Halloween is coming and these spooky cookies are getting me in the spirit! I’ve just started decorating the house and can’t wait to start watching all of the Halloween themed movies. My boyfriend’s favorite Halloween movie is The Nightmare Before Christmas. And so, I took inspiration from Jack Skellington when making this delicious twist on a half-moon cookie!
My mom first introduced me to half-moon cookies as she often had them when she was growing up. Although they look similar to the well-known NYC black and white cookies, they’re just a bit different. Black and white cookies are vanilla cookies decorated with royal icing while half moon cookies are a chocolate cookie decorated with buttercream frosting.
To make them a bit more spooky and reminiscent of Jack, I changed the typical decoration. I frosted the entire cookie with white frosting to match Jack’s face and then used the chocolate frosting to pipe different facial expressions.
Since these cookies are a cross between a cookie and a cake, the dough is a bit different. I found it looks almost like a bowl of frosting. Given its consistency, you’ll shape these cookies a bit differently.
To shape them, scoops about 2 tablespoons worth of dough and place it on a parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat for until you have filled the baking sheet. Then, use an offset spatula to shape them into a circle about 2-inches in diameter. The cookies will expand while they’re baking, so you can adjust the amount of dough you use to get your desired size cookie.
Let the cookies cool on the sheet pan for a couple minutes before transferring them to a wire rack. Make sure the cookies cool completely before you frost them.
While the cookies cool, make the frosting. Typically half-moon and black and white cookies are frosted half white and half black. These cookies, however, are decorated to look like Jack so you’ll actually frost all of the cookies with white frosting first. I then used the chocolate frosting, which I dyed black, to make Jack’s facial expressions.
Of course, you can’t have Jack without Sally, and so to complete my Halloween Town theme, I made an adorable Sally inspired placemat from Disney Family!
Enjoy!
Jack Skellington Half-Moon Cookies
Ingredients
Chocolate Cookies
- 3 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 ¼ cups sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups milk
White Frosting
- 9 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 8 tablespoons milk
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Chocolate Frosting
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1 ⅓ cup powdered sugar
- 2 ½ tablespoons milk
- ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- black gel food coloring
Equipment
- piping bag
- medium round tip
Instructions
Chocolate Cookies
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Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
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In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
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Beat butter in a large bowl. Add sugar and cocoa powder and beat until combined, about 3 minutes.
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Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until combined.
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On a low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and the milk in three additions, starting and ending with the flour. Mix until combined.
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Scoop about two tablespoons worth of dough onto prepared baking sheet. Flatten into a 2-inch circle using an offset spatula. Leave a couple inches of space between each cookie as they will expand while baking.
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Bake cookies for 12 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are set. Let cookies cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack. It might be necessary to replace the sheets of parchment on the baking sheets between batches of cookies.
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Let the cookies cool completely before frosting.
White Frosting
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In a medium bowl, beat butter until cream. Alternately add in the powdered sugar and milk. Beat until the frosting is smooth but not runny, adding more powdered sugar or milk if needed. Stir in vanilla extract.
Chocolate Frosting
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In a small bowl, beat butter until cream. Alternately add in the powdered sugar and milk. Beat until the frosting is smooth but not runny, adding more powdered sugar or milk if needed.
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Add in cocoa powder and vanilla, beating until combined.
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Stir in a desired amount of black food coloring.
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Transfer frosting to a piping bag with a medium size round tip.
Assembly
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Using an offset spatula, frost all of the cookies with a layer of white frosting.
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Using the chocolate frosting, pipe Jack Skellington’s eyes, nose, and mouth onto each cookie. Once the eyes have been outlined, fill in using the piping bag and smooth with an offset spatula.