Chocolate Shortbread Cookies - Skeleton Style

Making chocolate skeleton cookies with your kids is a fun Halloween activity!

After baking and cooling the cookies, it’s time for the best part—decorating! The kids can unleash their creativity with icing made from confectioner’s sugar and water, piping on their spooky designs.

Enjoy these tasty treats together and make some wonderful family memories!

Chocolate Shortbread Recipe

Cookie ingredients

1 cup - unsalted butter 1 cup

½ cup - granulated sugar

2 cups + 2 tablespoons - all-purpose flour

¼ cup - cocoa powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tsp black food color (optional)

Icing ingredients

2/3 cup confectioner sugar

1 to 2 tablespoons water

Method

STEP 1

Put butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until smooth and fluffy.  Mix again with the flour, cocoa powder, and food coloring (if using). Roll out dough ¼ inch thick and chill for 30 minutes.

STEP 2

Cut out the cookies using a gingerbread man cutter and arrange them on 2-3 large baking trays. Reroll the excess dough and repeat. Chill the dough cutouts for 30 minutes.

STEP 3

Preheat oven to 350º and bake cookies for 18-20, or until the cookie is set, rotating the tray halfway through the bake.  Determining when chocolate cookies are done can be challenging, so take the cookies out when the edges are set. I don’t bake mine for more than 20 minutes. Leave to cool fully on the tray.

STEP 4

Sift the confectioner sugar into a bowl and gradually pour in 1-1½ tbsp water, mixing constantly, to get a thick paste. Put the icing in a piping bag, snip a little off the end to make a small hole, and pipe bone shapes and a skull onto the biscuits so they look like skeletons. Leave to set. The icing will keep for up to a week in an airtight container.