Glowing Jack O Lantern Cookies Recipes

GLOWING JACK-O-LANTERN COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover 3 cookie sheets with foil. Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla. Beat in flour, baking powder and salt. Add milk if batter is too stiff. Color 7/8 of dough orange and separately color rest green. Roll 1" balls from the orange dough and flatten with your hand to make a ball or "pumpkin" shape. Place on cookie sheets. Roll "stems" out of the green dough and attach to the top of the "pumpkin." Carefully cut out wide spaces for eyes, nose and mouth with a knife. Fill holes in with crushed lemon candy. Bake 8-10 minutes or until done. DO NOT ALLOW TO BROWN. Allow to cool for 10 minutes and carefully peel off foil. Note: crush lemon drops in food processor. If mixture becomes sticky, add a little powdered sugar while chopping.

GLOWING JACK-O'-LANTERN COOKIES

Steps:

• 1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment, foil, or a Silpat mat (not wax paper, which will stick).
• 2. Unwrap the candies if wrapped, put them in a heavy ziplock bag, and crush them into powder with the flat side of a meat tenderizer or the bottom of a saucepan.
• Beat the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until creamy, and then blend in the egg, lemon zest, if using, lemon juice, and food coloring. Begin with 6 drops of red and 5 drops of yellow liquid coloring or a dab of orange paste; add more to achieve your desired shade. Stir well until fully combined.
• 4. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt to the bowl, and mix well.
• 5. Roll half of the dough out on a lightly floured surface and cut out 8 big jack-o'-lantern shapes with a cookie cutter, or freehand with the tip of a paring knife. Make short, fat pumpkins about 4 inches wide by 3 inches high, or make tall, thin pumpkins about 4 inches tall and 2 to 3 inches wide. You want some variety here! Use the knife to cut out big eyes, nose, and mouth in each (don't do a lot of teeth - they tend to break off). Keep in mind that you want the eyes, nose, and mouth to be wide enough to hold the melted candy. Carefully lift the pumpkins with a spatula and transfer them to the prepared baking sheets. Use the tip of the paring knife to push back the eye, nose, and mouth openings to make them as wide as possible without losing the bridges of dough between the features. Repeat with the remaining dough half.
• 6. With the tip of a small spoon, sprinkle candy powder generously into the eyes, nose, and mouth openings, directly to the parchment. Try to keep the candy off the surface of the cookies.
• 7. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, watching carefully. Remove as soon as the candy has melted; don't let the surface of the cookies brown. They should be just set and very pale.
• 8. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets, or carefully lift the parchment off the sheets and transfer the whole sheet to cooling racks (only if the racks are big enough to hold the sheet). When the cookies are completely cool, carefully peel off the parchment.