Name: Witches Brew Halloween Butter Cookies
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 17 min
Total time: 47 min
Yield: 36
Ingredients: 2 cups plus 6 tablespoons all purpose flour, divided; 1/2 teaspoon baking powder; 1/4 teaspoon salt; 2/3 cup powdered sugar; 1/4 cup granulated sugar; 1-1/4 cups butter, softened; 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract; food coloring (optional) green, yellow, purple, black; sprinkles (optional) 3 tablespoons of each color

Jump to Recipe

Witches Brew Halloween Butter Cookies: Fun Halloween cookies that literally melt in your mouth! These Witches Brew Halloween Butter Cookies may look hard to make but they’re not! Follow my easy step by step instructions and you can dazzle your guests with delicious butter cookies at your next Halloween Party! These swirl cookies are perfect for a witch themed party or Hocus Pocus!

Halloween Party Ideas

Planning a Halloween Party? I’ve got loads of Witch Themed recipes and party ideas. CLICK HERE FOR ALL THE DETAILS→ 24 IDEAS FOR A WITCH THEMED HALLOWEEN PARTY

How to Make Witches Brew Halloween Butter Cookies

Adding small amounts of gel food coloring at a time. Once the color is added you can’t correct it.
Separate into three 8.5 ounce portions.
Roll out each portion of dough between sheets of wax paper.
Leave the bottom piece of wax paper on the green dough; take off the top piece of wax paper. Take off the top piece of wax paper on the black dough and place on top of the green dough (remove the remaining piece of wax paper on the black dough). Take off the bottom piece of wax paper of the purple dough and place on top of the black dough (remove the remaining wax paper). You should be left with a piece of wax paper on the bottom of the dough. This will help with the rolling process.
Use the wax paper to help roll the cookie dough into a jelly roll. Refrigerate 2 hours.
Slice and Bake!

Why Should I Chill The Cookie Dough?

CREATE YOUR OWN HALLOWEEN PARTY GAMES ON A BUDGET

Kids Halloween Party Games on a Budget: Halloween DIY game ideas are a great addition to any kids party. Candy Corn Toss, Eyeball Toss, Halloween Bingo, Match Game and Trick or Treat Trail Hunt Game will keep your little monsters entertained for hours. CLICK HERE FOR ALL THE DETAILS→KIDS HALLOWEEN PARTY GAMES ON A BUDGET

HOW TO SOFTEN BUTTER QUICKLY

If you forgot to leave your butter out on the counter for a few hours don’t worry. Pop it into the microwave for a 10 second burst at 50% power. Turn the stick over and repeat once or twice until the butter has softened.

PRO TIPS

Measure your flour correctly! Adding too much flour to the recipe is the most common mistake. The best, and easiest way to measure flour is by using a scale. If you don’t have one then fluff your flour with a spoon, sprinkle it into your measuring cup, and use a knife to level it off.
Sanding sugar gives a nice crunch to the edge but it’s totally optional. You can skip or use regular granulated sugar as a replacement.
For a crisper cookie leave the baking sheet in the oven, turned off and the door cracked slightly open after baking. This will help dehydrate the cookies further to get that butter cookie out of the tin crunch.
Use a good vanilla for this recipe. It’s one of the stand out flavors here so you don’t want to use the artificial stuff.

Makes 36 Cookies

Witches Brew Halloween Butter Cookies

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 17 minutes

Total Time: 47 minutes

5.0 Stars (3 Reviews)

Ingredients

2 cups plus 6 tablespoons all purpose flour, divided
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1-1/4 cups butter, softened
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
food coloring (optional) green, yellow, purple, black
sprinkles (optional) 3 tablespoons of each color

Instructions

In a large mixing bowl combine the 2 cups of flour, baking powder, salt and sugars.
Mix briefly.
Add the butter in pieces, mix until the mixture has the consistency of cornmeal.
Add the vanilla and mix just until a ball forms.
Divide into 3 - 8 ounce balls.
Add food coloring of your choice and 2 tablespoons of flour to each ball.
Roll out each portion of dough between sheets of wax paper into a rectangle about 11 x 8-1/2-inches.
Peel wax paper and lay layers on top of each other in color order.
Leave the wax paper at the bottom of the bottom layer to help with the rolling process.
Roll into a jelly roll.
Refrigerate for 2 hours.
Place sprinkles into a 9x13 pan, roll the log until completely covered.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Slice the log into 1/4 inch thick cookies and bake on parchment lined baking sheets for 15 to 17 minutes, until the cookies are no longer shiny on top and the bottoms are golden.

