Saturday, October 29, 2011

What, or Who is lurking in the Shadows?!


We are just a few days away from my favorite holiday - HALLOWEEN!  I love everything about it, the colors, the time of year, and, of course, the treats!  And I love breaking out my adorable Halloween measuring spoons!   :)


My first project is a cookie made with what is now my favorite cookie cutter ever!  I found this Nosferatu cutter at Sur La Table.  It is so creepy and a touch frightening looking, unusual for a cookie cutter.  Immediately I knew I had to have it.  This cookie did not disappoint.

I mixed up my favorite chocolate cookie dough recipe:

Chocolate Cut-Out Cookies
adapted from recipe found on Bake at 350

1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together the dry ingredients and set them aside. Cream together butter and sugar. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Combine the flour mixture a little at a time. Roll the dough onto a floured/cocoa-ed surface. Cut out desired shapes with selected cookie cutters. Freeze cut-outs on cookie sheet for 5 minutes before baking to ensure baked cookies will keep their shape. Decorate with icing as desired.


Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes and let them cool.  I stared long and hard at the cookie for decor ideas, but in the end I decided a solid, deep black would be best.  In my opinion, there's not much more to be done here to make this cooler looking.  Besides, aren't spooky, shadowy figures what Halloween is all about?!

I mixed together sifted confectioners sugar with a touch of water until the icing was the consistency I wanted.  I was going for a thicker icing so it would not flow over the edges of the cookie.  I used a #1 tip to outline Nosferatu.  Then I filled in the middle with more icing and used a toothpick to coax it to the edges being careful not to go over the outline.  This is quite a large cutter so I worked with two cookies at a time.

What fun Halloween treats will you be making this year? 


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