Not (Quite) Homemade Halloween Cookies and Treats

One of our Halloween traditions is to bake Halloween Cookies - usually a mix or pre-made along with some purchased treats.

This year as Oreo has joined in on the Halloween fun and we bought at pack at or local grocery store for around $3.50.   You get the same Oreo flavor with Halloween colors and 5 different Halloween imprints.

In prior years (and still plan on doing this year) we bought what used to be the "slice and bake" but now is just the take out of the the wrapper and bake cookies from Pillsbury.  As I have said before, the results of the cookies are much more uniform and visually appealing than the slice and bake ones were because there was a tendency to distort the image when slicing, but they are not as much fun.   I used to let my son have a butter knife and he could slowly and carefully try to cut them and it took awhile, but he was always so proud of the results when they turned out looking great to give to people (and he also like to eat the mistakes).






This year Pillsbury has two new Halloween cookie items:

 Princess Halloween sugar cookies featuring with the picture being the princesses shoe.  Having a shoe on on a cookie is creepy enough, but the scarier still is the notion of planting into a little girls head that there is Price Charming that will take care of them.  We need a new ideal, the Mom that hold down a full time job and takes care of her family.

 They also have cute Jackolantern Mickey Mouse sugar cookies.





Photos:  Pillsbury



Pillsbury has a coupon on their website to save $1.10 of two packages of cookies Link.  Many stores have them on sale around this time of year 2 packages for $5, so using the coupon

Nestle also has a few holiday cookie treats out.  Yesterday I picked up the Halloween Creatures Sugar Cookies and Brownie Bites topped with orange morsel 2 for $4 at Meijers.  They also had a sugar cookie with orange bits in it also.  I baked the brownie bites there are 40 small little squares that bake into cookies that are about 2 inches wide - would be great for a carry in or a classroom.

Duncan Hines has some boxed, bagged and canned items:  Halloween whoppie pies, cakes, sugar cookies and pumpkin bars along with decorating frosting if you are in a more creative mood.  Prices vary by store, but usually range from around $1.25-$4.99 depending on the item.

If you don't have time to bake and want something different than Oreos, Little Debbie has Pumpkin treats, some orange Rice Krispie type treats, bat shaped chocolate treats and little Halloween themed party cakes.  Prices usually run $1.87-$3.00.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see your tomorrow. Be sure to check out the other participants in the countdown by clicking the link below.

HALLOWEEN TRADITION - PILLSBURY COOKIE DOUGH

One of our Halloween traditions is buy Pillbury cookie dough to bake cookies. 

When we started out several years ago you could buy a roll of sugar cookie dough, roll it out and cut it into shapes then decorate it like the commercial below.   It was messy but it was fun.

They then came out with slice and bake tubes that had a Pumpkin in the center.  This was the first cookie my son ever baked on his own and we got a laugh out of the different looking, distorted pumpkins that resulted as I only allowed him to use a butter knife.  They looked funky and they had character!

When I went to buy some this year, the store I went to only had the "Ready To Bake" trays with the option of a ghost, a bat or cat.  I chose the cat.   The cookies were already sliced and on a cardboard tray, all you had to do was pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees, place the cookies on a cookie sheet two inches part and bake for 8-10 minutes. 

It was super quick and easy and since I used baking parchment, no dishes to watch and almost no clean up time.   It  resulted in the same non-uniform looking, fun looking and tasty cookies we have grown to love, but it lacked any element of fun in preparing them.  We will still continue to buy and bake some some of them every Halloween and it will be interesting to see what designs they come up with in future, but might also go back to making them the old school way like we used to with the sugar cookies and if we are up for a real challenge, bake them from scratch.