Here is my basic shortbread cookie recipe, as well as a few variations you can do in order to jazz up an offering or use the cookie as a spell. Cookies make fantastic vessels for spells -more so than most other desserts in my experience. They also make perfect offerings for your deities, and simplify whole-item offerings to Chthonic deities.
Preheat the oven to 350. Cream the butter and sugar together, then sift in the flour one cup at a time. Combine until smooth. On a baking sheet, put down a layer of parchment paper and lightly dust with flour. Drop appx 1.5 inch balls of dough on the cookie sheet roughly 2 inches apart. Bake 9-11 minutes (start at 9, add more if needed). Allow to cool before lifting them off the cookie sheet.
Preheat the oven to 350. Cream the butter and sugar together, then sift in the flour one cup at a time. Combine until smooth.
Cover the dough and refrigerate for at least one hour, or overnight.
On a flat surface, lightly sprinkle flour to coat. Also coat your hands and a rolling pin. Roll out the dough across the floured surface until 0.5 inch thick. Dip your cookie cutters into the flour and press firmly to cut.
On a baking sheet, put down a layer of parchment paper and lightly dust with flour. Bake 9-11 minutes (start at 9, add more if needed). Allow to cool before lifting them off the cookie sheet.
Tips & Tricks:
For buttery shortbread, use 3 cups of flour. For drier shortbread -or rolled shortbread- use 4 cups of flour. That’s how I like mine.
Parchment paper likes to roll up on you. When you cut off the amount you need, crumple it up into a ball, then smooth it back out. It won’t roll anymore. Trim the edges around the pan if they’re too big.
Shortbread is a lot like me - it doesn’t tan; it burns. Shortbread isn’t meant to be golden brown on top; it should be approximately the same white color as the dough. A little golden brown on the bottom is ok, but not too much.
Variations:
When adding ingredients to shortbread for flavor, you don’t need to add more butter unless you go overboard. I would highly recommend sticking with plain shortbread the first one or two times you make it so that you learn what the dough is like and you can gauge for yourself.
For Wealth: Add vanilla extract to the dough. When the cookie is baked and cooled, dip half of the cookie in melted dark chocolate
For Love: Add culinary grade rose and hibiscus petals
For Protection: Add just a pinch of cinnamon, black pepper, and lemon zest.
For Uplifting & Rejuvenating: Add lemon and/or orange zest
For Peace: Add culinary grade lavender petals (lavender is very strong and can easily overpower your
Wealth and Abundance offering to Hades, Persephone, and Demeter: Use saffron butter instead of regular butter. I make mine by crushing up saffron with my mortar, softening my butter, taking out a portion of it (like 0.25 cup) and melting that, then letting the crushed saffron infuse into the melted butter. When it is infused, cooled, and beginning to resolidify (about 30 minutes) I add that back to the softened butter, cream them together, then cream in the sugar.
Reverence Offering to Persephone: Add fresh pomegranate arils into the dough and refrigerate for an hour before baking. If you do this, mix the arils in by hand, not using a machine, to reduce how many of them break. You can amp this up by waiting for the cookies to cool then dipping them into dark chocolate and sprinkling more arils on top.
Sacrifice to Hestia and/or Demeter: Leave the cookies plain, but bake them into the shape of pigs, which are Hestia and Demeter’s primary sacrificial animal. You can do this with a cookie cutter, or do what I do and use a Piggy Pop pan. Do not do this for Aphrodite, who hates pigs.
I’ve been making these cupcakes for a couple years, they always come out really well and I figured they are perfect for a spell
You will need
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
4 Apples (i use granny smith apple but you can use what ever appled you like. Red delicious aren’t ideal though), peeled and diced
1 stick butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside.
Peel, core, and dice apples. Add to medium sized sauce pan with 1 stick of butter and 1/2 cup brown sugar. Add cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice to taste. Cook down until soft. Mash or puree until completely smooth. Reserve 2 teaspoons apple puree for frosting if desired
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice; set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together, brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and eggs. Add dry ingredients, and whisk until smooth. Whisk in apple puree.
Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about halfway. Bake until tops spring back when touched, and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating pans once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.
Frosting
8 ounces cream cheese
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 teasppons apple puree
Place cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until smooth. Add butter, and beat until fluffy.
Reduce speed to low; gradually add sugar, and continue beating until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and puree if using, and mix to combine.
Always remember to cook with charged quarts near by! Really focus on your intent, and the warm energy of the cinnamon and allspice!
This is a picture of my first run at them a few years ago before they were frosted and they really are awesome!
This recipe is a variation of Martha Stewart’s Pumpkin Spice recipe, send me pictures of you finished products!
Hi, might be a dumb question but I figured I'd ask.. I want to make a pumpkin pie and apple pie on Samhain and I wanted to "charm" it to bring good luck and such to the new winter. I just don't know how to go about it, any advice?
That’s not a dumb question at all, and actually sounds like a lovely way to celebrate Samhain! 🎃
If it were me, I would do a few things first. I would get some candles I liked (maybe even a pumpkin or apple scented one), crystals if I had any, and put them in the workspace near the stove where I planned to mix the ingredients. Then I would look up some of the correspondences for the major ingredients of my pies (I have a list here, but there are others around too), and really nail down the exact purpose of my pies. Because you really need to have a firm idea of your intention, a fuzzy intention will bring fuzzy results. Be specific. :)
So, for the apple pie: Apples are good for happiness, abundance, and relationships; allspice for abundance; cinnamon for relationships, love, and luck; cloves for love and protection; and nutmeg for relationships, prosperity and protection. I would look at these ingredients and perhaps decide that my apple pie was for protecting my relationships with the people I cared about & strengthening our bonds.
Next, I would find or make a sigil that embodied that intent, practicing it on paper until I got it the way I wanted it.
Then it’s time to start the pie! Light your candles, put on a little music if that’s helpful to you in your magic, and get mixing. While you prep the pie, concentrate on the people you love and your bonds with them, and your will to protect those bonds. You can do this silently, or you can come up with words to say, or even just repeat over and over “Protect this relationship” while you work. Focus on the way the ingredients bind together to do this. When you’re making your pie, inscribe your sigil either on the bottom pie-crust if you’re a secret witch, or in the top if you’re not (or both!), infusing it with your intent.
When I’m doing baking-spells, I like to say something to seal it as I put it in the oven, letting the heat bake the spell into the food like a kiln bakes designs into pottery. But what you say can be simple or elaborate, or even something slightly ritualistic like the Wiccan “so mote it be”.
The biggest piece of advice I can give, is try not to be too distracted while you work. Focusing your intent, and being mindful while you cook is important, so definitely strive for a distraction-free environment if you can.
Finally, choose your recipe carefully! If you’re an inexperienced cook, don’t make your very first apple-pie for your spell! Practice first, so you know you can do the pie part, and aren’t concentrating too hard on following the recipe when you should be focusing on the magic.
