Anne's Soul Cake recipe

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I made Soul Cakes on October 29, 2026.

Anne's Soul Cake recipe:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened (Store Brand: Sweet Cream Butter Unsalted)
1 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons salt (do NOT add if the butter is salted)
1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips (I used Nestle)

2 cups all-purpose flour (I used Pillsbury)

Directions:

0) 5+ hours before preparing, take butter sticks out of refrigerator, to soften them to room temperature. (The length of time required may vary based on the indoor temperature.)

1) Preheat oven to 350°F. (Wait until you are ready to put them in oven.)


Note: mixing all of this by hand takes about one hour to do:

2) In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. (electric mixer on medium speed)

3) Beat in the salt, cinnamon, and vanilla extract. (medium speed)

4) Stir in the chocolate chips. Do that BEFORE the flour.


5) Gradually add flour, beating on low speed after each addition until well blended.


6) Use cookie scooper to drop dough, 1-1/2 inches apart, on ungreased baking sheets.
=> Stuck to cookie scooper, so I ended up using my hands and simulated making meatballs.

7) Partially flatten the cookie balls with the back of the mixing spoon, to 2/3 their original height.


8) optional: Cut a cross in each one, using a metal butter knife.


Bake 10 to 15 minutes or until bottoms of cookies are lightly browned. Time may vary based on your oven.
=> 12 minutes was the right time in my oven.
=> The oven bottom rack produced slightly darker cookie bottoms than the ones on the oven top rack.

Cool 5 minutes on baking sheets.

Then use a spatula to move the cookies to wire racks. Cool completely. Store in tightly covered container at room temperature.

Makes about 30 cookies. (3 x 5 on 2 cookie sheets.)


Notes:

The Soul Cake recipe is similar to what the British call a shortbread biscuit and Americans call a shortbread cookie.

Serving recommendation: To soften a cookie, microwave it for a few seconds before eating it.

To avoid confusion / avoid scaring young children, I called them Halloween Druid Cookies, but they are Soul Cakes.

On October 29, 2026, I made these with salted butter, which had the equivalent of about 2 teaspoons of salt, and I mixed all of the ingredients by hand. I did not use an electric mixer.


References:

I modified the historic 1604 Oxfordshire cookbook / Tudor Halloween Soul Cakes recipe that I found, and used a Cooking: Grams to Cups Converter calculator website:

historic 1604 Oxfordshire cookbook / Tudor Halloween Soul Cakes recipe:
https://www.lovebritishhistory.co.uk/2020/10/tudor-halloween-soul-cakes.html

Cooking: Grams to Cups Converter
https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/cooking/grams-cups.php