped cookie cutters came to our house as a gift from friends and they are from Williams Sonoma. And a tip about the dough. If  the dough comes out of the fridge too hard, don’t worry about it. Just let it stand for a while or take a bunch and put it in your hands and it will soon become soft again. Reversely, if you take too long to make the cookies and it becomes too soft, put it back in the fridge.