Colorful, spooky, and fun, Beetlejuice Halloween Cookies are as easy to make as they are delicious. These festive cookies come just in time for spooky season and the release of the new Beetlejuice Beetlejuice movie!
Table of Contents
- 🗝️ Key takeaways: why this recipe is your new favorite
- 🧾 Gather your ingredients: what you'll need
- 📖 Make it your own: yummy variations
- 🔪 Step-by-step guide: instructions for success
- 🍴Must have tools: essential equipment
- 🥫 Leftover love: how to store Beetlejuice Halloween cookies
- Marye's Tip o' the day
- 💭 Insider tips: things to know
- 👩🍳 Let's answer those questions: FAQs
- 📚 More Southern comfort: related recipes you'll love
- 🍽️ No waste: creative ways to repurpose
- 📞 Wrapping it up: the last word
- 📖 Recipe
- 💬 Comments
Save this recipe by clicking on the ❤️ heart on the right-hand side of the screen or in the recipe card.
🗝️ Key takeaways: why this recipe is your new favorite
- Fans of the iconic Tim Burton movie, Beetlejuice, will instantly recognize the bright colors and spooky eyes!
- Made with festive green and purple dough, these tasty sugar cookies are perfect for any Halloween party or spooky movie night.
- Chilling the dough logs is the best way to prevent your Halloween cookies from spreading while they bake.
No hocus-pocus or fancy spells are needed for this recipe—Beetlejuice Halloween pinwheel cookies are simple to make, even if it's your first time working with rolled dough.
This recipe comes together with basic sugar cookie ingredients and a touch of festive food coloring, so it's the perfect way to get in the Halloween spirit without much effort at all.
🧾 Gather your ingredients: what you'll need
This is an overview of the ingredients. You'll find the full measurements and instructions in the green recipe card (printable) at the bottom of the page.
📖 Make it your own: yummy variations
- Use different color combinations to make more Halloween sugar cookies. For example, swap black gel food coloring for the purple to create a witchy green and black spiral. You could also make orange dough instead of the green for a classic Halloween color combo.
- Roll the edges of the cookies in festive Halloween sprinkles before baking for an extra fun touch.
- You can swap the vanilla extract with another flavor if you'd like. Almond, maple, or rum extract would be tasty in this recipe.
- When mixing up the dry ingredients, add a dash of cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice for an extra bit of fall flavor.
🔪 Step-by-step guide: instructions for success
This is an overview of the instructions. Full instructions are in the green recipe card at the bottom of the page. Click on the image to see it full size.
Mix cookie dough according to instructions in the green recipe card below.
Using paste food color dye half the dough purple and the other half lime green.
Roll each color of dough out into a flat rectangle.
Stack the purple on top of the green and roll tightly.
Chill, slice, and bake according to instructions.
Let baked cookies cool completely.
Draw 2 black circles on each of the cookes with an edible marker.
"Glue" the candy eyes in the center of the black circles with a little premade frosting.
🤫 Marye's secret for zhuzhing it up -
Instead of liquid food coloring, I recommend using paste or gel food coloring (Paste food coloring will give the most vibrant color).The colors are more concentrated, so the neon green and purple will really pop! Check your local baking or craft stores for good paste or gel food colors.
zhuzh: verb. To make something more interesting or attractive
🍴Must have tools: essential equipment
- Electric mixer with a paddle attachment
- Mixing bowl
- Rolling pin
- Cutting board and a thin, sharp knife
- Baking sheet
- Parchment paper and/or a silicone baking mat
🥫 Leftover love: how to store Beetlejuice Halloween cookies
If you don't manage to eat all of your Halloween pinwheel cookies in one sitting, they're easy to store. Place 'em in an airtight container and keep at room temperature for up to a week.
You can also freeze leftover cookies, baked or unbaked. Frozen baked pinwheel cookies taste best enjoyed within three months—just leave 'em at room temperature for a few hours to thaw and enjoy!
You can find the specific details for freezing cookie dough in my post here.
Marye's Tip o' the day
If the dough gets a bit sticky, you can sprinkle it with a little flour. However, adding too much will make the cookies taste dry—so proceed with caution!
💭 Insider tips: things to know
- Don't be afraid to cream the butter and sugar together really well. Give it a good three or four minutes for nice, fluffy cookies.
- Wrap the cookie dough tightly with plastic wrap before chilling. This prevents the cookies from picking up any fridge odors and keeps the moisture in the dough.
- I prefer to use a non-slip silicone baking mat when rolling dough. Parchment paper will do the trick in a pinch, but silicone sticks better to your work surface and doesn't wrinkle up as easily.
