To Die For Vampire Shortbread Halloween Cookies

Hey there, looking for Halloween cookies that you can make in a snap?

Great! 

These buttery, melt in your mouth raspberry almond shortbread cookies are to die for (cue evil laugh).

They are a spin off of this recipe, and have been Halloweenified.  

They whip in little to not time, and speaking of time…

I know there is nothing more annoying than sifting through a novel before you can find the recipe!

So, I’m going to hit you with that directly below.

But as I always suggest, you should scroll down to learn the little tips and tricks to make sure yours turn out perfectly.

What is that saying? … Oh yeah – The devil is in the details! 😉

HAHAHAHA  Let’s get to it!

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Vampire Shortbread Halloween Cookies

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Vampire Shortbread Halloween Cookies

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

15 mins

 

Course: Dessert

Servings: 12

Ingredients

• 1 Cup 2 Sticks Salted Room Temperature Butter
• 2/3 Cup White Sugar
• 1/2 Tsp. Almond Extract
• 2 Tsp. Red Food Coloring
• 2 Cups All Purpose Flour
• 1/2 Cup Seedless Raspberry Jam
• 1 tsp Black Food Coloring
• 1 tsp Red Food Coloring

Frosting Glaze

• 1/2 Cup Confectioners Sugar
• 3/4 tsp Almond Extract
• 1 tsp Milk
• 1/2 tsp Red Food Coloring

Instructions

1. Preheat Oven To 350 degrees

2. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together until well combined

3. Add Extract and Food colorings and mix well

4. Slowly blend in flour until soft dough is formed and evenly incorporated

5. Hand roll into 1 1/2" balls (medium cookie scoop works great to portion!) and place onto lightly greased baking sheet

6. Poke center of the cookie with a clean finger, to make room for the jam filled center

7. Mix raspberry jam, and food coloring, and carefully spoon into cookie holes. (A baby food spoon works well)

8. Bake cookies for 14-16 Minutes

9. While cookies are baking, whisk frosting ingredients together (powdered sugar, almond extract, milk, and food coloring)

10. After cookies have come out of the oven allow them 1-2 minutes to sit on the cookie sheet, then transfer them to a cooking rack or counter space.

11. While they are still warm, drizzle the frosting glaze on top.

Vampire Shortbread Halloween Cookie Recipe Details

As all good shortbread recipes do, this one starts by creaming butter and sugar together!

I suggest using a trusted sweet cream butter brand – like Land O Lakes.

It’s worth skipping store brands and pay a tiny bit more for the real deal.

They moisture content is consistent, and the creaminess and flavor is usually a lot better!

Also, your butter needs to be soft.

If you plan ahead and can set it out so it can come to room temperature- great!

If you are a last minute (like me) you can carefully soften your sticks of butter in the microwave.

I usually place both sticks on their sides, and rotate every 5-6 seconds for 20 seconds or so.

Be really careful not to over do it here!  

The butter can melt in snap, and if the butter melts your cookies will have a strange texture and flatten out like pancakes when they bake.

Been there, done that! 😉  

For most cookie recipes I love to use my large Kitchen Aid stand mixer.

But because this one is SO fast and easy, I usually just pull out my hand mixer and quickly whip it up.

After you’re butter and sugar are happily blended together, add the extract and food coloring.

You’ll then slowly mix in the flour.

The dough will be slightly stiff and somewhat crumbly.

Make sure that you incorporate it completely, but stop once the flour is combined.

Try not to beat it to death!

Oh my gosh you guys the Halloween puns just won’t quit! 😛

After your dough is combined you can quickly whisk up your jam filling.

Because these are Halloween cookies, I love adding black and red food coloring to the raspberry jam!

It gives it a great deep blood red color.

Next I start assembling my cookie balls!

I use my medium sized cookie scoop to portion out the balls. (This recipe made roughly 18 using this size of cookie)

I scoop them into my hand and roll them smooth.

Once the balls are assembled on your lightly greased cookie sheet, you will use a clean pinky finger to poke a hole in the middle.

A shallow hole will do!

Sometimes when you do this the sides of the cookie will crack.

Don’t worry too much about it, I often times gently press the cracks smooth before baking to ensure they keep a nice round shape.

Lastly, you’ll want to fill your cookie wells with your raspberry jam!

I think a baby food spoon works really well for this.

I would imagine your 1/2 teaspoon would work great for this too.

Time to pop them into a preheated 350 degree oven for 14-16 minutes!

I usually take them out between 14-15.

They will need to sit on the pan and cool for a couple of minutes before you transfer them to a counter or cooling rack.

Once they are set enough to transfer with my cookie server, I like to transfer them to my kitchen counter to cool the rest of the way.

I place a long sheet of wax paper down (paper towel works too) so that I can drizzle them with frosting without making a mess!

While the cookies are baking, I like to whisk up the super simple cookie glaze.

Powdered sugar, almond extract and a little food coloring.

While cookies are still warm, use a fork or small whisk to drizzle icing over the top of the cookies.

I love how this looks like blood splatters.

I love it so much in fact I may mix up a second batch of red icing and drizzle on my black serving platter before our Halloween Party!

Allow the frosting time to set before serving or packing them away.

I love to make these simple cookies ahead of time and pop them into the freezer after they’ve cooled.

They unthaw beautifully and no one would ever know they weren’t fresh baked that day! 

Happy Halloween Cookie Baking

 I hope you enjoy these Halloween cookies as much as we do.

They are SO soft, buttery and delicious!

And not to mention one of the easiest cookie recipes on the planet!

For more Halloween inspiration, check this out! –>

• 30 Spooktacular Halloween Party Ideas
• 15 Insanely Creative DIY Halloween Costumes
• 20 Easy DIY Halloween Decor Ideas
• 20 Crazy Creative Pumpkin Carving Ideas
• 12 Super Stylish Halloween Wreaths 

Cheers my friends!

<3 Ang