Halloween 2018

Last year, Sarah and I were “horrible people.” We didn’t put out Halloween cookies, candy, or decorations, and left our lights off the entire night.

It’s not that we don’t enjoy celebrating the holiday but it’s that not many children roam the streets in our neighborhood.

Seriously, one of the youngest kids on the block is Sarah. Lol

trick or treating

I remember growing up on a street that had tons of kids trick-or-treating each year and I even participated in the holiday’s festivities until the age of 18.

I was the tallest boy on the street (6’5’’ at 18 years old) and so I had to kneel down after ringing the doorbell. Hey, it worked and I love free candy!

This Halloween Will Be Different

However, after last year’s experience, we knew we needed to do something a bit more special for those few kids that do come door-to-door.

After some thought, we decided to do a practice run and bake some delicious vegan Halloween cookies in the shape of ghosts.

Since we didn’t have any spooktacular vegan ghost cookie recipes, we improvised. We experimented with our delicious vegan chocolate chip cookies recipe and purchased a round-ish cookie cutter shape for the ghost’s body.

In our minds, these cookies were going to look just like Boo from Super Mario.

mario boo ghost

We wrote down our design ideas and then left for the store to buy a plate shaped like a bat, some plastic spiders, cotton ball spider webs, and foam pumpkin decorations to spice up our pictures.

cute halloween decorations

Side note: On decorations (for the pictures) alone, we spent $15.80 at Walmart. Kind of pricey for what we got but the pictures look great!

I had mentioned to Sarah that we should take our pictures outside to get the best lighting because the house we’re in is full of those yellow fluorescent lights.

We unloaded the groceries, preheated the oven, and started baking.

cookie dough icing and mess

frosting and black icing

A few minutes in, clouds rolled in and sleet poured down by the buckets full. Outside pictures weren’t an option anymore so we did the best with what we had.

For the recipe, it’s best if you measure exact ingredients, with the dry ingredients first, followed by the wet ones.

The Halloween Cookie Baking Process

After measuring out the cookie dough ingredients (recipe here), we were ready to start cutting out ghost shapes.

We did a test run on just 3 cookies before potentially wrecking the entire batch.

Our cookies didn’t look like we had imagined! However, they were scrumptious!

What we did was this… once we made the initial cut-out and placed the ghost-shaped cookie dough on the baking sheet, we baked it like normal. When the cookies came out of the oven, we used the same round/ghost shape to make a cleaner cut out of the cookie.

Baking increased the puffiness of the cookie, making it look less like a ghost and more like a regular cookie.

the only cookie cutter kind of resembling a ghost

After letting the cookies cool for about 15 minutes, it was time to frost.

Sarah did a really great job at frosting/icing these cookies and with such precision!

What would you have done differently if given the same tools and ingredients? We’re always open to new ideas!

Helpful Cookie Baking Tips

  1. Have all the ingredients before starting.
  2. Buy the correct frosting tip sizes
  3. Have a design plan in mind.
  4. Make sure you have the right cookie cutter shapes.
  5. Remember it’s okay to make mistakes.
  6. Have fun in the process!

Let us know in the comments section below what holiday traditions you have or share your experience while making these halloween cookies!

About Michael Johnson

I'm not your typical social-media guy. I don't have washboard abs, I don't live on a beach, and I don't always eat a smoothie bowl for breakfast. However, I love sharing insights & tips for those interested in going plant-based!

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