- When working with the cookie dough log, keep your hands chilled so you don't melt the butter. When my hands get too hot, I'll run them under some cold water for a little bit.
- When rolling out dough, separate the parchment paper/silicone mat from the dough after every few rolls for the best results. Rotate the dough each time you set it down to get a more even shape.
👩🍳 Let's answer those questions: FAQs
Have other questions? Ask me in the comments!
The difference is in the texture of the cookies once they’ve been baked. Using baking soda makes for a softer cookie, while using baking powder makes the cookies crunchier.
Yep! Roll it up, seal tightly with plastic wrap, and store for four days in the fridge or three months (or even longer) in the freezer.
Food coloring drops are not recommended for these cookies as it thins out the dough and may make it difficult to work with. Paste or Gel food coloring is the way to go for this recipe.
The cookies are finished baking as soon as they're set—they won't take very long. To keep the bright, iconic colors of these Beetlejuice pinwheel cookies, don't let them turn golden brown.
It likely means the dough is getting too warm. Cold dough is your best friend when making cookies!
To prevent sticking, you can place a piece of parchment paper on top of the dough before rolling it out. Like the tip mentions in the section above, rotate the paper and dough after every few rolls.
⏲️ Marye's time saving hacks -
Make the dough ahead of time and leave it in the fridge for up to four days. When you're ready to bake, just slice the cookies and pop 'em in!
📚 More Southern comfort: related recipes you'll love
- Black Velvet Cupcakes with Spiced Orange Frosting are sinfully tender and moist—the natural dark black color is perfect for Halloween parties!
- Make any Halloween lover scream with excitement for these cute and super simple Jack Skellington Oreo Pops.
- With just three ingredients and in less than twenty minutes, you can make cute, kid-friendly, no-bake Nutter Butter Ghost Cookies.
🍽️ No waste: creative ways to repurpose
Use up leftover Beetlejuice pinwheel cookies in these fun ways:
- Crumbled up over ice cream sundaes
- Sandwich frosting in between cookies
- Use 'em as "nachos" for a sweet yogurt dip
- Spread them on a sweet snacking board
- Crush the cookies and use them for a colorful Halloween pie crust
📞 Wrapping it up: the last word
I loved the first Beetlejuice movie and I am really looking forward to the new one coming out.
These cookies are so cute and the colors and eyes are a nod to my favorite Halloween character! You can color the dough whatever color you prefer - just be sure to use the paste food colors for the best results.
If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need.
If you love this recipe please comment below and give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📖 Recipe
Beetlejuice Halloween Cookies
Print Pin Recipe Rate RecipeIngredients
- 5 cups all-purpose flour, plus a small amount for dusting and rolling
- 1 teaspoon baking soda, OR 1 ½ tsp. baking powder for a crispier cookie
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 ½ cups butter, melted
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- Paste food coloring in green and purple, Gel will work, too.
- Black edible marker
- Premade icing, I used premade chocolate icing colored with black food coloring
- Candy eye sprinkles
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer, whisk the sugar into the melted butter. Let the mixture stand for a few minutes until it is lukewarm.
- Beat in the eggs and vanilla.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and mix until combined.
- Separate the dough into two equal parts, placing each half into separate bowls.
- To one bowl, add the green gel food coloring, and to the other bowl, add the purple. Mix each well, until the food coloring is evenly distributed and no longer streaky.
- Chill the dough for 15-30 minutes in the freezer.
- On a floured surface, roll each batch of chilled dough out (separately) into ⅛ -¼-inch rectangles.
- Using a spatula, carefully place the purple dough rectangle on top of the green dough rectangle, and roll into a cylinder.
- Wrap the dough cylinder in plastic wrap, and chill in the freezer for 30 minutes- 1 hour (or in the refrigerator overnight.)
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- When the dough is chilled, slice ¼-inch disks from the cylinder. Place each disk onto the prepared cookie sheet, and bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes.
- Let the cookies cool completely before decorating.
- Using the black edible marker, make two circles slightly larger than the candy eye sprinkles.
- Dab a small amount of the premade icing to the back of candy eyes, and place them to the center of each circle. Allow the icing to set before stacking.
Notes
Nutrition Facts
Nutrition information is estimated as a courtesy. If using for medical purposes, please verify information using your own nutritional calculator. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
This recipe has been tested several times. If you choose to use other ingredients, or change the technique in some way, the results may not be the same.
candycane2024 says
Good morning Mary...I was wondering if I could use this recipe for just plain cutout cookies?
Marye says
Yes you could but...This recipe is my favorite for rolled cutout cookies -https://www.restlesschipotle.com/christmas-baking-countdown-the-best-sugar-cookies/