The Halloween stuffed cookies are delicious and fun cookies shaped like pumpkins and skulls for the Halloween party. For the recipe, I used classic shortcrust pastry, coloring half of the dough with food coloring by mixing yellow and red to achieve a nice orange color for the pumpkin. For the filling, I chose strawberry jam for the skulls and Nutella for the pumpkins. Finally, I finished the details with ready-to-use gel food coloring in two different colors. It will be “monstrously” fun to prepare them with children.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Cheap
- Rest time: 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 10 Pieces
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Creative
- Seasonality: Halloween
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup butter
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup Nutella®
- 1/3 cup strawberry jam (or cherry)
- 1 pinch fine salt
- as needed yellow food coloring
- as needed red food coloring
- as needed gel food coloring (red and black)
Tools
- Kitchen scale
- Stand mixer
- Paddle attachment
- Bowl
- Plastic wrap
- Pastry board
- Dough scraper
- Parchment paper
- Cookie cutters
- Baking tray
- Teaspoon
- Silicone rolling pin
- Knife
Steps
To prepare the Halloween stuffed cookies…
In the bowl of the stand mixer, place the cold butter from the refrigerator cut into cubes and the granulated sugar, then blend the two ingredients with the paddle attachment until you obtain a sandy mixture.
Then add the egg and mix it with the butter and sugar using the stand mixer.
Lastly, add the all-purpose flour and a pinch of fine salt, increasing the speed of the stand mixer and working the dough until it starts to slightly compact.
Now remove the dough from the bowl, weigh it, and divide it into two equal parts. Place the part that will remain white back into the stand mixer and finish mixing until it becomes compact.
Remove the white dough, form it into a block, wrap it in plastic wrap, and place it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Now proceed with the other half in the same way, but add the powdered coloring and work it until it becomes compact. Also form it into a block, wrap it in plastic wrap, and put it in the refrigerator for the same amount of time.
After the resting time for the shortcrust pastry, take the white one and roll it out with the rolling pin to a thickness of about 1/5 inch, then with the skull cutter, make 10 cookies. Do the same with the orange dough, making 10 pumpkin-shaped cookies.
Place the cookies on the baking tray lined with parchment paper and bake them in a preheated oven at 350°F and cook for about 15 minutes in fan mode.
After the baking time, remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool for a few minutes.
Then take 5 skull-shaped cookies and spread strawberry jam on top, cover them with the other 5, pressing slightly.
Continue by taking another 5 pumpkin-shaped cookies, spread Nutella on top, and overlay the remaining 5 cookies.
Finally, decorate the details of the cookies with the ready-to-use gel food coloring pen as desired. The cookies are ready to be enjoyed.
You might need…
Advice
To color the pastry orange, I used powdered coloring, carefully dosing the yellow first and then the red.
If you use gel or liquid coloring, the dough will be softer and stickier. In that case, add a little flour to achieve the desired consistency.
Storage
The cookies can be stored in an airtight container.
