These tiny shortbread cookies come together very quickly for festive little munchies everybody will love! A fun alternative to cut-out Halloween sugar cookies, these BOO! Bites sprinkle cookies are a perfect Halloween gift.
The dough for these Halloween shortbread cookies is easy to work with once it forms, then you press it into a pan to shape. Cut into tiny squares and bake to make the perfect crispy shortbread cookies!
Do you have your Halloween costume picked out yet? What about your kids? After making these Halloween shortbread cookies, Judah told me he wants to be Pac-Man this year and Simon one of the ghosts. I love the idea! It looks like we'll have to make the Pac-Man costume as I can't find one to buy. After researching ideas on Pinterest, I think Ben and I came up with a good, easy and cheap way to do it.
As far as the ghost costume for Simon, do you think I can get away with a large pillowcase or small sheet? Any ideas on how to make him look like an actual Pac-Man ghost? What are they called anyway?
Speaking of ghosts, I decided to name these little Halloween shortbread cookies as BOO! Bites because...well.. I honestly don't know. I thought about Frankenstein Food, Goblin Grub, Monster Munchies -- anything that had to do with Halloween. But, BOO! Bites kept creeping back into my mind so I stuck with it. What do you think?
Make sure you use nonpareils for these and not just regular sprinkles or jimmies. The jimmies would probably work just fine, but you'll have to use much more of them. I tried making these a second time with ghost shaped sprinkles and you couldn't even tell they were ghosts. Plus, I love the dotted appeal to them anyway.
I'm imagining myself making these for all holidays with the corresponding holiday colors! Let your kids munch on them, send them as a surprise for a treat in their school lunch, or serve for party guests to nibble on. Wrap in a cellophane bag and stuff in a festive mug and you have a great teacher or hostess gift! The possibilities with these are endless!
Other "Bites":
Jingle Bell Bites
Cupid Bites
Leprechaun Bites
Recipe Card
BOO! Bites
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter , at room temperature (plus more to butter the pan)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon almond or vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 4 teaspoons halloween colored nonpareils
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter the bottom and sides of an 8-inch square pan, then line with parchment paper, pressing the sides and corners to stick.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter, sugar and extract at medium speed until creamy, about 1-2 minutes. Add the flour and salt. Mix on low speed until a dough forms. It will be crumbly at first, but keep beating. Stir in the nonpareils until evenly distributed.
- Transfer the dough to the lined pan and press evenly into the bottom. Use the parchment paper to lift the dough from the pan and transfer to a cutting board. Cut the dough into ½-inch square pieces (a pizza cutter works well). Place the squares ½-inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet; discard parchment paper. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes, or until bottoms just begin to brown.
Notes
- Mix the dough until it JUST holds together. If it doesn't hold together within a few minutes, add a little more liquid -- milk or water, 1 teaspoon at a time.
- Do not over mix -- more than 5 minutes might be too much.
- These are teeny tiny bites, only ½-inch squares. You can make them bigger without much of a difference in baking time. Just watch it until they start to turn golden, then they're done.
Nutrition
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