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Pooped out by ho-hum Halloween Consumerism

At my local grocery stores, it's been "almost" Halloween for about two months now. Decorations all over the place, candy practically everywhere, 'spooky' music playing in the background. Honestly, it's a bit much. Where's the fun in buying your Halloween? And with inflation, who even has money for all that stuff anyhow?

Isn't there a way to enjoy and elevate the Halloween experience without visiting the local loan shark (now that's scary)? Can't Halloween food be both fun and (relatively) healthy? Isn't there a way to escape the rat race and make Halloween a fun family event again?

Yes, yes there is.

Elevate Halloween with family, Bach, and Stainless Steel Cookie Cutters by TIGERCROWN

Get the kids together in the kitchen, grab a few cheap ingredients and your TIGERCROWN Stainless Steel Cookie Cutters, and get to work on some Halloween cookies. Elevate the experience: Play some happy classical music by Mozart or Vivaldi to fill the house with heavenly melodies. Give your handsome and clearly very talented husband your camera phone, have him record your kitchen session with the kiddos and upload to Facebook for grandma to share with her friends at the HOA. Have the littlest and cutest grandchild hand grandpa the burnt cookies. "I love you, Grandpapa." Watch Grandpapa choke them down with a smile. Drop a rubber spider on your daughters's hands while she's decorating the cookies. Yell at your son to stop sucking icing directly from the piping bag while making gurgling noises. Eat a pinch of cookie dough while no one is looking. Enjoy the smell of cookies and icing in your baby's hair as you try to scrub it out.

Also, on Halloween, turn off the lights and munch on your cookies (that your kids cut using the TIGERCROWN Stainless Steel Cookie Cutters purchased right here at Globalkitchen Japan) together by candle-light to the sound of that 4 hour long spooky classical music playlist you found on Youtube while the chubby highschoolers outside walk around the neighborhood with hearts full of gluttony and garbage bags full of diabetes.

Cookie Ingredients:

• Unsalted butter: 100g (6 tablespoons)
• Cane sugar, granulated sugar, or white sugar: 65g (4 tablespoons)
• Egg yolk: 1
• Cake flour: 200g (4/5 cup)
• Icing in various colors: 10-15g each (about 1 tablespoon)
• Your choice of decorations, such as star-shaped sprinkles: as needed

Icing Ingredients:

• Powdered Sugar: 100g (6 tablespoons)
• Egg white: 15g (1 tablespoon)
• Water or lemon juice

Tools:

• Bowl
• Whisk or hand mixer
• Rubber spatula
• Sifter
• Rolling pin
• Plastic wrap
• Parchment paper
• Baking sheet
• Cake cooler
• Halloween cookie cutters (5cm round)
• Tweezers
• Small brush (for pastry)
• Five disposable piping bags
• Food coloring or icing gel in orange, green, and purple for coloring

How to Make Cookies:

1. Whisk butter:

Put the softened butter in a bowl and mix it until it becomes creamy using a whisk or hand mixer. Using a hand mixer will make this process quicker.

2. Mix in sugar:

Once the butter becomes fluffy, mix in the sugar until the mixture turns somewhat white.

3. Separate and add egg yolk:

Put white aside for icing. Add yolk to mixture.

3. Add flour to make dough:

Add the cake flour to the mixture and fold it in with a rubber spatula until it's crumbly.

4. Wrap and roll:

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and roll it out to a thickness of about 1/4 of an inch using a rolling pin. Chill it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

5. Cut and arrange:

Use the TIGERCROWN Stainless Steel Cookie Cutters, purchased from Globalkitchen Japan of course, to cut out shapes from the dough, then arrange them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

6. Bake:

Bake in a preheated oven at 170°C (approximately 340°F) for about 20 minutes. The baking time may vary depending on the size of the cookies and the oven, so adjust as needed. (Since different-sized cookies require different baking times, it's essential to try to keep the sizes consistent.)

7. Cool:

Once they are done baking, place the baking sheet on a cake cooler to let the cookies cool down.

How to Make Icing:

1. Beat eggs:

Start by thoroughly beating the egg whites.

2. Add sugar:

Continue mixing. Add powdered sugar and mix until it becomes glossy and creamy. If you're making a large batch, using a hand mixer will make the process faster.

3. Divide the icing into two portions:

One for outlining (firmer icing) and one for filling (softer icing). To adjust the firmness of the firmer icing, add a little more powdered sugar, and for the softer icing, add a small amount of water or lemon juice to loosen it.

Icing Consistency Guidelines:

Slightly firm: Icing should bow slightly when lifted.

Softer: Icing should level out in about 5 seconds when scooped and dropped.

4. Add color:

If you want to add color, do so now by gradually adding food coloring while monitoring the color. Food coloring is potent, so add it little by little using the tip of a toothpick. When making white icing, you can use lemon juice instead of water to prevent yellowing, or you can use strawberry juice for flavor and coloring effects.

To prevent the icing from drying out while working, cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

Decorating Steps:

Every shape requires different colors and slightly different methods of icing. I'll tell you how to frost a basic cookie and then leave you and your family to figure out the rest.

In addition to the "slightly firm" consistency, prepare a "softer" consistency icing. Add water gradually to the previously made "slightly firm" icing to achieve the desired softness.

Once everything is ready, fill each into piping bags.

Now, let's decorate the Halloween cookies you made! (And cut using the TIGERCROWN Stainless Steel Cookie Cutters you bought on Global Kitchen Japan, right?)

1. Outline the cookies:

Start by using the slightly firm orange icing to outline the outer edges of the cookies. Then, draw the triangle-shaped eyes and mouth with lines. Utilize the black background of the cookie to represent the holes for the eyes and mouth. For the pumpkin stem, use green icing to outline.

2. Fill in faces:

Fill in the rest, leaving gaps to create a raised effect.

3. Dry:

Let them dry thoroughly, and you're done!

Enjoy

You now have cookies with icing ready for Halloween. Savory the memories you made with your family!

The products we used: