Things To Make and Do for Halloween, Cookbook of the Day

by Marisa McClellan, Posted Oct 16th 2008 @ 12:34PM

cover of Things to Make and do for Halloween

Gail Gibbons' book Things To Make and Do For Halloween has been a constant in my life since I was in kindergarten. My mother picked it up at a thrift store when I was four years old, in the hopes that it would provide my sister and me with a few fun Halloween-themed activities. I think it goes to show how much we both loved it that I still have it in my book collection.

It's a book that combines food and craft activities, including how to make a Halloween mask, how to make a pointy witch hat and a recipes for Halloween treats. When I was younger, I'd start to pull this book of the shelf sometime in August and badger my mom until she relented and let us make the cookie recipe on page 34.

It's just a standard sugar cookie recipe, written to include the correct number of food coloring drops to make the dough a bright orange. Just before baking, you use small chocolate chips to create a mouth, nose and eyes and poof, jack o' lantern cookies! It's an easy recipe to whip together and the decorating step is simple enough that even the youngest kids can play along. Check out the recipe after the jump.

Jack-o'-Lantern Cookies

Recipe makes 24 cookies

1 stick butter
1 egg
4 teaspoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
orange food coloring (combine 10 drops of red and 10 drops of yellow to make orange)
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
chocolate chips to decorate

How to do it: (instructions are taken verbatim from the book)

Take the butter out of the refrigerator. Put it in a bowl and let it get soft.
Mix the butter with a fork until it is fluffy.
Mix in the sugar
Mix in the egg, milk, vanilla and food coloring.
Mix in the flour, salt and baking powder.
Stir everything with the fork until it is very smooth.
Put the bowl in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
When the hour is up, have your mother set the oven at 375 degrees.
For each cookie, take 1 teaspoon of dough and roll it into a ball.
Put each ball on the cookie sheet and flatten it with the palm of your hand (don't put the balls too close together).
Add the chocolate chips to make two eyes, a nose and a mouth.
Bake the cookies for 8 minutes.