Cookie recommendations?

[Eireann]

I gave in and bought four cookie cutters - a bat, a cat, a carved pumpkin, and a skull and crossbones (never seen one like THAT before). So I'm going to make cookies to test drive these cutters, and I don't want the plain sugar-cookie recipe. What are some good, easy Halloween cookies to make?

[CoffeeMonkey]

Mexican wedding cookies! Any recipe you google will do. My family uses walnuts, ground finely. Some use pecans. Normally they're just shaped into balls or crescents, but the dough is stiff enough to roll out if you chill it a little bit. Just don't chill too much, or it turns into a rock.

Totally seasonally appropriate, as the Day of the Dead is shortly after halloween, and that's a mexican holiday.

[Kittish]

I had some tasty results with a modification of the basic sugar cookie. Add one cup of almond meal, and decrease the flour by a similar amount (or a bit less, you want a slightly stiffer dough for cutting).

The flavor is subtle, but more than just plain sugar cookie. With the next batch, I'm going to replace 1/4 cup of butter with almond butter as well.

[Barracuda]

Pumpkin spice cookies. Goes with the season too.

[AccountingDrone]

Springerle dough. If you do it correctly, you cut your cookies out and set them unwrapped in the fridge to 'set up' which if you use a springerle roller helps keep the impressed images from going all oogy when they are baked. One problem I have seen with many cut cookies is the do the melty spread when they bake, making the shape sort of blurry. Springerles don't really spread that much so it should help keep the outline details crisp.

[Eireann]

Others? I'm sorry, I should have mentioned that I can't stand anise. I like the almond idea, though.

[Barracuda]

Red velvet cookies to look like blood cookies?

[DeltaSierra]

How about Gingerbread cookies? http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/g...ipe/index.html

Lemon shortbread: http://www.christmas-cookies.com/rec...hortbread.html

Peanut butter cutouts: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/p...cutout-cookies

[fireheart]

Mexican wedding cookies!

Ummm what?

[Aethian]

Ummm what?

A type of cookie normally made for weddings in Mexico. :P

[fireheart]

A type of cookie normally made for weddings in Mexico. :P

What's in them???

[CoffeeMonkey]

flour, butter, powdered sugar, pinch of salt, finely ground nuts. My family uses walnuts (I don't like walnuts EXCEPT in these cookies) and other recipes call for pecans. I add a little vanilla just for flavor. After baking they're rolled in powdered sugar.

The dough is chilled and formed into balls, or crescents. I make break-and-bakes by rolling the dough out in a sheet pan, then using a pizza cutter to cut squares, then freezing them solid. When chilled, the dough is VERY stiff, which is why I shape them when they're still soft. If I was making cutouts, I would chill the batter a little it, then roll it, then chill it hard. The edges remain very sharp, so they would make great cutouts. I've not done this yet, but the idea of making a batch of Mexican Wedding Squirrels is very fun to me.

They're the same cookie as russian tea cakes, which is what is on grandma's recipe card. We called them nutballs or snowballs.

[AccountingDrone]

Others? I'm sorry, I should have mentioned that I can't stand anise. I like the almond idea, though.

I hate anise also, so I will put them on an oblaten* and flavor them with orange or vanilla.

* an oblaten is a wafer made of wheat starch, paperlike an dused under baked goods so they don't stick and the oblaten itself is tasteless and edible. You could strew coarse corn meal instead.