Candy Corn Cookies and Other Halloween Goodies (for next year)

Man o man, Halloween.  I was late posting last week because of my own children.  I was able to make these cookies a week early for my younger daughter, Sarah, because some mom at her school took the day that I LIKE to bring the snack.  Ultimately, though, that probably cut down on my holiday stress.  I had to adapt them because they were supposed to taste lemony.  Yeah, a bunch of four year olds biting into a candy corn colored and shaped cookie bite into it and taste lemon?  I don’t think so.  I changed that whole situation.  Also, this was the second recipe I tried.  The other one didn’t make enough, I overcooked them, and they looked funny.  The colors on those were completely correct where as the color on these is only right on half but I figured the preschoolers wouldn’t care.  Plus the method was way easier and the cookie itself was better.  I was thinking that you don’t even have to make them candy corn, you could color coordinate them for a party and just cut them into squares.  It would be way cute and easy.

Can you tell which ones came out better?

Thankfully, Sarah, didn’t want me to bake her anything for her dance class party either, she had me make bags of Ghost Poop (marshmallows in a bag with a label, saying Ghost Poop, it went over VERY well).  For Angela’s dance party, I made these cookies from Martha Stewart which were just OK.  The chocolate ones came out better than the plain ones.  They were simple (really super easy) and looked pretty, though.  Angela hadn’t asked me to bake anything either she just wanted me to make bags that looked like tombstones but I couldn’t find plain black bags in time.  I will be looking early for next year, I really liked the tombstone bag idea with a personalized tombstone message for each girl in her group.

The dough, chilled and unwrapped.

I made cupcakes for Angela’s school that I had seen on Pinterest but the recipe called for almond extract and I felt was not so kid friendly.  I was thinking I might have to adapt it myself but luckily, The Girl Who Ate Everything did it for me.  I did make them mini so as to accommodate the number of people in her class and not overload them with sweets.  They were so easy.  The recipe uses cake mix and tastes lovely.  It turned out, as Angela told me Sunday night, that nothing had been mentioned about a party on Monday and she wasn’t so keen on me making anything just in case there wasn’t a party.  I didn’t care, I had already told my sister I was going to bring the leftovers to Halloween (along with a batch of Candy Corn Cookies) and I figured if they weren’t having a party, what 9 year old is going to object to a free mini cupcake, whatever the reason?  They didn’t have a class party but they handed them out just before school ended.  I noticed that her teacher from last year also stopped her as she was walking to the gate and asked her for one.

Cut into pieces, trimming round edges.

Halloween went well.  Angela went as Hermione Granger and seeing as she is almost done with the seventh book, it was very fitting.  Sarah was a fairy and Bob went as Spiderman (sans mask, kinda hard to get a two year old to wear a mask if he doesn’t want to).  My nephews went as a ninja and a hobo and my little cousins went as Captain America and Bumblebee.  Bumblebee had the best mask and I was so impressed that my little cousin kept it on.  My husband broke his toy knife on Captain America’s shield and I told him “Duh, it is supposed to be impenetrable.  What did you expect?”  It was my son’s first year really saying “trick or treat” and “thank you” on his own, so that was neat but he was over it all fairly quickly and went back to the house early.  Sarah, did very well, not one complaint and except for mommy adjusting her wings after each stop, she was as happy as a clam.  She says she wants to be a kitty next year so we shall see if she doesn’t change her mind.  I actually think she won’t but you never know.

My other efforts

My GeekyLink is again from my Pinterest page and after I saw this don’t you dare, I did go back and check the Tenth Doctor Episode Forest of the Dead to double check to see if this exchange happened just like in The Wedding of River Song and yup, it did and I got chills and it was awesome.

One of the best parts is you can place A LOT on a cookie sheet. They hardly spread at all.

Candy Corn Cookies

adapted from Kathie Cooks

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks butter), softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Red Food Dye
Yellow Food Dye
granulated sugar (for sprinkling)

Method

Combine butter and sugar in a large bowl.  Beat at medium speed until creamy.  Add egg, vanilla extract, and salt.  Continue beating until well mixed.  Add flour and baking soda and beat until well mixed.

Divide dough into thirds.  Press one-third of the white dough evenly into the bottom of a loaf pan that you have lined with foil, wax, or parchment paper.  Place another one-third of the dough into a bowl and add yellow and red food dye to make orange (refer to the chart on the back of your box).  Once it is mixed evenly, press orange dough evenly over white dough. In another bowl, add the final amount of dough and dye yellow.  Press that evenly over the orange dough. Cover and refrigerate until firm (2 hours or overnight is best).

Once chilled, preheat your oven to 375°, then invert your loaf pan and unwrap your dough.  Flip it back over and place it on a cutting board.  Cut loaf crosswise into 1/4-inch slices using a sharp knife, trimming edges to make even, if necessary.  Cut each slice into 6 wedges.  Place 1-inch apart onto a lightly greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 7-10 minutes.  While still warm, sprinkle with sugar.  Place cookies on a baking rack to cool completely.