Make and Decorate Easy Mini Jack-o-Lantern Cookies

Jack-O-Lanterns vs Pumpkins

No, they aren't the same thing, although you will likely see pumpkin designs popping up everywhere, too, starting around mid-to-late-August. And there's a good reason for it: uncarved pumpkins are a classic sign of fall. In New England, we plop them all over our front steps and porches, surrounded by colorful mums and other gourds, regardless of the fact that it's still 90 degrees outside. 

But carved Jack-O-Lanterns...well, those we tend to reserve for the actual Halloween season. I know our local convenience stores are already pushing candy corn at us, but Halloween is October 31, so we have a whole month to enjoy the creepy and crawly!

Every year, my kids fight over getting to choose and draw the face we will carve into our Jack-o-Lantern, so we just started getting one for each of them. Will it be a mean face or a sweet one? Scary or cute? Well, they can each decide for themselves. I'm just there to wield the sharp implements and bring their Jack-o-Lantern creations to life. 

Follow these steps for easy and consistent stamped Jack-o-lanterns!

1. Roll out your dough to the desired thickness and chill. This will help keep the dough from squishing too much when you stamp it. (Need a great sugar cookie recipe? Look no further! Check out the Cookie Countess sugar cookie recipe here.)
2. Using the pumpkin cookie cutter, gently stamp outlines all over your flat of dough, but don't fully cut them out yet.
3. Use the included stamps to imprint your Jack-o-lantern faces into the outlines of the pumpkins. Despite our best efforts at chilling the dough first, stamping the faces may smoosh the dough a little bit and may cause the pumpkin shapes to spread, but that's ok!
4. Once all of the faces are stamped, go back with the pumpkin cutter and fully cut out the shapes. If the dough has spread a little bit, the cutter will now cut that excess off and give you perfect Jack-o-lantern cookies.
5. Bake like normal. Minis may bake a little faster, so keep an eye on them in your oven!

Your next step is simply to decide how to decorate these little beauties--or not. They're adorable as-is, and you could certainly leave them undecorated if you choose. Give them with a little tub of buttercream frosting, and you've essentially made delicious homemade Dunkaroos (remember those?!).

But.

Decorating these Jack-o-Lantern cuties can be as simple as a paint-by-numbers set, since you don't have to worry about spacing or design. You can simply pipe and flood around the debossed eyes, nose, and mouth, and then come back and fill in those sections in whatever color you choose. Or (my personal favorite), you can keep the dimension in those areas by simply using some thin black royal icing to "paint" into those sections (or even just use an edible marker). THEN pipe the pumpkin color around those areas, and you'll end up with a traditional Jack-o-lantern design. Change up the colors, add some glitter--whatever you decide, you really can't go wrong with these adorable Jack-o-lantern cookies!