Halloween Spooky Cookies

by Toni Grogg

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup, or two sticks, of Butter
2. 1 cup of Granulated Sugar  
3. 3 cups of All Purpose Flour
4. 2 tsp of Baking Powder
5. ½ tsp of Salt
6. 1 Egg
7. ½ tsp of Almond Extract
8. 1 tsp of Vanilla Extract

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350

2. Start by mixing the butter and sugar together, until smooth. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and the salt.  

3. After this mixture is smooth, mix in the extracts and the egg until well blended.

4. Mix in the flour mixture a little bit at a time. It will start to get thick and when it does transfer it on to a floured surface.

5. Form the dough into a ball and then cut it into two pieces. You can cut the ball into 4 pieces if you want a variety of colors.   

6. Form those pieces into separate balls, then knead your desired colors into them. 

7. From this point you can design your cookies however you would like. Below, I rolled out each color into single ropes and placed them all together in a pattern. To make them stick together you will need to use a rolling pen or your hands.

8. After this you could just stop here and use cookie cutters to get the shapes you want, or you could roll it all into a log like below.

9. Once your dough is in a log, cut it into pieces that are about an inch to an inch in a half thick. Flatten these pieces out into 2 inch circle with a fork or your fingers. You could also cut the log into thicker pieces and roll them out wide enough to cut them into shapes with cookie cutters. (I chose to do both which is shown below).

10. After your shapes are cut, place them on a parchment lined baking sheet about half an inch apart. These cookies will not expand to much, so they do not have to spread out too far.  

11. Place the cookies into the oven for 10-12 minutes, then let them cool for about 5.

Serve and enjoy at a Halloween party, friend or family get together, work, or school. This recipe can also be transformed into Christmas cookies. All you would have to do is change the colors and shapes and share this crafty recipe throughout the whole holiday season.