Willow in Winter

When I added the item “baking Halloween cookies” to my Autumn Bucket List, I thought this would be an easy task and that my Halloween treats would resemble the ones from The Curious Creations of Christine Mcconnell. I was wrong.

Growing up in Spain, Halloween wasn’t really a thing. It got more popular as I got older thanks to American influence and commercialism, but it was nothing compared to what I’d seen in movies. Not having Halloween as a kid, also meant I grew up without sugar cookies and icing decorations, and that’s just wrong.

After deciding I was going to bake my own, I visited Pinterest, the home of unachievable baking ideas made by blogger mums, and decided to try the top most popular recipes.

Mummy Brownies

My first attempt at Halloween treats was Mummy Brownies, which I’ve seen everywhere, I guess because they’re easy and look good no matter what, right?

I followed this tasty recipe that promises to make brownies with just three ingredients, and it’s actually true. You only need Nutella (or any other chocolate spread), flour and two eggs.

Making the mummies was the tricky part as this was my first time playing with icing decorations. I struggled a bit with the first few lines while I was getting used to the piping bag, but these are Halloween mummies, so I’m not that bothered by their messiness. I bought two sizes of edible sugar eyes to break the uniformity I’d seen on Pinterest and added them to the brownies.

Halloween Cookies

For the Halloween cookies, I followed another Tasty recipe, because I’m a millennial and it’s physically impossible for me to follow a recipe that doesn’t come in a step-by-step video. This recipe doesn’t mention that the dough needs to be in the fridge for at least two hours before using it. If not, as I discovered, it’ll be hard to use the cookie cutters, because the dough will stick everywhere.

These were the most traditional-looking Halloween cookies. They were also the hardest to make, and the reason I have a sprained wrist while I write this post. The recipe calls for an electric mixer, which I, a sporadic baker, don’t have. So I had to make the dough by hand and at some point ended up hurting myself.

Once the cookies were done and had cooled down, I made the icing using food colouring and started decorating them. Some cookies look better than others, but overall, I had fun making them, and they don’t look as bad as I thought.

Paranormal Monster Cookies

These were the easiest and fastest to make. I saw multiple options and designs online but decided to go with “monster cookies” because I had eye leftovers from the mummy brownies.

I made the cookies using a Betty Crocker chocolate chip cookie mix. To make the actual monsters, I dipped the pretzels and Oreos in melted white and milk chocolate. I waited for the chocolate to cool down a bit and added the eyes. Once the cookies came out of the oven and were still warm, I pressed the pretzels and Oreos in the middle so they would stick to the cookies.

I didn’t become Christine McConnell, even though I tried my best. I made all of these on the same day, and my tiny flat smells so much of sugar and vanilla, which is what I assume Christine’s kitchen smells like, so I’m slowly getting there.

My next item on my Autumn Bucket List is baking a pumpkin pie for the first time, hopefully, it’ll be as good as the cookies!