Best 4 Spooky Cookie Cottage Recipes

HAUNTED-HOUSE CHOCOLATE COOKIES

Steps:

• Make the cookies: Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Beat in whole egg, yolk, and vanilla. Reduce speed to low, and add flour mixture in three additions. Shape dough into 2 disks, wrap each in plastic, and refrigerate until cold and firm, about 2 hours (or up to 1 day).
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Remove 1 disk of dough from refrigerator, and let stand until room temperature. Lightly dust two large sheets of parchment with cocoa powder, and roll out disk of dough between sheets to a 1/4-inch thickness. Transfer to a baking sheet, and freeze until very firm, about 15 minutes. Remove top parchment sheet, and place haunted-house template on dough. Using a craft knife, cut out house. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet, and freeze until firm, about 15 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough and templates.
• Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until firm, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer parchment with cookies to wire racks, and let cool completely.
• Decorate the cookies: Place a large sheet of parchment on a baking sheet, and lightly butter parchment. Transfer cookie house and doors to parchment.
• For the windows, prepare an ice-water bath. Combine 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves. Continue to cook, washing down sides of pan with a wet pastry brush, until syrup comes to a boil. Boil, swirling pan occasionally, until syrup turns medium amber. Immediately remove from heat, and place pan in ice bath. Working quickly, carefully pour some caramel into haunted-house windows, doorway, and door windows, filling each flush with top of cookie. Let stand until cool and hardened.
• For the roof, fill a pastry bag fitted with a 1/4-inch plain tip (#802) with melted bittersweet chocolate. Starting at base of roof, pipe 1 line of chocolate along entire edge, then press shelled sunflower seeds into chocolate in a straight row, pointed edges down. Repeat with chocolate and remaining seeds, "tiling" both roofs, and slightly overlapping rows of seeds.
• Decorate the windows and doors: Cut remaining licorice laces to match dimensions of windows. Halve each lace lengthwise. Pipe thin lines of melted chocolate along window panes. Press licorice into chocolate. Pipe a thin line of chocolate over doorway, and press 4 shelled sunflower seeds into chocolate, centering the unshelled seed in middle. Let set.
• Make the chimney and spires: Cut 1 licorice lace diagonally into 1-inch pieces. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a fine plain tip (#1) with royal icing. Carefully flip house over. Make a vertical 1/2-inch cut in bottom half of licorice twist, then cut off 1 flap; insert a piece of licorice lace into top hole of licorice twist. Pipe a 1/2-inch-long vertical line of icing just below edge of top roof, and press flat end of licorice twist against house into icing. Pipe a horizontal line of icing just below top edge of lower roof. Press 1 end of each halved licorice lace into icing to form a row of spires. Let stand until set, about 10 minutes.
• Assemble the cookie house: Using a small offset spatula, spread a thick line of royal icing along the long, straight edge of haunted-house triangle stand. Gently press triangle against back of haunted-house cookie on left-hand side, supporting cookie between two large cans. Repeat with second triangle on right-hand side, and let stand until icing is set, about 30 minutes. Cookie house will keep at room temperature up to 1 week.
• Make the windows and doors: Cut remaining licorice laces to match dimensions of windows. Halve each lace lengthwise. Pipe thin lines of chocolate along window panes. Press licorice into chocolate. Pipe a thin line of chocolate over doorway, and press 4 shelled sunflower seeds into chocolate, centering the unshelled seed in middle. Let stand until set.
• Using a small offset spatula, spread a thick line of royal icing along long, straight edge of haunted-house triangle stand. Gently press triangle against back of haunted-house cookie on left-hand side, supporting cookie between 2 large cans. Repeat with second triangle on right-hand side, and let stand until icing is set, about 30 minutes. (Cookie will keep at room temperature for up to 1 week.)

SIMPLY "SPOOKY" GHOST COOKIES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 375°F. In medium bowl, stir cookie mix, flour, oil, water and egg until soft dough forms.
• On lightly floured surface, roll dough about 1/4 inch thick. Cut with 3- x 2 1/2-inch ghost-shaped cookie cutter. Pinch one end of straw to make oval shape. With oval end of straw, cut out eyes in ghost cookies. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
• Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until light golden brown around edges. Cool 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
• In small microwavable bowl, microwave frosting uncovered on High 15 seconds or until frosting can be stirred smooth. Frost cookies with frosting as shown in photo. Before frosting sets up, remove frosting from the eye area with toothpick.

CREEPY COOKIE CAKE

Steps:

• Combine softened cream cheese and sugar in mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until creamy. Add sour cream and vanilla, beat until well combined. Stir in cool whip and crushed cookies. Spoon mixture into pie crust using a rubber spatula to spread evenly. Refrigerate for 4 to 5 hours before serving.
• To decorate: Through a fine sifter, heavily sprinkle cocoa powder over the cake to make it look like dirt in a graveyard.
• To make tombstone cookies scrape the cream filling out of chocolate cookies. Cut off ends of cookies so as to make a rectangular shape.
• Using royal icing in a piping bag, pipe spooky decorations and words on the tombstone cookies. Examples: BOO, RIP.

SCARY PEANUT BUTTER SPIDER COOKIES

Steps:

• Position oven racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Separate the chocolate candy balls into larger and smaller balls. The larger balls will make up the spider bodies and the smaller balls the heads.
• Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Cream the sugar and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the vanilla and egg and mix until thoroughly combined, about 1 minute. Add the peanut butter and mix until creamy, about 1 minute. Turn the mixer speed down to low and add half of the flour mixture. Beat on medium until incorporated, then turn the speed down to low again and add the rest of the flour mixture. Beat on medium until incorporated.
• Roll the dough by hand into 1-inch balls, place about 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets and bake, rotating the pans halfway through, until the cookies are light golden brown and have spread to about 2 inches wide, about 16 minutes. The cookies are done when they smell very peanut buttery and the tops feel dry and slightly firm when pressed with fingers.
• Meanwhile, melt the chocolate over a double boiler. Remove from the heat and let cool briefly so that it is slightly thickened but still pipe-able.
• When the cookies are done, remove them from the oven and transfer them to a cooling rack. Immediately push 2 chocolate candies directly into each hot cookie, putting a smaller chocolate ball toward the edge of the cookie and a larger chocolate ball directly behind it in the center of the cookie.
• When the melted chocolate has thickened slightly, put it into a plastic bag and cut a small hole in the corner to create a piping bag. Pipe 8 legs on each cookie, starting from the point where the 2 chocolate candies meet. Pipe the front 4 legs so that they curve up toward the head and the back 4 legs so that they curve backward beyond the body. Reserve the remaining chocolate in the piping bag for the pupils of the eyes.
• To make eyes, pipe two 1/4-inch circles on the "heads" of each spider with the cake decorating gel. Pipe a tiny dot of the reserved melted chocolate in the center of each to make the pupils.