| Level: | Advanced |
| Total: | 2 hr 30 min |
| Prep: | 40 min |
| Inactive: | 1 hr 30 min |
| Cook: | 20 min |
| Yield: | about 20 cookies |
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus additional for rolling out dough
- 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, slightly softened
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- Hard candies, try yellow, red, black, (Jolly Ranchers preferred)
- 1/4 cup water
- 3 tablespoons egg white powder
- 3/4 teaspoon orange extract
- 1 1/2 to 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
- For the cookies: Whisk the flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and salt together in a medium bowl.
- Beat the butter in a large bowl with a handheld mixer until fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the sugars, and continue beating until light, about 3 minutes. Add egg and vanilla extract, beating until smooth. Gradually add the dry ingredients while mixing slowly to make a smooth dough. Divide dough in half and press each half into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour.
- Transfer 1 disk of dough to a floured work surface and roll about 1/4-inch thick. Cut into cookies with a pinched tuna can (see below). Transfer cookies with an offset spatula to a nonstick or silicon lined baking sheet.
- Cut out eyes and a mouth with a pastry tip, fat straw, or a knife. Press the lollipop sticks into the narrow end of each cookie, if using. Repeat with remaining dough. Press excess dough together, roll and cut into cookies. Refrigerate cookies for at least 30 minutes.
- Evenly space the racks in the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Put the candies in a small plastic bag and hit with a rolling pin to break into little pieces.
- Bake the cookies just until they are set, about 20 minutes. Remove baking sheets from the oven and carefully sprinkle the broken candies into the eyes and mouth of the cookies. Continue to cook until the candy liquefies, about 3 minutes more. Cool cookies on pan for 10 minutes before removing from the pan. Cool cookies on a rack.
- For the icing: Whisk the water, egg white powder and orange extract in a medium bowl until foamy but smooth. Gradually whisk in the confectioners’ sugar to make a smooth icing. Spread a layer of icing over the entire surface of the cookies with the back of a teaspoon. Let rest until the icing sets, about 30 minutes. Serve or store in a covered container for up to 3 days.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 20 servings |
| Calories | 193 |
| Total Fat | 8 g |
| Saturated Fat | 5 g |
| Carbohydrates | 28 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Sugar | 16 g |
| Protein | 3 g |
| Cholesterol | 28 mg |
| Sodium | 165 mg |
Reviews
These look amazing
these are TERRIBLE as cookies. this is a TEA CAKE recipe, not a true cookie recipe. dry, soft, and bland. there is obviously a mistake in the recipe, not nearly enough sugar to make good crisp edge/chewy center cookies. if you check basic cookie recipes (like toll house you will see higher sugar ratios, 3/4 cup white and 3/4 cup brown per 2 cups flour and 3/4 to 1 cup butter.
If you’ve ever made stained-glass window cookies at Christmas, you can make these. While the cook time is obviously wrong, I think a lot of the other reviews complaining about crushing the jolly ranchers and the tuna can stem from unfamiliarity with this type of cookie. I’ve made stained-glass cookies since I was a child, and you learn what works and what doesn’t. Jolly Ranchers do work better than any other candy I’ve come across. Also, this cookie recipe is designed so that your cookies are thin/flat. If you substitute a thicker sugar cookie/spice cookie recipe, you’re asking for the holes to close and distort.
it look cool 🙂
When making any thing from a written recepie there are several ways that one can change, mix and or replace cirten ingredient. My advice, dont worry so much about what you dont like. Instead think about what you do like, For example if you dont like the idea of useing a tuna can than you could use a fruit cam, clear plastic bottle,or a cheap round cookie cutter that has the same cercumferance as the tuna can and bend that to look like the ghost that you want. If the recepie requires too much change than maybe you should find another that is closer to your own personal taste.
Simple Fixes Are No Big deal, unless you make them so.
The overall flavor of this dough was pretty good. However, it was very difficult to roll. It fell apart, and took forever to finally get 24 halloween cookies out of it. Next time i will use my own cookie dough recipe, and just add the different spices to get this flavor of the spice cookie.
I made these cookies last year for my friends daughters birthday party… I thought they were very good and tasty, and were gone in no time. I followed the recipe, less cooking time, no stick and for the icing, I used a pre bought white frosting and piped stripes onto the cookies to make them look like a mummy….. I broke the candy up in a sandwich baggie and mixed colors…. It made them look very cool.
A tuna can??? Really??? That is soooo stupid.
The cookies are garbage. And the Tuna Can?? Can’t say I tried. Who thinks of using an old Tuna can as a cookie cutter. Have you ever tried making a tuna can smell like anything but old tuna?
This is the first time I have ever made a recipe without reading the reviews first, and oh what a mistake that was. My six year old niece and I made sugar cookies and this recipe. The Jolly Rangers did not work that well, and were more trouble than the effort was worth. Iin the end, my niece (remember she is six years old), tells me: “Oh yes, these are tasteless. You keep those.” I agree with previous reviewers that someone did not test this recipe. Baking 20 minutes was way too long, and trying to fill in small hot holes with the bits of candy was not easy. Too much trouble for too little result.