If you are anything like me, you’d recognize this line from the movie Coraline. With Halloween right around the corner, let’s learn a new recipe and make the other Mother proud with these button sugar cookies. Let’s start with what you will need to make this happen.

You will need:

• 1 cup of butter (two sticks)
• 2 ½ cups of flour 
• 2 tsp of baking powder 
• ½ tsp of salt 
• 1 ⅓ cups of granulated sugar (an extra ¼ for rolling out the dough)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp of vanilla 
• food dye (black, pink, red, orange, and green)

Now that we have all that, let’s start with making the dough. First, let’s start with creaming the butter. If you have a stand mixer, that’s great; if not, enjoy this mini arm workout. You can use a paddle attachment for a stand mixer, or a regular whisk and a dream. Combine the butter and sugar; creaming these two ingredients together allows them to become light and airy. When done, a cream color will appear.. 

Once it’s at the right consistency, add in one egg at a time, mixing as you go. Following the eggs is the vanilla: switch to a spatula at this point. 

Now, slowly add in the flour, salt, and baking powder, folding it in until it is fully incorporated. Once done with the dough, split it into 4 sections and dye each one of the following colors. One section is black for the “traditional” button color, one is pink, one is chartreuse (you can do this by mixing green and a tad bit of black, not a full drop), and vermillion for the last section (you can combine red and orange). 

Hopefully, you saved that ¼ cup of sugar I said was extra in the ingredients, because you are going to place it in a bowl so you can roll each cookie in it. You’re going to scoop each of the colors into even balls with a number divisible by two. Now roll each scoop in the sugar, then place them on a baking sheet. 

Once all cookies are rolled, flatten the top and grab a cup smaller than the flattened cookie. Lightly press the rim of the cup against the cookie, not enough to go all the way through, but enough to make it have the rim a normal button has. Then use a straw to poke 4 holes into the cookie. Now repeat to all the cookie dough balls. 

Once completed, allow them to chill while you wait for the oven to heat up. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Once at 350, make sure each cookie has at least 3 inches to bake. Allow them to bake for 16-18 minutes, rotating the pan (or pans) halfway through the time. Rotating the pan allows for all sides of the cookies to bake evenly. 

Once they are done, allow them to cool before serving them to the next person to join you in the other world. Now remember, black is the traditional color, unless you want to make the other mother jealous.

So what color are you choosing? Join us again on Nov. 1 for a new recipe for your cookbook.