MORE HALLOWEEN WITCH THEMED PARTY TREATS

**DIY EDIBLE HALLOWEEN PARTY WITCH HAT TREAT 2. WICKED WITCH FINGER HALLOWEEN PRETZELS 3. HALLOWEEN WITCHY PUSH UP POPS**

NEVER MISS A POST

Sign up for my newsletter and receive my recipes and Etsy store updates in your inbox. Easy to see anytime and saved for safe keeping. Click here and sign up today—->>>>CURTAIN CALL NEWSLETTER

Comments

Witches Brew Halloween Butter Cookies — 48 Comments

Brenda on October 22, 2020 at 9:05 pm said:

Hello, can you please tell me the name of the Green gel colouring.
Is it electric green ?

Reply ↓
- Sheryl on October 24, 2020 at 11:06 am said:
  
  Hi Brenda, Yes the color is electric green.
  
  Reply ↓
Raquel on October 29, 2019 at 10:33 am said:

Hello, I was wondering when you add the sprinkles? Before you bake? Or after you bake?

Reply ↓
- Sheryl on October 29, 2019 at 8:48 pm said:
  
  Hi Raquel, I roll the whole cookie dough cylinder in the sprinkles before I slice.
  
  Reply ↓
N on October 30, 2017 at 10:33 am said:

To one of the older comments you replied that 2 and 1/2 sticks of butter is equivalent to 1 and 1/2 cups of butter, but the recipe listed above calls for 1 and 1/4 cups of butter. Please, which is the correct amount? Thank you!

Reply ↓
- Sheryl on October 30, 2017 at 7:43 pm said:
  
  Hi N, The recipe has since been updated to 1¼ cups of butter.
  
  Reply ↓
Crystal Littleson on September 27, 2017 at 4:55 pm said:

How much of the gel food coloring did you use? Like teaspoons or tablespoons. Thank you!

Reply ↓
- Sheryl on September 28, 2017 at 9:24 am said:
  
  Hi Crystal, Gel food coloring is very concentrated. One bottle is plenty. Only add the food coloring a little at a time, stir to combine. Add more if needed but don’t add all the food coloring at once.
  
  Reply ↓
  - Crystal on September 28, 2017 at 8:12 pm said:
    
    Thank you! I made them last night (I couldn’t get the colors right)but they still came great. Can’t wait to make the again and for Christmas.
    
    Reply ↓
    - Sheryl on October 3, 2017 at 1:31 pm said:
      
      Hi Crystal, I’m so glad you liked the recipe.
      
      Reply ↓
Loro on November 10, 2015 at 9:48 am said:

Have made these twice now and they taste amazing!

Reply ↓
- Sheryl on November 10, 2015 at 10:29 am said:
  
  Yay! That’s awesome news. So glad you like them.
  
  Reply ↓
Holly on October 26, 2015 at 1:12 pm said:

Can you make the dough and refrigerate overnight before making the cookies the next day??

Reply ↓
- Sheryl on October 26, 2015 at 5:29 pm said:
  
  Sure Holly, You might need to wait for the dough to soften a bit before rolling it out.
  
  Reply ↓
Joella on December 7, 2014 at 12:15 am said:

My daughter wants to have a Maleficent birthday party this year. These cookies are perfect! Thank you for sharing.

Reply ↓
- Sheryl on December 7, 2014 at 3:53 pm said:
  
  Ohhhh, that sounds like fun!
  
  Reply ↓
  - Joella on July 4, 2015 at 12:14 am said:
    
    I made these for the birthday party after all and they were beautiful. I baked them on the soft side and they were delicious. Thank you for the recipe.
    
    Reply ↓
connie on October 30, 2014 at 2:39 pm said:

Where do I use the extra 6T of flour?

Reply ↓
- Sheryl on October 30, 2014 at 2:44 pm said:
  
  Hi Connie, you add 2T of flour to each colored batch of dough.
  
  Reply ↓
Lydia on October 26, 2014 at 5:45 pm said:

i really want to try out this recipe the cookies look amazing! But I was wonder if the butter needs to be unsalted or just salted butter. I have been used to using unsalted butter for a lot of cookie recipes so I just want to make sure.

Reply ↓
- Sheryl on October 26, 2014 at 11:20 pm said:
  
  Hi Lydia, Use unsalted butter. 🙂
  
  Reply ↓
Joanne on October 25, 2014 at 10:07 am said:

These are great and can’t wait to make them for my daughter’s class. What colors did you use to make the green? I see 2 there.

Reply ↓
- Sheryl on October 25, 2014 at 11:08 am said:
  
  Hi Joanne,
  I used leaf green and lemon yellow. Use more yellow than green to get that electric green color. 🙂
  
  Reply ↓
Alexis on October 25, 2014 at 12:47 am said:

Hello, I was wondering, I followed all your instructions and my dough was soft so I added more flour. The dough looked a little greesy. So I keep adding more flour? I added 2 sticks 4 tbsps of butter.

