Happy almost Halloween!
I was feeling a little festive, so I whipped up a quick batch of my favourite shortbread dough, and put a spooky little spin on it…
I’ll be honest, my cookie cutter collection is pretty small, but It’s amazing what you can do with a simple pumpkin cookie cutter and a little free hand creativity. Yes, each of these jac-o-lantern faces was hand drawn (I’m sure you can tell lol)
They may not be perfect, but they were so much fun to make!
I really love these shortbread cookies, because they are so dang simple to make. They only require one bowl, a few ingredients and you can easily customize them with your favourite filling.
I stuffed my sandwiches with melted dark chocolate, but you could totally change it up with your favourite filling! I think peanut butter or Nutella, or jam would be absolutely incredible – but I would love to see what you guys come up with!
Happy Halloween Baking <3
Chocolate Stuffed Shortbread Jac-o-Lantern Cookie Sandwiches
Makes 30 cookies or 15 cookie sandwiches
Things you need…
Chocolate Shortbread
1 cup salted butter, softened
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tbsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstartch
1/4 cup cocoa powder
9oz dark or milk chocolate, melted
Filling Variation Ideas
Raspberry jam
Peanut Butter
White Chocolate
Nutella
Caramel
Marshmallow Fluff
How to make…
Pre heat oven to 350 F degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and powdered sugar until pale and fluffy – about 5 minutes.
Scrape down the sides of your bowl and add in the vanilla; Beat until combined.
In a small bowl, whisk together all purpose flour, cornstarch and cocoa powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet in two additions, beating on medium until combined and the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
Use a spatula to scoop dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap. Shape dough into a disc and wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Set the dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
Remove dough from the fridge and lightly flour a dry, cool work surface and use a rolling pin to roll dough to 1/4 thickness. Take a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter (or your favourite Halloween shape) to cut out your shapes.
Cut out the faces free hand with a sharp knife on half of your pumpkin cut outs. I made each of them unique, so that was half the fun.
Place the cookie cut outs onto your prepared baking sheet, leaving half an inch in between the cookies. Bake at 350F for 9-10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow them to cool completely.
Melt your favourite milk or dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl in the microwave in 30 second intervals until smooth. Spoon 1 tsp of melted chocolate onto the top of the cookie halves without the jac-o-lantern face cut outs.
Next, take the cookies with the jac-o-lantern face cut outs, and gently press the bottoms into the dollop of melted chocolate to make the sandwiches. Allow to set for 30 minutes before serving. (you could stick them in the fridge to speed up this process.)
Enjoy!
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