Michelle Darmody: monster cookies for your cookie monsters — and other Halloween treats
Halloween monster cookies
It's exactly a week to Halloween — and it will undoubtedly be a Halloween like no other. Many of the things we took for granted in other years will not be possible. The tradition of Halloween originated from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain: people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. Over the centuries this melded into an evening for dressing up and getting treats from your neighbours and friends.
Spending time over the next week baking some of these spooky treats might help to cheer little ones up. All of these recipes entail a bit of assembling, but this can be the fun part and you can use your imagination and adapt them in lots of different ways. Slivered almonds can be added to make pointy teeth and chocolate balls can be turned into spiders that sit happily in their icing cobwebs.
In most baking shops you can buy icing pens which are very handy for decorating. These are available on-line as well.
When making the brownie ghosts I usually cut out 36 small cubes, they are rich and dense so small ones work quite well. After removing the brownie from the tin I first cut it into nine pieces and then cut each of these into four.
- 150g soft butter
- 60g sugar
- 70g light muscovado sugar
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 225g plain flour, sieved
- 1/2 tsp bread soda, sieved
- 200g chocolate chips
- a red icing pen
- 24 round large white marshmallows and about 60 small ones
- 24 extra chocolate chips for the eyes
Preheat your oven to 190°Celsius and line two large flat baking trays with parchment.
Beat the butter with both of the sugars until light and fluffy. Slowly add in the egg.
Mix the sieved flour and bread soda well. Then add the flour, a third at a time, to the butter mixture until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Place 24 spoonfuls of the cookie mixture onto the prepared baking trays. Leave a little room for them to spread as they bake. Bake for 9 minutes until golden around the edges.
Once cool enough to handle place onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Pipe red icing on the base of two of your cookies. Sandwich about five of the mini marshmallows between the two cookies and allow to set until hard. Repeat until you have 12 sandwiches.
Stick the chocolate chips onto the base of the bigger marshmallows with a blob of icing and then stick these onto the cookie sandwiches as eyes.
- 225g soft butter
- 215g golden caster sugar
- 4 eggs, lightly beaten
- the zest of 1 lemon
- the zest of 1 orange
- 225g self-raising flour, sieved
- 25g soft butter
- 50g cream cheese
- 100g icing sugar
- a black icing pen
Preheat your oven to 180°Celsius and pop 12 bun cases into a bun tin.
Beat your butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Mix the zest into the eggs and slowly add the mixture to the butter and sugar. Use a spatula every now and then to make sure you combine the mixture from the edges of the bowl.
Add the flour, a third at a time, until combined.
Scoop the mixture into your bun cases and bake for 15 minutes until golden on top and risen slightly. Allow to cool on a wire rack.
To make the first layer of icing, beat the butter, cream cheese and the icing sugar until light and fluffy. Spread a circle of this icing onto the top of each cooled bun.
Draw a small circle in the centre of each bun with your icing pen, then another slightly larger circle and then one more until you have three concentric circles. Use a toothpick and pull it from the centre outwards to make the circles look like a cobweb.
- 250g dark chocolate chips
- 250g soft butter
- 4 eggs, lightly beaten
- 300g golden caster sugar
- 150g plain flour
to decorate:
- 100g white chocolate
- 2 tbs cream
- about 36 marshmallows
- a black icing pen
Preheat your oven to 180°Celsius and line a 9-inch square tin with parchment.
Melt the chocolate and butter together.
Beat the eggs, sugar and flour until combined and add in the melted chocolate mixture.
Pour the mixture into your prepared tin and bake for about 25 minutes until the top is shiny and cracking slightly. Allow to cool in the tin then cut into cubes. Place them onto a large flat baking tray lined with parchment.
Melt the white chocolate and cream together. Gently pour it over the brownie cubes and pop a marshmallow on top of each one. Draw a ghost's face onto each.
