Spiced Halloween Cut Out Cookies

I love Halloween.
There's a good chance it's because my mom refused to decorate or let me dress up as anything scary as a kid. So now I have a love for all things creepy and scary.
My other favorite holiday is valentines day, but you can only truly celebrate it if you're with a relationship and lets face it, there's a good chance that isn't going to happen this year for me so I need to appreciate Halloween while I can.
Don't you love my skull cookie jar? So  cute.
In honor of my favorite holiday, I'm making two posts with two different kinds of cookies, (yay!).
I found these super cute Halloween stencils and I had not ever used them before. I definitely recommend them they are so cute. However. I didn't use frosting and if you do the same don't use the colored spray, use powdered sugar or dark cocoa powder. Or frost it and use the color spray because it is pretty cool!
The cookies were delish also besides just cute. They were soft and had just the right amount of spices, which I was worried about because no one wants an overly spiced cookie. They're a perfect fall cookie, I definatley recommend trying them out. I found the recipe on Annie's Eats. I made almost 30 cookies with this recipe, but it will very on how thick you roll the dough out and what cookie cutters you use.

Spiced Brown Sugar Cut-Out Cookies

3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon all spice
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, (packed)
2 sticks of butter, (softened)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine flour, baking powder, salt and spices in a medium bowl.
In the brown of an electric mixer, combine sugars and butter.
Beat in medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
Blend in the egg and vanilla.
With the mixer on low speed, mix in the dry ingredients until just incorporated.
Form the dough into a ball and wrap tightly in plastic wrap.
Chill until firm, at least an hour.
When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to about 1/4 inch thick.
Cut out the dough with your cookie cutters and transfer to the baking sheets.
Bake 10-12 minutes.
Let cool in the baking sheets before allowing to completely cool on the cooking racks.
Decorate and enjoy!

White Sox Cookies

My parents, all their friends, myself, and some of my friends went to the Chicago White Sox game last night. Unfortunately, there was a crazy rain storm that delayed the game by an hour and a half but of corse we waited in the rain! It was so worth it! I had so much fun. My friend Adriana and I took a picture with a cardboard cut out of Ozzie Gullian and they chose four pictures to put on the big screen (shown below) and we won a free shirt! I was so excited! The Sox even won! It was the perfect way to spend my last weekend living in Illinois.

Homerun

My friend Adriana and myself with the new Frank Thomas statue

Anyway, I was so excited about the game and I found the cutest baseball hat cookie cutter, so you know I made cookies for tailgating, check these out: 

They turned out so cute! I found little sprinkles to put on the top for the white buttons. I had so much fun making these. I'm defiantly leaning toward going back to school to be a pastry chef. I wasn't sure, but after these I realized that this might be for me, (as a career). Everyone loved these cookies, much to my relief. They're supposed to be a lot darker, but you have to mix in the back gel in by hand, and I had a lot of trouble with that. Next time I'll figure it out. I got the baseball cookie cutter for a dollar at Sur La Table, and the frosting i used was actually leftover frosting from my Funfetti Cookie Sandwiches.

The recipe for the cookies is from Amandeleine.

Chocolate Cut-out Cookies

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup dutch-process cocoa, (natural is ok)

1 teaspoon instant espresso powder

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

black gel food coloring 

Preheat oven to 350.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk together the flour, cocoa, espresso powder and salt; set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in the egg and vanilla until well combined. 

In three additions, add the flour mixture at low speed. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl as needed. 

Work in food coloring with your hands to desired darkness.

Refrigerate dough for 30 minuets. 

Roll the dough on a lightly floured and cocoa-ed surface. 

Cut the cookies with your cookie cutter. 

Freeze cut cookies for five minutes.

Bake 8 minutes, let cool completely.