Ghost Cookies @MaddieDayAuthor #Halloween #giveaway

MADDIE DAY, bringing you some yummy sugar cookies disguised as ghosts for Halloween!

Caveat: I'm rather stressed at the moment, with a big book release this week and a brand-new, barely cooked very premature grandchild - my first! So I didn't get very creative with my contribution to the Kitchen's two weeks of Halloween recipes.

Okay, the cookies look creative, but I confess I have used the recipe many times, including here. You see, it's my grandmother Dorothy's recipe for English Butter Cookies, which I bake every year at Christmas.

So, hang onto the recipe, grab some red and green sugars, and use it in six weeks for your own holiday cookie plate!

Maddie's Ghost Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup softened salted butter (never margarine)

1/2 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling

1 egg

1 tablespoon vanilla

3 cups unbleached white flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Semisweet chocolate bits (not shown in photo)

 

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cream butter and sugar in mixer until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Mix flour and baking powder, then stir in until blended. Divide the dough in half, shape into disks, wrap, and chill for at least half an hour.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Dust a clean surface with flour and roll out first disk to a 1/4 inch thickness. Cut with a gingerbread woman cookie cutter and place on cookie sheet at least a half inch apart. 

Have fun distorting the the figures so they look more ghoulish. When the sheet is full, sprinkle with white sugar and then add chocolate chip facial features.

Bake for 5-7 minutes, watching for browning. 

Cool on the parchment paper. Repeat for the other disk and the scraps until all dough has been baked. 

Remember you can reuse the recipe for Christmas using other cookie cutters and colored sugars.

Enjoy any time of year with a cup of coffee or tea, or a spot of sherry.

I can't wait to make these again in a couple of years for my granddaughter

Readers: What's your favorite cookie, holiday or otherwise? I'll send one of you a signed copy of my new book! The cover looks kind of Halloweeny, doesn't it?

🎃🍪🎃

Murder Uncorked featuring wine bar manager Cece Barton came out Tuesday!

My next book to release is Deep Fried Death, #12 in the Country Store Mysteries.

It releases the day after Christmas this year.

Check out all my writing:

We hope you'll visit Maddie and her Agatha Award-winning alter ego Edith Maxwell on our web site, sign up for our monthly newsletter, visit us on social media, and check our all our books and short stories.

Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell) is a talented amateur chef and holds a PhD in Linguistics from Indiana University. An Agatha Award-winning and bestselling author, she is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and also writes award-winning short crime fiction. She lives with her beau and sweet cat Martin north of Boston, where she’s currently working on her next mystery when she isn’t cooking up something delectable in the kitchen.