My kids favorite weekend activity is baking. We bake an variety of things, some healthy and some not healthy at all. And one of my favorite things to bake with the kids is sugar cookies – because we get to play with all the fun cookie cutters. And this year I got my hands on some Halloween cookie cutters, so that we could make some really cool Halloween Cookies 😀
I made the cookie with some activated coconut charcoal to get a spooky black bat cookies, and added candy eyes for the fun of it. Just to be completely clear about this – these cookies are not healthy nor are they intended to be. They are sugar cookies, with sugar, butter, and gluten. In terms of the sugar I used coconut sugar for these, mainly because I like the deeper flavor of the coconut sugar compared to beet sugar or cane sugar. Especially when no other flavors are added, like vanilla. However I noticed that I had to work quite a bit with the dough before the sugar was fully incorporated.
It is a relatively simple recipe, and I’m very pleased with how well they kept their shape. This is how you do it: Mix flour, activated charcoal and butter in a food processor until you have something resembling fine bread crumbs. You can do this by hand as well, it just requires some patience. Then mix in the sugar, before adding egg and syrup. Mix until a ball starts to form in you food processor. Take out the dough, and work it together till you have a uniform easy to work with dough. Put the dough in a bowl, cover and place it in the refrigerator to rest for about an hour.
After about an hour in the refrigerator take out the dough and let it sit for about 30 minutes at room temperature before you attempt to roll it out. You can then roll in out between two pieces of parchment paper or on a floured surface. Roll it out evenly to a thickness of about 2 mm, and use your favorite cookie cutters to make the shapes you want 🙂 For these I used the Halloween Shaped Cookie Cutters from Wilton.
The recipe makes about 3-4 plates depending on how closely you space them and thick you roll out the batter of course. I made them with the kids, and we used a bunch of the different Halloween Shaped Cookie Cutters from Wilton, with stamps which the kids really liked 🙂 A little tip though, coat the cutters with a little flour before using, that way the dough doesn’t get stuck. I think my favorites where the pumpkin, the cat and the bat…. and I for sure heavily favored the use of the bat 😉
Bake them at 180 °C (356 °F) in a preheated oven for about 8 minutes. Note baking time can vary depending on your oven, and the thickness of your cookies. Because of the black color it can be relatively difficult to see when they have had enough…. so you have to find your sixth sense for sugar cookies and just trust your gut. I generally prefer sugar cookie baked slightly too long than too short, which makes it a bit more forgiving in terms of hitting the right baking time.
Once baked, remove them from the oven, and let them cool down on a wire rack. If you want to decorate them, let them cool down completely before you start. I tend to not decorate mine, I feel like the cookie is more than sweet enough on its own without extra sugar on top 😉 However for these I wanted to give the bats some whimsical eyes……. Just because it is fun. I just used some simple candy eyes, which I glued on with a little white chocolate (you can also use royal icing as the glue).
PrintBlack Bat Halloween Cookies
- Prep Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 8 mins
- Total Time: 2 hours 8 minutes
- Yield: 3-4 plates 1x
- Category: cookies
- Method: baking
Description
Spooky Black Halloween Cookies using activated coconut charcoal for a natural black color. Easy sugar cookies to make with the kids 😀
Ingredients
- 275 g spelt flour (9.70 oz) + extra for rolling
- 125 g unsalted butter (4.41 oz)
- 125 g coconut sugar (oz)*
- 2–3 tsp of activated coconut charcoal*
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp syrup*
Extras: Halloween cookie cutters plus candy eyes and a little white chocolate or royal icing as glue.
Instructions
- Mix flour, activated charcoal and butter in a food processor until you have something resembling fine bread crumbs. You can do this by hand as well, it just requires some patience.
- Then mix in the sugar, before adding egg and syrup. Mix until a ball starts to form in you foodprocessor.
- Take out the dough, and work it together till you have a uniform easy to work with dough. Put the dough in a bowl, cover and place it in the refrigerator to rest for about an hour.
- After about an hour in the refrigerator take out the dough and let it sit for about 30 minutes at room temperature before you attempt to roll it out.
- You can then roll in out between two pieces of parchment paper or on a floured surface. Roll out the dough evenly to a thickness of about 2 mm, and use your favorite cookie cutters to make the shapes you want. For these I used the Halloween Shaped Cookie Cutters from Wilton. A little tip: coat the cookie cutters with a little flour, that way they don’t stick to the dough.
- Place your cookies on a baking tray fitted with a piece of parchment paper. The recipe makes about 3-4 plates depending on how closely you space them and how thick you roll out the batter of course.
- Bake them at 180 °C (356 °F) in a preheated oven for about 8 minutes. Note baking time can vary depending on your oven, and the thickness of your cookies. Because of the black color it can be relatively difficult to see when they have had enough…. so you have to find your sixth sense for sugar cookies and just trust your gut. I generally prefer sugar cookie baked slightly too long than too short, which makes it a bit more forgiving in terms of hitting the right baking time.
- Once baked, remove them from the oven, and let them cool down on a wire rack. If you want to decorate them, let them cool down completely before you start. I tend to not decorate mine, I feel like the cookie is more than sweet enough on its own without extra sugar on top. However for these I wanted to give the bats some whimsical eyes……. Just because it is fun. I just used some simple candy eyes, which I glued on with a little white chocolate (you can also use royal icing as the glue).
Notes
- I used coconut sugar for these, mainly because I like the deeper flavor of the coconut sugar compared to beet sugar or cane sugar. Especially when no other flavors are added, like vanilla. However I noticed that I had to work quite a bit with the dough before the sugar was fully incorporated.
- I used two tsp of activated charcoal for these cookies, the dough looks perfect, but they do loose a little of the black intensity when baked. I will add 3 tsp next time I bake them.
- For I used agave syrup, but you can use any syrup you like.
Leave a Reply