Pumpkin Spiced Bone Cookies

This Is Halloween

Halloween!

Seven hells, it’s already Halloween..

Do you remember last Halloween? I do. Like it was yesterday! But we mustn’t complain about how time is flying or we’ll find ourselves in 2015 before we finish the rant.

Instead, let’s talk Halloween! Who has traditions? Let me know in the comments. Movies? Haunted houses? Parties? For us, the one thing we always do is watch Hocus Pocus with some cookies and hot cocoa. You should know by now we are Disney freaks in this house so it shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Another definite is The Nightmare Before Christmas, but it’s not a really a must-watch since it’ll be played at least 126 times between now and Christmas.

There are a bunch of great movies we try and cram in: The Monster Squad, Sleepy Hallow, The Addams Family, Beetlejuice, Ghostbusters, Clue… Alright, Clue is mine. I love that movie but naturally the wife hates it. “I can’t believe you made me sit through that garbage.” She hasn’t really trusted my movie taste since then, but whatever, it’s great! One I cannot stand though is It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Something about all the Charlie Brown movies that irk the pumpkin seeds out of me.

Alright, enough about movies! How about a bone chilling story? I’ll share it with you because it still bothers me when I think about it, and it’s Halloween, so it’s fitting. Yes, that means this is a true tale! I’ll make it short though…

I remember growing up, my buddies and I had one really great Halloween. We made a haunted house out of the basement of my apartment building. There were a bunch of storage rooms towards the back that the building superintendent (my dad!) gave us access to. It started to get creepy when the lights in the one room we didn’t use began going on and off by themselves. I’m glad I wasn’t stationed back there because I would’ve had a panic attack, but that’s the least of what happened that night. We had the front door where people walked through and we guided them like a tour. It was great times… until we walked the last group in.

Not 2 minutes after we took them in, we heard a loud crash outside. We ran out to look and found a window smashed to pieces exactly on the spot where the line of people was. The guy in the apartment 6 floors up was trying to open his window and it just fell off the track. I try to forget that detail of that night despite no one getting hurt, thank God. But still, it was creepy, scary, and still gives me goosebumps to this day. Like, what if, you know….

Anyway! Now that the spooky story is out of the way, let’s get to the goods!

I feel like aside from the theme of the Sweeney Todd meat pie post I did for Pi Day, there’s nothing really Halloween themed here on the blog. We’re fixing that today!

If you’re one for Halloween parties (like I wish we were), you’d know there’s a customary assortment of Halloween themed snacks and goodies on a table somewhere. If there’s not then someone didn’t get a memo.

I think having a table set up with said goodies is probably what makes me want to have a party more than having the actual party. With so many choices of Halloween themed treats out there these days, it’s hard to pick what’s best.

But of course, my friends at Wilton made one choice simple.

Thanks to being a proud ambassador of the Wilton Sweet Treat Team, I was sent a box of treats to play with. And in this box was this bone pan.

It’s a small, 5 cavity pan that is just absolutely perfect for making bone shaped cookies for a Halloween party. It’s also great for entertaining the kids, giving them a fun shaped cookie to enjoy during your Halloween festivities.

I was trying to figure out what kind of cookie I was going to make for the pan though. I knew I wanted pumpkin, that’s for sure. It’s almost November and I don’t have a SINGLE pumpkin recipe this season. It’s like I don’t even care about my blog, I swear.

But as it turns out, it’s hard to find a pumpkin cookie that is not chewy and cake like. I went with one recipe and was excited for it, but it rose insanely high and on top of that, it was as soft as a pillow. I had so much dough too, so instead of wasting time making regular cookies which would’ve been the ideal thing to do, I plopped it in a pan and tried to make a cake out of it.

LOL. Just typing that out has me here cracking up at myself from how incredibly dumb that idea was. I mean, at the time, I thought I was a genius. But then…

Yeah. R.I.P. pumpkin cookie cake. I hardly knew thee.

Back to the drawing board, I knew now the best way to go was going to be a sugar cookie. It could be pushed into the mold, and it won’t rise like a regular cookie. But where was I going to find a good recipe?!

Oh, Wilton. Like 4 steps ahead of me. Putting a sugar cookie recipe on the back of the pan’s packaging. If only I turned it over sooner!

Alright, it’s not pumpkin, I thought. But that can easily be remedied with some cinnamon and pumpkin spice added in there. I am very much pro-pumpkin spice and am one of those that praise it’s existence and look forward to it’s yearly arrival. So this should help me get my fix for a bit.

Does it? Let’s see..

