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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Nikki says
I've made this at least 5+ times. Always a big hit. I love to experiment with different types of sprinkles. Sugar sprinkles will end up changing the color of the dough, but still very tasty!
I made these for my art students, but I only had green and gold sugar sprinkles or black/orange nonpareils. So I made 2 batches. I'll just tell them they're Nightmare Before Christmas cookies, lol.
Nikki Gladd says
haha great idea!
scott says
This is my new go to shortbread cookie! super simple to make and the flavor is spot on! thanks so much
Nikki Gladd says
So glad! Thanks for your feedback, Scott!
Carrie says
Is this an 8 x 8 pan?
Nikki Gladd says
Hi Carrie,
Yes, an 8-inch square pan.
Loganayaki says
Absolutely stunning images. Nice recipe. Thanks for sharing...!
Miri says
I made these to give out a treats to the kids in the family. I dipped some of them in melted chocolate as well. It was kind of crumbly and I wasn't sure they were going to turn out, but they came out of the oven just fine. This is a great recipe!
Linda says
I must have done something wrong. The mixture never did get to a dough texture. Could it have been the butter wasn't as soft as it should have been. The butter had
been out long time. Anyone else have this proble
Alison says
I had trouble getting it to come together too. I simply added a little more butter, a tsp at a time, until it started to come together, then I finished the mixing with my hands. Problem solved! These are going to my son's class next week, and into holiday cookie boxes with Christmas colours!
Becky says
These turned out great! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Brenda says
Do u have to use unsalted butter?? I dont will this recipe work with regular butter?
Promise says
Ahhh....I have been mixing and mixing and it is not turning to a dough! How long do I mix on low? There is no other liquid? lol I am not a baker....what do I do?? (Doing Christmas colors for neighbor gifts!)
Thanks!!!!
Nikki Gladd says
Hi Promise,
Try one speed higher, or a tiny little drop more of the vanilla extract. Or, just get your hands dirty and start mixing it with your fingers? I haven't had this problem! Hope it turns out for you!
Nikki Gladd says
PS - You'll see I did Christmas colors here: https://www.seededatthetable.com/2014/12/09/holiday-bites/ 🙂
Melina says
Yes... mixed this forever. Added butter. Still really dry!
yzz says
Thank you! Making for thanksgiving
sheila says
These look awesome! I think they would be a hit with my kiddos, they love sprinkles and shortbread type cookies. Cece wants to be a pac man too! Not sure how I'm going to pull it off though....I'm not feeling that creative!
Nikki Gladd says
haha! I love that Cece wants to be Pac-man, too! We'll have to share ideas when I see you tomorrow! 🙂
Anonymous says
Hi. I've seem patterns for M & M's online, just adapt one of those into a Pac man. Good luck.
Rebekah says
Does this really make 168 squares? That seems like rather a lot.
They look adorable, and I can see they would easily adapt to other holidays. Will have to try them out. 🙂
Since the Pac Man ghosts are different colors (holy cow I'm a nerd), I think a pillowcase would work perfectly as long as you could find it in the right color. 🙂 I bet it will be super cute.
Nikki Gladd says
Hi Rebekah,
These cookies are VERY tiny, just 1/2-inch squares. You can actually get more than 168 if you are very precise in cutting them equally. 🙂 Mine ranged from 1/2-inch to 1-inch sizes since I never cut straight. haha! (I decided to change the servings amount showed in the recipe for more flexibility.)
Thanks for the tip on the Pac-man ghosts!
Karly says
Oh my goodness, these are so cute! I would be popping handfuls in my mouth every time I walked near the cookie jar.