After Christmas, Halloween is one of the most commercial holidays in Canada. Canadians love going over the top for Halloween. Not only with creative costumes but with the exterior and interior decorations of their homes which are often decorated with fall elements like dried leaves and pumpkin-themed decor.
Halloween in Canada is celebrated on October 31 each year. Even though the festival is celebrated with a lot of pizazz and character, Halloween is not a public holiday in any part of the world.
You would be surprised to know that against popular belief of Halloween having a serious North American following, it is a very British-Irish origin story. The Celts believed that on the night of October 31st, the ghosts of the dead would come back to earth and cause havoc. To ward off evil spirits, people would dress up in costumes, carve jack-o-lanterns, and have bonfires.
Halloween is a great way to celebrate the fabulous fall season in Canada with its spooky decorations, costumes, and treats and to remember the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, which marked the end of summer and the beginning of winter.
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DOZEN
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- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp pure vanilla
- food coloring (red, orange, yellow & green)
Ingredients
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- Whisk together flour & salt in a small bowl.
- Beat together butter & sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes in a stand mixer or 6 minutes with a hand mixer. Beat in egg & vanilla. Reduce speed to low & add dry ingredients, mixing until just combined.
- Divide dough into 4 different bowls. Add a couple of drops of color to each portion of dough. Form into disks. Chill disks, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- On a floured work surface, place dollops of colored cookie dough next to each other. Using a floured rolling pin, roll out to a thickness of 1/4-inch. Don't OVER ROLL cookie dough.
- Using different leaf cookie cutters, cut out various leaf shapes. Cut out as many cookies as possible from dough with cutters and transfer to 2 ungreased large baking sheets, arranging cookies about 1 inch apart. Sprinkle with coarse sugar if you wish.
- Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until edges are golden, 10 to 12 minutes, do not overbake. Transfer to racks to cool completely.
- You can just sprinkle with coarse sugar or if you prefer, glaze them as I did.
- Because it just happens to be Halloween, I added a few 'cinnamon sugar tortilla bats' to my tray just for fun.