Spooky Cookies!

These are very simple and easy Halloween cookies that kids can help out with. They also make great handmade treats to hand out to Trick or Treaters (or guisers as well call them in Scotland!)

The cookies themselves are just a simple chocolate cookie dough rolled out very thin then baked. The decoration is sugar fondant icing rolled out also very thinly and adhered to the biscuits with good old water.

The last thing I used to decorate them was black sugar which I picked up in TK Maxx. But there are plenty of black tubes of icing on the market at the moment which would work just as well.

Here’s how I made them;

Yield: 24 cookies approx

Ingredients:

150 grams plain flour

75 grams unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt

170 grams butter

280 grams granulated sugar

1 egg

Adapted from allrecipes.com

To decorate:

Sugar fondant icing

Black icing (or sugar if you can get it)

Method:

Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt, set aside.

In the bowl of a mixer, mix together the butter and sugar. Don’t over beat as this can make the cookies fluffy, which you don’t want. Add in the egg and beat until incorporated. Gradually mix in the flour until a ball of dough has formed.

Divide the ball in two and wrap each half in clingfilm and pop into the fridge for half an hour to firm up.

Preheat the oven to 180c. Line a couple of cookie sheets with greaseproof paper and take the chilled dough out of the fridge. Roll it out on a floured surface ( I roll mines on top of greaseproof paper) to about ½ cm thick. Cut out in the shape of your choice and place on to the cookie sheets.

When done, pop into the oven for 8 to 10 minutes then remove and allow to cool fully on wire racks.

Whilst the cookies are cooling, roll out your chosen colour of fondant to about ¼ cm thick and cut out with the same size of cookie cutter you used before (as the cookies spread a little they will now be a bit bigger than the cutter itself). To adhere the fondant discs to the cooled cookies, simply rub water over one side of the disc and press this wet side to the cookie, rubbing the top so it sticks all over.

And to decorate, use a little icing to stick black sugar, cut shaped from different coloured fondant etc.

And there you have Spooky Cookies. Enjoy!