Reply ↓
- Sheryl on October 25, 2014 at 1:20 am said:
  
  Hi Alexis,
  How soft was your butter? This is a very tender dough. That’s why I have you roll it between wax paper. Other than your butter being too soft I don’t know what went wrong. Oh, did you add the extra 2 tablespoons of flour to each color? I have made this dough multiple times and haven’t had that problem.
  
  Reply ↓
Brittany on October 24, 2014 at 5:49 am said:

Hi, I was wondering, does the food coloring have to be gel food coloring or can it just be the liquid stuff

Reply ↓
- Sheryl on October 24, 2014 at 3:53 pm said:
  
  Hi Brittany,
  If you want vibrant color then yes, you will need to use gel food coloring.
  
  Reply ↓
Stephanie Kubiak on October 15, 2014 at 4:38 pm said:

Are the cookies supposed to be soft or crunchy when they are done? I cooked a batch last week and it didn’t look like they weren’t done so I kept them in the oven for 28 minutes and they came out crunchy…I think I over cooked them. I’m trying another batch tomorrow and sticking to the 17-19 minutes.

Reply ↓
- Sheryl on October 16, 2014 at 11:09 pm said:
  
  Hi Stephanie,
  These cookies will melt in your mouth and are crispy.
  
  Reply ↓
Marta on October 3, 2014 at 10:43 pm said:

Hi, I was wondering what you used for the food colouring. Thanks!

Reply ↓
- Sheryl on October 5, 2014 at 9:45 pm said:
  
  Hi Marta, I used Wilton gel food coloring.
  
  Reply ↓
Stephanie on September 27, 2014 at 11:23 am said:

I am so making these for our neighborhood get together for Halloween these so awesome thanks for sharing with us all 🙂

Reply ↓
Ann on September 3, 2014 at 10:14 am said:

Can you freeze the dough and bake later? Or freeze the cookies after baking? And if so how long?

Reply ↓
- Sheryl on September 3, 2014 at 10:16 am said:
  
  Sure Ann. You can do either. 🙂 I would say at least a couple of months.
  
  Reply ↓
Dorothy @ Crazy for Crust on November 3, 2012 at 5:57 pm said:

Those are so pretty!!!

Reply ↓
More Sister Stuff on October 30, 2012 at 1:53 pm said:

Those are amazingly awesome!! So so cute!! Thanks for sharing I want to go makes these right now! http://moresisterstuff.blogspot.com/

Reply ↓
Hayley @ The Domestic Rebel on October 30, 2012 at 8:00 am said:

I love this cookie idea, girl! So beautiful and spooky for Halloween 🙂

Reply ↓
Nicky @ Pink Recipe Box on October 30, 2012 at 3:54 am said:

These look fabulous! I love how bright the colours are and those sprinkles are gorgeous! 🙂

Reply ↓
Alecia @ Chicken Scratch NY on October 30, 2012 at 3:07 am said:

There are the brightest cookies I’ve ever seen! I love the swirls and the sprinkles. Thanks for sharing

Reply ↓
Heather @French Press on October 29, 2012 at 8:02 pm said:

what a seriously fun cookie idea

Reply ↓
Lyuba @willcookforsmiles on October 29, 2012 at 7:55 pm said:

These are some amazing colors! You did a awesome job!

Reply ↓
lindsay on October 29, 2012 at 4:38 pm said:

These are the coolest halloween cookies i have ever seen! Thank you so much for linking up to Sunday’s Sweet Confessions over at mommy’s sweet confessions! Have a great day!

Reply ↓
Katie on October 29, 2012 at 6:06 am said:

I love how these cookies look and I am sure they are tasty too! Thanks for sharing

Reply ↓
Hezzi-D on October 29, 2012 at 3:32 am said:

I love the colors of these cookies! Perfect for Halloween.

Reply ↓
Tartanpancakes on October 28, 2012 at 12:43 pm said:

I love these, I’ve made pinwheel cookies for Christmas before but never thought of doing them with Halloween colours. Very good idea.

Reply ↓
Krista@EverydayMom'sMeals on October 28, 2012 at 7:15 am said:

What an adorable idea! Perfect for a Halloween party at school or home! Thanks for sharing at Church Supper. Have a blessed week & come back soon!

Reply ↓
Cindy Harris on October 27, 2012 at 10:57 pm said:

First of all I do love a good butter cookie. And this butter cookie is nothing but fun!

Reply ↓
Holly Lefevre on October 27, 2012 at 9:29 pm said:

Oh my goodness these are so fun and fabulous and such a cute idea

Reply ↓

Lady Behind the Curtain

Bringing the simplicity of entertaining into your life