Welcome back to another lactose free recipe. This recipe marks the start of the spooky season. My favourite time of the year.
This recipe plays homage to one of the most iconic Halloween movies ever. The Nightmare Before Christmas. These cookies are designed to resemble the main character, Jack Skellington. When I was looking at making these cookies, I came across countless perfectly piped royal icing cookies. I wanted to do something different. Something that was not so perfectly presented, easy to make and delicious.
I settled upon a jam drop cookie with simple black icing piped to resemble to spooky man himself. Instead of one giant thumbprint in the middle I did two smaller ones to resemble his eyes. Filled with blackberry jam these cookies are delicious.
The cookie recipe comes from the great chef Matt Moran. It works perfectly with lactose free ingredients and tastes divine.
The recipes on this website have been tested with lactose free ingredients multiple times to ensure their success and deliciousness. As always, this recipe is lactose free providing you use the right ingredients. Always make sure your ingredients are safe.
Ingredients
Instructions
-
In a medium bowl add the margarine, lemon zest, vanilla, and sugar.
- Beat until pale and fluffy.
-
Add the egg and egg yolk.
-
Mix well.
-
In a separate bowl sift the baking powder, flour, and salt twice. This is essential to removing any lumps. Trust me it is not very fun to pick out large lumps of flour from the dough.
-
Tip the flour into the bowl with the margarine mixture.
-
Mix well making sure to scrape the sides of the bowl.
-
Spoon the dough into a separate small bowl and cover with clingwrap. Place in the fridge for an hour to rest.
- Pre-heat your oven to 160°C (fan-forced) and line two trays with baking paper.
-
While the dough is resting, place the sieve over a small bowl. Place several tablespoons of the jam into the sieve and use a spoon to gently work the jam through removing the large lumps. Discard the lumps.
- Place a few drops of the black gel food colouring into the jam and stir well. You will notice in the pictures that I added the black later in the recipe. This was due to an error I made. It is much easier to add it in this step.
-
Spoon the jam into a piping bag fitted with the aetco 6 round tip.
-
After the dough has rested grab a tablespoon and measure out even quantities of the dough.
- Roll the dough into a ball.
-
Place the dough ball onto the baking tray. Place a small piece of baking paper on top of the dough. Gently press down with something small and flat so it is slightly flattened.
-
Grab the wooden spoon. Wet the bottom of the spoon. Use the bottom of the spoon to press down into the dough to create two eye shapes into the dough.
-
Pipe a small amount of the jam into each of the holes. Be careful not to overfill them.
- Continue this process until you have a tray of cookies. Make sure to leave a small gap in between them as they will rise and spread.
- Bake the cookies for 10 to 14 minutes until just starting to turn golden. Bake one tray at a time.
-
Transfer the cookies onto a cooling rack to cool down. The jam will have reduced. Don’t worry the jam will be topped up later.
- Dye several tablespoons of the icing black.
-
Spoon into a piping bag fitted with the Aetco 4 round tip and grab a cooled cookie.
-
Pipe two small little slits for nostrils.
-
Pipe a long curved smile near the bottom of the cookie.
-
Start piping small lines across the smile.
-
Grab the jam and fill up the eye sockets.
- Continue decorating all the cookies.
-
Serve devour and enjoy. Thank you for reading this recipe. I hope you enjoy it.
