Jack-o'-Lantern Pops
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter-flavor shortening
1/4 cup light molasses
1 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
about 15 8-inch-long lollipop sticks
One tub vanilla frosting
orange, green, and black food colorings
Into large bowl, measure first 9 ingredients. With mixer at low
speed, beat ingredients until well mixed, occasionally scraping
bowl with rubber spatula. Divide dough in half. Shape each half
into a disk; wrap each with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour
or until dough is firm enough to roll. (Or, place dough in
freezer 30 minutes.) Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Between 2
sheets of waxed paper, with rolling pin, roll half of dough
slightly less than 1/4 inch thick. Remove top sheet of waxed
paper. With 3 1/2-inch pumpkin- shape cookie cutter, cut as many
pumpkin shapes from dough as possible. Place pumpkin cookies on
ungreased large cookie sheet. Place a lollipop stick on each
cookie so that 2 inches of stick is in cookie. Place 1 teaspoon
of cookie dough from trimmings on top of each stick, pressing
gently to seal onto cookie. Bake cookies about 12 minutes until
browned around edges. With pancake turner, carefully remove
cookies to wire rack to cool. Repeat steps 3, 4, and 5 with
remaining dough and trimmings, and lollipop sticks to make about
15 cookies in all.
Spoon frosting into as many small bowls as needed. Tint frosting
with different food colorings as desired, but reserve a portion
of the frosting untinted. Keep bowls covered with plastic wrap to
prevent frosting from drying out.