Pumpkin Spiced Bone Cookies     (adapted from Wilton)

1 cup – Butter, softened
1 1/2 cups – Sugar
1 each – Egg
1 1/2 teaspoons – Pure Vanilla Extract
2 3/4 cups – Flour
1 teaspoon – Salt
1 1/2 teaspoons – Cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons – Pumpkin Pie Spice

Coffee Liqueur Glaze       (also adapted from Wilton)

1 1/4 cups – Confectioners Sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons – Milk
1 tablespoon – Coffee Liqueur

1/2 teaspoon – Pumpkin Pie Spice
1/2 teaspoon – Cocoa Powder

Notes:

• Guess what? You’re going to need Wilton’s Bone Cookie Pan to make bone cookies.
• Wilton’s No-Color Almond Extract was another extract in the recipe. It goes perfectly with simple cookies like these, but I didn’t have any on hand.
• According to the recipes above, you’ll have more cookies than glaze. If you’d like, you can do a recipe and a half of the glaze, but personally I left some cookies without it because I liked them plain just fine.
• If you have kids around you’d like to share this with, no worries! Omit the liqueur, add another tablespoon of milk, and add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract (the original recipe for the glaze from Wilton)
• If you fill up the cavity with the dough, it’ll plump up very slightly. It won’t be a huge deal, but if you want more of a flat top, fill up the cavities only 2/3 of a way.
• If you taste the glaze on it’s own, it may seem strong. But with the sugar and pumpkin spice in the cookie, it balances it out lovely.

Alright, this is as easy as it gets:

• Heat the oven to 350 and beat your butter and sugar until it’s mixed well. Once it’s good, beat in the egg and the extract until it’s incorporated. Then in a separate bowl, combine your dry stuff: the flour, salt, and spices.

• Add the flour to the butter mixture and beat until it’s dough. I like to mix in batches but let’s not get complicated here.

• Spray your bone pan with some non-stick and press the dough into the cavities.

Don”t be afraid to ask for help with this daunting task.

Like I said in the notes, I filled them up all the way and they plumped over a tiny bit. Not a deal breaker by any means (like the pumpkin fail ones). But if you want it thinner, with more of a flat bottom, and more of a perfect looking bone shape, fill them up only 2/3 of the way.

• Bake them for 10 minutes or until the edges are light brown. Let them cool in the pan for a few before you plop them out. I honestly had no issues whatsoever with removing the cookies from the pan, so if you’re scared of that, don’t be! Put them on a rack to cool them completely, which doesn’t take long at all.

• While they’re cooling, get on the glaze! Sift your sugar, add the milk and liqueur, and whisk away till it’s smooth.

Not to put any pressure on you, but my 4 year old can make it. #justsayin

• Before the next step, mix the pumpkin pie spice and the cocoa powder and keep it close by.

• Now, there are a few ways to go about this, but I say, pick up the cookie and hold it over the bowl while you pour the glaze over it. Life is short, grab it by the cookie. Just wash your hands first…

• Once you got it smothered, put it on a rack so the excess can drip off. Do about 3 of them at a time.

• While they’re still wet, take a small pinch of the pumpkin cocoa spice (like that? I should sell it!), and sprinkle it over the bone. It doesn’t have to cover the whole thing, that’s not the effect we’re looking for.

• Once you have some sprinkled on, take a brush and go Bob Ross on it (light, gentle strokes), not really brushing the whole bone, but getting random spots.

I did this to simulate the appearance of a freshly dug bone. I think it came out rather well! As a bonus, it gives it a pronounced pumpkin spice flavor with a hint of cocoa and coffee liqueur. Wooo weee! It’s a party in your mouth! Telling you, they look simple but they pack a punch!

That’s that! Just keep repeating till the batch is done and let them dry a bit before shoving them in your mouth.

And like I said, you don’t have to glaze them all. I left a few for the kid because come on, he doesn’t need the glaze, liqueur or not.

And I kinda preferred the naked ones to dip in my coffee in the morning. And afternoon. …Ok, and the night too sometimes.

I’m glad I didn’t give up on trying to use the pan after the first batch of failed pumpkin cookies. I really liked the way they came out and they were so good! They’re totally getting made again for Halloween!

Adios!

If you’re still looking for some more reasons to pick up this pan, here are a few more posts from the Wilton Treat Team!

Nicole made fantastic looking Blood Dipping Sauce
to compliment her Cinnamon Cookie Bones
over on Baking Bites!
She also did a spot on review of the pan.

And Heather did an amazing job making insane looking
Dusty Bones Sugar Cookies over on Sprinkle Bakes!
Love the look of them! And the pictures!