Halloween Cookies

It’s that time of the year again: nights are drawing in, days are getting shorter and we are all craving for pumpkin, sweet potato and all those comforting and warm recipes. That means my favorite holiday of the year, Halloween, is right around the corner! I’m not a cold weather person but thinking about the recipes I’m going to prepare for the autumn-winter season and specially the Halloween ones makes me feel good. Cause I’m sure you’ll all agree with me on this: nothing feels better than enjoying some warm fresh-out-of-the-oven cookies, a pumpkin pound cake, a delicious homemade apple pie (and the list goes on!) when it’s chilly and rainy outside. I personally love to prepare a big bowl of popcorns and catch up on my favorite TV series (I’m so hooked on Once Upon a Time!).

Back to the Halloween subject, I love this holiday cause I let my imagination fly and try some funny and crazy new recipes. Even though it’s not as big and important as in the States, it’s such a great excuse to release my inner “Little Miss Spookiness” and cause some mischief. I’ve always had a soft spot for creepy, dark things…I mean, eerie and cute aren’t necessarily opposites (e.g. The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey).

I’ve had so much fun (well and some kitchen work too) this past weekend preparing this recipe, felt like a kid decorating the cookies and crafting.

The recipe is from the cookbook ‘Vegan Desserts, Sumptuous Sweets for Every Season’ by the sweet and talented Hannah Kaminsky. Honestly, it was hard to pick the first recipe to begin with this book cause they are all drool-worthy and very original. To make the choice a tad bit easier I went straight to the Autumn chapter and found the recipe for these Halloween Vegan Chocolate Cookies (Hannah’s original recipe is Black Cat Cookies). I made a few adaptations because I didn’t find black cocoa powder and also got some new cookie cutters so I baked different batches of coffins, angry cats and bats. These cookies are super chocolaty and intense, they will wow your guests and any chocolate lover like yours truly…so flavorful and yummy!

By the way, there will be another super special Halloween recipe this week so please, stay tuned! Can’t wait to share it with all of you!

…in the meantime, enjoy these cookies!

PS: this recipe makes enough cookies for a Halloween party (well, if you don’t invite the whole neighborhood) but the yield will depend on the size of the cookie cutters you use.

PS2: right after taping this recipe Blogger decided to suddenly delete ALL the text, so I had to do it all over again. UGH! I think I deserve some cookies and milk right now! ;-)

Receta en español aquí!

Halloween Chocolate Cookies

(Recipe adapted from ‘Vegan Desserts,Sumptuous Sweets for Every Season’ by Hannah Kaminsky)

Ingredients

1 cup vegan margarine.

1 ¼ cups granulated sugar.

2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour.

¾ cup plus 3 tbsp pure cocoa powder, unsweetened.

½ tsp fine sea salt.

½ tsp baking powder.

1/3 cup cold espresso coffee.

1 tsp vanilla extract.

Directions

In the bowl of your stand mixer (fitted with the hook attachment) cream together margarine and sugar until soft.

In a separate bowl, sift the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking powder. Stir by hand with the whisk to ensure all the dry ingredients are well combined. Add about half of these ingredients into the margarine mixture, process until fully incorporated. Pour in the cold espresso coffee and vanilla, add in the remaining flour mixture. Continue to mix until it forms a smooth homogeneous dough, it won’t take much time. Transfer the dough onto the kitchen counter and form a ball, flatten it out a bit, wrap in plastic, and chill for at least 1 hour before proceeding.

Right before rolling out the dough start heating your oven to 350ºF (180ºC).

Lightly dust your working surface with flour (or place a big piece of parchment paper) and roll out the dough to about 1/8 of an inch (around 3mm) in thickness. Use whatever Halloween cookie cutters you like to shape the cookies and place them on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

It was a very warm day when I baked these cookies so I had to roll out the dough between two parchment paper sheets to prevent dough from sticking to my rolling pin.

Bake for about 8-14 minutes, depending on the size. Watch your cooking time, these are dark chocolate cookies so it’s hard to see if the edges are brown or not. If the cookies are the same shape as mine (I used Wilton's Halloween cookie cutters) then you might need to bake them for 14 minutes (but not more than that!). Remember that, as they are cooling, cookies become harder.

Cool completely on a wire rack and store in an airtight container at room temperature.