Halloween Cookies

So, today I'm offering up a special Halloween treat - Skeleton Cookies!

Cute, right? To make them, I started with a recipe that I found here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/best-ever-chocolate-cutout-cookies/ it sounded really tasty, and though I was worried working with an unknown, I gave it a try.

The batter was a really thick, rich texture and flavor. See how it looked: 

OK, so it might look like something else in the photo :^)...believe me when I tell you that even raw, the flavor was amazing!

Next, I rolled out the dough. I saw a suggestion online for using the cocoa powder instead of flour, and it worked great. Following that, I cut out my little men. I used the special cookie cutter and press from ThinkGeek.com (link here: http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/e9de/).

My cocoa powder and Gingerdead Men cutout (of course, mine were chocolate!)

The little men are ready for transport

I will admit that this dough was a little brittle. I had to be very careful while transporting it to the cookie sheet. Still, I managed to complete the task with little frustration or ruin.

Ready for the oven...

The cookies did not need to bake long (about the 7-8 minutes that I use for my traditional cutout sugar cookies). I'll also note that the recipe didn't make that many cookies with the size cutout that I used (it was about 15 cookies total). It'd probably be great for smaller cookies, but for bigger cutouts, you'll need to at least double the recipe (unless you're only feeding a few).

After baking and cooling, I decorated. This isn't too difficult because of the bones being pressed in, i.e., you basically just fill them in - The cookie cutter manufacturer recommends royal icing, but I went against professionals advice and chose white chocolate. 

Using chocolate is not an easy task, you'll need to melt it slowly, being sure not to over cook it. I was also careful to melt only a little at a time since the chocolate will re-harden after a while. 

In the end, all the hard work was definitely worth it. The cookies came out spookerific. Oh, and they tasted great too!

  

Happy Halloween!