These Halloween Bone Cookies are easy to make without cookie cutters! It is an easy, unique, fun, homemade Halloween cookie recipe for kids - Safe for humans!
♡ Why you’ll love this recipe:
✔️ Buttery, eggless shortbread cookies that are crisp, tender, and melt-in-your-mouth good
✔️ No fancy cookie cutters needed!
✔️ A fun Halloween baking activity to enjoy with kids
✔️ Great for making ahead: bake and freeze the cookies, then decorate with “blood” icing a day or two before your Halloween party
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These cookies are so much fun to make — the dough feels just like play dough, which makes it a perfect Halloween baking activity to do with kids!
While bone-shaped biscuits are usually for dogs, these ones are strictly for humans. Made with a classic buttery shortbread dough, they’re shaped like bones and baked to golden perfection. A little spooky, a lot delicious — and 100% human-approved!
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Best Food Coloring for Realistic Blood Icing
For the most vivid, blood-like icing, gel food coloring is the way to go! While liquid food coloring can work, you’ll need a lot more of it to achieve that deep red hue, making your icing runny and harder to work with.
I personally recommend using Wilton's Red Gel. To get that rich, realistic “blood” effect, you’ll likely need over half a container for this Halloween bone cookies. The gel formula gives you intense color without compromising the icing’s texture—perfect for spooky Halloween treats!
How to make Halloween bone cookies?
You can find full printable recipe below, but here is a quick overview of the procedure along with step-by-step photos.
💀 Pro tip - No need to make them look perfect — a few cracks and uneven edges actually make the bones look more realistic and fun for Halloween!
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Dough Consistency Tips
The bone cookie dough should be slightly firm but pliable — not too soft.
- Too firm? Cookies may crack or turn out hard.
- Too soft? They’ll spread and lose their bone shape.
This dough is forgiving! If it crumbles, add a few drops of milk. If it’s too soft, mix in a bit more flour until it holds shape.
Using a spoon, drizzle it randomly over the cookies to create a realistic bloody effect. Let the icing set for a few hours before serving for the best finish.
Troubleshooting
Cookies Spreading Too Much? If your bone cookies spread in the oven, the dough may have been too soft or not chilled long enough.
A quick fix: Check them around the 10-minute mark. If they’re spreading, carefully remove the baking sheet (it’ll be hot!) and gently press the sides of each cookie back in using your fingers or the back of a spoon. Then, pop them back in to finish baking.
Halloween Bone Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoons confectioners sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup + 5 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 2 to 4 teaspoons milk
Bloody Icing
- ½ cup confectioners sugar
- Red gel food coloring as needed
Instructions
- Add butter, confectioners sugar, vanilla extract and salt into a medium bowl and beat with hand held electric beater for one minute, until smooth and creamy.
- Add the flour and about 2 teaspoons of milk, then beat on low speed until the dough begins to come together. The dough should be firm but pliable—not too soft or too stiff. 👉If it feels too soft, add a tablespoon or two of flour; if it’s too dry, mix in a little more milk as needed.
Shape
- Using about 1 tablespoon of cookie dough, roll it into a ball, then shape it into a 2 to 3-inch log for the bone’s middle. Take another tablespoon of dough, divide it in half, and roll each half into thick logs for the bone ends (see pictures). Pinch the ends onto the center log to form the bone shape, pressing the seams to stick. 👉 Don’t worry about a perfect, smooth finish—some cracks and unevenness add to the spooky effect!
- Repeat process to make remaining bones and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet, spacing about an inch apart. Place baking sheet in the refrigerator overnight or several hours.
Bake & Decorate
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Bake the cookies for 23 to 28 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through, until they turn a deep golden brown. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack and let the cookies cool completely. 👉 Achieving that deep golden color is key for a crisp texture—if you remove them too early while still pale, they won’t crisp up properly.
- Make the icing: In a small bowl, mix ½ cup confectioners’ sugar with about 1 teaspoon of water and red food coloring to create a blood-colored icing with a dripping consistency. Adjust the water and food coloring as needed to achieve a deep, rich red—I used more than half of a small bottle for the best effect.
- Place the cookies on a wire rack set over a baking sheet to catch any dripping icing. Using a small spoon, randomly drizzle the icing over the cookies for a spooky effect. Let them sit for a couple of hours, or until the icing is fully set.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information, based on third-party calculations, should be seen as estimates, not guarantees, as various factors like product types, brands, processing methods, and more can alter the nutritional content in recipes.
Recipe tips
- Chill the dough: After shaping the bone biscuits, chill them for a few hours or overnight. This helps the dough firm up, preventing excessive spreading during baking.
- Imperfect is perfect: Don’t worry about smooth, flawless shapes. A few cracks, uneven surfaces, and “broken” bone ends add to the spooky Halloween vibe!
- Food coloring: Use gel food coloring (not liquid) for a deep, blood-red effect. You’ll need about half an ounce, or roughly half a container, depending on the brand and intensity.
- Storage: Decorated Halloween cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 4–5 days.
- Freezing: You can freeze the baked and cooled cookies (without icing) for up to 2 months. Just thaw them when ready and decorate with the blood icing.
More Cookie Recipes for Halloween
Looking for fun and spooky Halloween-themed food ideas? These creative and delicious cookie recipes for Halloween are perfect for parties, trick-or-treat snacks, or just getting into the spooky spirit!
- Chocolate thumbprint cookies are made with a simple sugar cookie dough, indented to resemble skulls and filled with red strawberry jam! It is a unique, fun, creative, spooky cookie idea for Halloween!
- Spooky Halloween tree cookies are an easy Halloween baked good to impress your kids. They are buttery, crisp, and amazingly tender!
- These Halloween skull cookies are cute, easy, and a unique Halloween cookie recipe. They’re skull-shaped Linzer cookies, filled with jam and topped off with an adorable M&M flower.
- These Halloween finger cookies with almond nails are easy to make.
- These candle cookies are made using buttery, crisp chocolate shortbreads and are shockingly easy to make.
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