Halloween is one of my favourite holiday baking occasions of the year. It’s when you can have a little fun and be a kid again for a while. These Halloween ghost cookies are filled with a spiced cinnamon strawberry jam, this adds a little sweetness to a Halloween themed get-together.
The meringue itself is easy to make. The trick is to use an electric beater and not to get any of the egg yolk mixed in with the whites. Once you get that right, it’s easy sailing. Finish the meringues off with a simple piping technique that even a novice can master in no time. Use a piping set like this along with a Wilton #30 tip or equivalent.
Ghost Cookie Filling
Seeing that it’s Halloween, we used a festive spiced filling with strawberry and cinnamon, but you can equally use Nutella chocolate spread or chocolate buttons with a bit of spice on top. If you’re using the jam, this will run out a bit onto the tray, but don’t worry as that helps to create the sticky and toffee-like sweetness that makes these Halloween ghost cookies extra nice.
The Secret to Piping
Well, the secret to piping is that you have to give it a go and practice before it will be perfect. Piping bags can be a messy affair but at the same time, it’s super fun. Fill your piping bag with the mixture and make little whirls on the baking tray starting a bit bigger at the bottom and working your way up with smaller circles, there will be a few wonky ones, but that adds to the homemade feel. To make space for the filling start with a full circle at the bottom, move your way up to the second layer, but leave a gap for the filling. Then take a spoon and drip the filling into the centre, use the piping bag to complete the ghost’s body and whirly head as shown below.
Sustainable Eggs
To make your baking efforts more sustainable and eco-friendly we recommend using eggs from organic, pasture-raised hens if they’re from regenerative farms that are the ultimate best option. Pasture-raised means that the hens are raised outside and eat a more natural diet, they’re allowed to forrage at their own leasure. It’s what nature intended for them right? If you’d like to learn more about regenerative farming, read our post here. In short regenerative farming works with nature, allowing a range of animals to graze a pasture, protecting soil health and reducing carbon emissions.
Halloween Ghost Cookies
Ingredients
For the Meringues
- 4 egg pasture-raised organic whites
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1/2 tsp organic vanilla essence
For the Filling
- 2 tbsp organic strawberry jam
- 3 large pinches cinnamon (adjust to taste)
- chocolate crispies or chips for the eyes
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 120 C/100 C Fan/Gas Mark 1/2
- In a large bowl, separate the egg whites and beat the eggs with an electric beater until they start to become white and firm. Then add the cream of tartar and salt. Continue to beat while slowly adding the sugar roughly 50ml at a time. Lastly, add the vanilla essence.
- Fill a piping bag with a Wilton #30 tip or similar. Make a solid circle base with the mixture, add a dollop of the jam mix in the middle as shown then form the rest of the ghost's body shape by circling the strawberry jam centring each ghost on top of the jam. Refill the bag until all the mixture has been used.
- Bake in the oven for an hour. Then turn the oven off and leave to crisp in the oven for roughly a further hours.
- Once the meringues have cooled down slightly position the chocolate crispies to form the eyes of each ghost. You can use a bit of icing sugar and water mixed into a thick paste for glue if the meringues have cooled too much.
