~ AROUND THE YEAR WITH COOKIE MOLDS ~

October

Halloween

My Cookie Molds Books!

Recipe: Chocolate Chip Layer Cookies

Halloween

From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties,
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!"

—Traditional Scottish prayer

Halloween is an odd time. We revel in our fears, or in symbols of them. Just for one night, we impersonate the things we dread most.

Or, maybe not. I remember one Halloween when my sister and I—aged about five and seven—dressed up as flowers. Day-Glo tulips, hot pink and orange, which may or may not be scary, depending on your point of view. Cartoon characters, pets, and superheroes seem to have a lot of adherents in the children I've seen recently. Friday Harbor has a Halloween parade, and the kids march up Spring Street in their costumes. It's fun for everyone. Most of the costumes don't seem too scary.

But Halloween has not lost its dark side. There are still images of a harvest moon rising above a ramshackle Victorian house, of witches riding brooms, and ghosts appearing in the cemetery. Pressed to define a witch, I doubt if I could have produced much besides a description of a crabby old lady in black clothes. Well, I'm an old lady myself now, and I have my crabby moments. And I wear black quite often, mostly because my husband likes me to. It sets off my silver hair.

But it gets frustrating on washday. It's not easy to sort clothes when so many of them are the same color. When you can hardly tell socks from slips, blouses from trousers, washday is a problem. The "little black dress" becomes the "little black everything," and a jumbled heap of midnight spends all too long in the clean clothes basket before I organize myself to sort things and put them away. Even then,

My one effort at truly impersonating a witch resulted in a rather narrow escape. One year when I had a job in a recreation program, we were instructed to wear a costume to work and—with my black wardrobe—the choice was easy. All I needed was a pointed hat, which I acquired, and successfully impersonated a witch all day at work. Halloween being the last day of the month, it was payday, and we duly received our checks. And I didn't go to the bank after work, because I was just too tired.

Good thing—that branch had been held up earlier in the afternoon by a woman dressed as a witch. Heaven only knows how I would have been received if I'd strolled in there in my witch outfit. A SWAT team, probably.

Here's my October wish for you: May your ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties all be cookies!

Back to Contents

Halloween Cookie Molds

Many Halloween cookie molds are available, but they aren't antique designs, as far as I've seen. Although Halloween goes back in history to ancient Celtic times, it wasn't celebrated by baking. Halloween cookie cutters have been around for a while, but the molds are relatively recent. They may coincide with the change in ways of celebrating the holiday, with trick or treating being replaced by private parties.

So check current cookie mold vendors to see what they offer. Cats, bats, hats, and spiders—they're likely to have something for just about any Halloween theme you can think of. There are lots of ghosts, haunted houses, witches, and other scary things as well. And there's also a lot to be found on eBay and other auction sites, especially if you look for particular images rather than simply searching on the word "Halloween."

Back to Contents

Mold: Witch

This Brown Bag witch is really rather sweet-looking. I'm not sure why the cat has fluffed his fur—maybe he doesn't like brooms.

Back to Contents

Recipe: Chocolate Chip Layer Cookies

1 cup (225 grams) unsalted butter

1 large egg

1/2 cup (120 milliliters) agave syrup (or other syrup)

1 tablespoon cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup (100 grams) dark brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

About 4-1/2 cups (630 grams) all-purpose flour (plain flour)

About 1/4 cup very finely chopped walnuts

About 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips or chopped chocolate chips

1. Melt the butter and set aside.

2. Beat the egg in a large bowl until yolk and white are fully mixed.

3. Mix the honey, cream, and brandy flavoring. Add to the egg and beat until well mixed.

4. Mix the brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, mace, cardamom and salt. Add to the egg mixture and beat until well mixed.

5. Add the melted butter slowly and beat until well mixed.

6. Add graham flour slowly, then add all-purpose flour until the mixture is solid enough to knead.

7. Transfer to your work surface and knead in more all-purpose flour to make a soft, slightly sticky dough.

9. Divide the dough into two pieces, one about twice the size of the other. Put the smaller piece aside.

10. Knead the nuts and chocolate chips into the larger piece

11. Lay a sheet of baking parchment or nonstick foil on your counter. This sheet should be about 18 inches long. If you use nonstick foil, the dull side should be up.

12. Roll the large piece of dough into a rectangle on the sheet of parchment or foil. The dough should be a little less than 1/4 inch thick.

13. Set the smaller (plain) piece of dough on top and spread it over the chocolate chip dough with your fingers, completely covering the chocolate chip dough with a thin layer of plain dough.

14. Brush flour lightly over the top surface and press your cookie molds into the dough, trimming and removing the cookies as you mold them. Or use a patterned rolling pin to mold your cookies—this will avoid wasting the dough between cookies.(Of course, you can bake this trimmed dough, too. You just can't mold it in layers more than once.)

15. Chill the cookies while you preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C).

16. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until slightly browned at the edges.

Back to Contents

Mold: Haunted House

This Wilton mold only needs a few ghosts to prove it's haunted! Or maybe it has ghosts, only they're the kind you don't exactly see.

Back to Contents

Mold: Cat

Not very fierce-looking, is he? The fur is fluffed, but the face doesn't look at all evil. Still, he's definitely a Halloween cat. The mold is from Brown Bag.

Back to Contents

Recipe: Orange Cookies

These are great with the chocolate backing I describe in my book Baking with Cookie Molds. Also great by themselves.

1 cup (225 grams) unsalted butter

1 large egg

1/2 cup (120 milliliters) honey

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed orange juice

1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 teaspoon natural orange flavoring

1/8 teaspoon natural orange oil

1/2 cup (100 grams) sugar

2 teaspoons finely grated orange peel

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel

1/8 teaspoon salt

About 4-1/2 cups (630 grams) all-purpose flour (plain flour)

1. Melt the butter and set aside.

2. Beat the egg in a large bowl until the yolk and white are fully mixed.

3. Mix the honey, orange juice, lemon juice, orange flavoring, and orange oil. Add to the egg and beat until well mixed.

4. Mix the sugar, orange peel, lemon peel, and salt. Add to the egg mixture and beat until well mixed. If the mixture isn’t smooth, don’t worry—it will become smooth as you add the flour.

5. Add the melted butter slowly and beat until well mixed. Don’t just pour it in quickly—the heat still in the butter could cook the egg!

6. Add flour slowly and mix in until you have dough that is solid enough to knead.

7. Transfer the dough to a floured work surface. Continue adding flour by kneading in a little at a time until the dough is smooth and slightly sticky.

8. Wrap or cover the dough to prevent drying, then refrigerate to make it less sticky. This should take half an hour at most.

9. Roll and form the dough according to the directions for your cookie mold.

10. Refrigerate the cookies while you preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

11. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until the edges have slightly browned and the top has begun to firm up.

Back to Contents

Mold: Pumpkin

You can also get jack o'lantern molds from some vendors. With this plain pumpkin, though, you can use it again at Thanksgiving. Perfect for the Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake Cookie recipe in my book! Or any pumpkin molded cookie recipe. I'm sure it would be cute painted, too. The mold is from Brown Bag.

Back to Contents

Mold: Three from Zanda Panda

A bat, a cat, and a witch! These would be great for your Halloween party!

Back to Contents

Back to “Around the Year with Cookie Molds”