Recipe: Halloween Shaped Cookies

Happy Wednesday. Today I'm back with the first of six Halloween themed recipes. Yes I know it's only the third of October but I've had these planned out since the middle of August and I'm honestly excited to share them all with you. I thought I'd start off with some simple and work up to the more complex recipes as Halloween draws nearer.

Ingredients 
115g Unsalted Butter, softened
50g Caster Sugar
175g Plain Flour
A Pinch Of Salt
1/2 Tsp Of Vanilla Extract
100g Chocolate Chips
Various shaped Halloween Themed Cookie Cutters

Method
1- Pre heat your oven to 180C. Line two to three baking trays/sheets with parchment paper. You may not need all of them but it depends on the size of your cutters and it's always best to be over prepared than under prepared.
2- In a bowl beat the softened butter and sugar together until soft, pale in colour and creamy. You can do this either by hand or with an electric mixer/stand mixer. By hand will take longer but you'll end up with the same result as if you'd used a stand mixer.
3- Sieve the flour and salt into the mixture, then add your vanilla extract and chocolate chips. I used milk chocolate chips but you could easily use white or dark chocolate chips in their place, depending on what flavour you were looking for.
4- Now mix together until everything is combined and you have created a firm dough. The important thing to note here is that no spatula, wooden spoon or stand mixer attachment will work as well as your hands. I made the mistake of trying to use my mixer and ended up giving myself twice as much work to do. Hands is the best way of mixing this together into a dough. Also a touch of milk/flour  doesn't hurt if your dough is crumbling or not forming how it should be.
5- Once your dough if formed, lightly sprinkle your worktop with flour. Place your dough on the worktop and gently knead it until it's smooth. Take your time, don't rush it. Rushing it will create a short dough that'll crack and crumble when you attempt to roll it out.
6- Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out your dough until it's 1/2 inch thick. Take your chosen cutter shapes and cut out as many cookies as you can, remembering to keep rerolling the dough to maxmise the batch.
7- Once you've cut out your cookies, arrange them on your baking trays making sure to leave them slightly apart from each other in case they spread whilst they're in the oven.
8- Prick the top of each cookie with a fork and leave to chill for half an hour. I didn't have room in the fridge so I placed them along the windowsill in my bathroom. Not the most hygenic place I know but it's the coldest room in my house and I covered each tray with a tea towel to try and keep it as hygenic as possible.
9- Once that half an hour is up, cook them in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Cool for five minutes on the tray before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
10- Then all that's left is to enjoy them. I do advise enjoying these warm as the chocolate chips just melt in your mouth. I displayed them in my adorable Frankenstein treat dish from Primark and enjoyed them with a mug of milk in the matching Frankentstein cup as me and the family watched the Strictly results on Sunday night.