Simple Halloween Shortbread Cookies

The dough mixes up beautifully, and the decorations are simple and doable. No fancy techniques, no cookie cutters. Amen. But my favorite thing about this recipe is that they aren’t just easy… they’re delicious. Tender and butter shortbread, yummy chocolate on top. You’ll love them.

I don’t think too hard about what kind of cookie to make for every holiday. I always make shortbread because I like it. It’s fun to decorate, and whatever decorations I have on hand will work just fine.

Ingredients and Tools You’ll Need

You don’t have to use two different kinds of chocolate for the coating. I like the mix of both, but one is just fine. Get your sprinkles in fun colors like orange, green, purple, white, and black. If you don’t have candy eyes, just use M&Ms.

This will make 24 cookies, but the dough freezes really well. You can easily double or triple the recipe by making adjustments in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

Equipment

• Parchment paper
• Rolling Pin
• 2 Baking sheets

Ingredients

• 1 cup salted butter, room temperature
• ½ cup brown sugar, packed
• 2-2¼ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup semisweet chocolate chips
• ½ cup white chocolate chips (you can use both kinds of chocolate chips or just one)
• 2 teaspoons vegetable shortening
• candy eyes
• Halloween sprinkles

How to Make Halloween Shortbread Cookies

Step One: Make The Dough

Get your oven to 325℉ and line two baking sheets with parchment.

Cream the butter and sugar until it’s light and fluffy – this takes longer than you think, so be patient. Add 2 cups of flour and mix on low. It’s gonna look super crumbly and you’ll think you messed up, but you didn’t!. Don’t add anything. Just dump it on a floured counter and work in that last ¼ cup of flour with your hands.

Step Two: Roll And Cut

Roll it out to about ½ inch thick. If it sticks to your rolling pin, dust with more flour. Cut into little rectangles – about 3 x 1 inch. They don’t spread much, so you can put them pretty close together on the pan.

Step Three: Bake

Bake for 20 minutes until the edges are golden. Let them cool completely – and I mean COMPLETELY – or the chocolate will slide right off.

Step Four: Dip And Decorate

Now for the fun part. Melt your chocolate chips separately (semisweet in one bowl, and white in another) with a little shortening in the microwave. Start with 45 seconds on LOW, stir, then go from there. Dip the cookies alternating between semisweet and white, shake off the excess, and plop them on parchment paper. Add your sprinkles or candy eyes while it’s still wet.

Let them sit until the chocolate hardens up. That’s it.

Storage Instructions

Store these cookies at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 4 days.

You can freeze the baked and cooled cookies without the chocolate coating for up to 3 months. Thaw them overnight in the refrigerator, and then dip and decorate them as instructed.

Questions You May Have

More Fun Cookies To Make

• Halloween M&M cookies are super simple to make.
• After Halloween, Christmas is right around the corner. Make some of these classic old fashioned Christmas cookies – there’s lots to choose from.
• Chocolate covered shortbread cookies are made the same way as the Halloween cookies.

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