Spooky Skeleton Butter & Jam Cookies

Fri, 31 October 2025

Spooky Skeleton Butter & Jam Cookies

When the evenings draw in and the stove’s glowing warm, I like to make these spooky little butter and jam cookies. They’re playful, a bit messy, and perfect for getting the wee ones stuck into some baking. Whether you’re handing them out to trick-or-treaters or settling in for a spooky movie night, they’re a proper homemade treat

Makes 20 to 25

Ingredients:

Biscuits

• 180g very soft unsalted Kerrygold butter (leave the butter at room temperature overnight)
• 180g caster sugar
• 1.5 large eggs or 80g to be exact
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 320g plain flour
• 40g cornflour

Filling & Decorations

• 1 cup of dark chocolate chips
• 1 cup blackberry or blackcurrant jam
• Piping bag
• Some toothpicks
• Cookie cutters

Method

Place the butter and caster sugar in a bowl and beat until pale and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla, and beat again until thoroughly combined.

Sift in the flour and cornflour, then mix it in by hand. Tip the dough out onto a floured surface and bring it together into a smooth ball. Wrap it in cling film and rest it in the fridge — ideally overnight, though an hour will do just fine.

Heat the oven to 150°C fan (or 170°C conventional/gas).

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface to about 3 mm thick. Using a round cutter, cut out about 40 biscuits, gathering up and re-rolling the trimmings as needed.

For half of the biscuits, use a small round cutter — or anything that’ll make neat little holes — to create two eyes. These will be your “faces”; the plain ones will be the bases.

Lay the biscuits on a lined baking tray. Press the tip of a toothpick into each “face” biscuit to give it little nostrils. Bake for 10–12 minutes, until they’re just turning a pale golden colour. Remove from the oven and let them cool completely — about 15 minutes.

Melt the chocolate, either in the microwave or in a bowl set over gently simmering water. Pour it into a piping bag fitted with a small nozzle (or just snip a tiny hole at the tip). Pipe on the skeleton smiles — make them as spooky or as silly as you like.

While the chocolate sets, spread a teaspoon of jam onto each base biscuit. Top with the “face” biscuit and use a toothpick to coax the jam up through the eye holes.

Have fun with it — this is an easy, forgiving biscuit dough that you can adapt for any occasion. Get creative and have a look on Pinterest for more ideas!