Take Your Pillsbury Shape Sugar Cookies To The Next Level With This Trick

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Once again, Pillsbury has come out with ready-to-bake Shape Sugar Cookies, as the brand has for most major holidays. Of course, the cookies themselves are actually round, but each one comes with a colorful interior featuring the likeness of a familiar holiday symbol (Think turkeys for Thanksgiving, bunnies for Easter, hearts for Valentine's Day ... you get the picture). These treats are so iconic, even Trader Joe's launched a heart cookie knockoff in early 2025. For Halloween this year, Pillsbury is offering four different shapes: Spooky Cat, Ghost, Pumpkin, and Sugar Skull. The cookies are cute, but one issue some people have with them is that they're on the small side. Well, you can fix that and take them to another level — in the literal sense — by making double-decker cookies.

You'll start by buying two packages of Pillsbury ready-to-bake cookie dough: one with Halloween shapes, and one slice-and-bake roll. This second dough can be any cookie flavor you like — chocolate, chocolate chip, sugar, or whatever's available. Cut the slice-and-bake cookies, lay them flat on a cookie sheet, and add one of the holiday shape cookies right in the center of each one. (If you want, you can scatter Halloween sprinkles or colored sugar over the bottom cookies before topping them with the shapes.) Bake the cookies per the package instructions, but bear in mind that they might take another minute or so in the oven since they're twice the size of standard cookies.

If you got excited when the latest holiday Pillsbury Shape Sugar Cookies came out and bought more than a few boxes, but don't have (or want) to add even more cookie dough, there are other ways you can expand these mini treats besides layering them on top of a different type of cookie.  One way is to turn them into cookie sandwiches with jam, frosting, or even ice cream. If you opt for vanilla frosting, try adding a few drops of green or orange food coloring to carry out the holiday theme. And, since pumpkin spice has taken over the world, you can stir some of fall's ubiquitous flavor into the orange frosting. Using mint chocolate chip, pistachio, or pumpkin ice cream would have a similar effect for this festive theme.

If you're hosting a Halloween party and ice cream sandwiches might be too messy, you could use shape cookies to top off a bowl of ice cream decorated with holiday sprinkles. The cookies could also provide the trim around a Halloween-frosted cake or be pressed into a pan of Halloween candy-stuffed brownies for an extra-indulgent, three-in-one holiday dessert.