I love to bake a crapton of cookies for any sort of occasion or holiday. Christmas is nice, especially since everyone starts baking all sorts of delicious treats. But in my opinion, Halloween is the best. It might be my inner-goth that’s delighted to celebrate spooky things that makes this season beat out all the others.

Everyone who loves cinnamon loves snickerdoodle cookies. So I decided to do a Halloween twist on them and make Spookydoodle cookies. I realized after a cut out a million pumpkin shaped cookies that these might’ve been more appropriate for the name if they were ghost shaped, but we’re rolling with it.

Basically, you start off with the sugar cookie recipe and cut out whatever sort of shapes you want your cookies to be. Since the dough is too soft and delicate, you can’t dip them into the cinnamon sugar prior to baking like you do with traditional snickerdoodle cookies. So you bake them off as you would for sugar cookie cutouts, then add the cinnamon sugar later.

Once the cookies are baked, you want them to cool completely. For the cinnamon sugar mixture, it’s up to you for the ratio you want to use. Some people like more ground cinnamon, some people like less. I never really measure my mixture and just kind of eyeball it, but it’s roughly about one teaspoon of ground cinnamon for every two or three tablespoons of white sugar.

Once the cookies have cooled, you get a pastry brush and lightly moisten the top of the cookies and dip them into the cinnamon sugar mixture. Don’t go too heavy with the water because you don’t want soggy cookies, but don’t go too light either because then you won’t get enough cinnamon sugary goodness to stick. And don’t worry, the small bit of water won’t ruin the cookies since the sugar will soak it up.

Spookydoodle Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 small pinch of salt
• 3 to 3.5 cups all purpose flour
• water
• cinnamon sugar mixture (2-3 tablespoons white sugar + 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon)

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Cream the butter and white sugar together for 3 minutes.
3. Add vanilla, egg, baking powder, and salt. Mix until incorporated.
4. Add in the flour (slowly and half a cup at a time), mixing until the dough comes together easily and holds its shape, it also shouldn’t be sticky when touched.
5. DO NOT PUT THE DOUGH IN THE REFRIGERATOR. It’s not needed for this recipe.
6. Roll out dough between two pieces of cling wrap/wax paper/parchment paper to your desired thickness (some people like thicker/thiner cookies). Do not add more flour when rolling out.
7. Cut out shapes and place on a cookie sheet and bake at 8-10 minutes or until the edges start to turn a golden brown.
8. Let cool on baking sheet for 2 to 3 minutes. Move to a wire rack to cool fully.
9. Working with one cookie at a time, use a pastry brush to lightly add water to the surface of the cookie and immediately dip the cookie (water-side down) into the cinnamon sugar mixture.
10. Eat them because they’re delicious and you’ve earned it after making them. You are their creator and you should destroy them…WITH YOUR TEETH!

I don’t have an estimate on how many cookies this recipe makes because it all depends on the size of your cutters, the shape of them, and how thick you want your cookies to be. Happy Halloween, friends!