Bat Cookies made with black cocoa powder, a delicious Halloween treat for all ages. The shortbread cookies are buttery and melting in your mouth, and the deep black cocoa adds not only a spooky touch, but also a unique flavour. Decorate them with edible googly eyes for a more realist look, and everyone will love these treats!

Nothing like a spooky treat to get you in a Halloween-ish mood! And for us, the Halloween fun starts as soon as summer is officially over.
From decorating the house, to watching spooky and not-so-spooky movies, to baking some frightfully-good desserts, there is no stopping the Halloween vibes.
And these cute bat cookies are the perfect treat for all ages. Based on my Scottish shortbread biscuits, these Halloween cookies use black cocoa powder to get that rich deep black colour and some bat cookie cutters to get just the shape we need.
The edible googly eyes were just too cute not to use, although you can also leave the cookies without if you don't have any. Even simple they still look pretty impressive!
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Ingredients used

- flour - I used regular plain flour
- butter - for shortbreads I like to use salted butter, but unsalted will also work
- cornflour - it helps with the crumbly texture
- black cocoa powder - for the deep black colour
- sugar - I used granulated sugar, but caster sugar is also ok
- edible googly eyes and a bit of icing - for decorating, but they are optional, the biscuits will look great even without
Step-by-step photos and instructions
- add the butter and the sugar in a large mixing bowl, and use a hand mixer to cream them together until you get a pale yellow colour
- sift in the flour, cornflour and black cocoa powder
- use your hands to knead everything into a dough
- transfer the dough to the work surface and use a rolling pin to roll it to a 1 cm thickness (½ inch)
- use a bat cookie cutter to cut out bat shapes
- carefully transfer them to a non-stick baking tray - work in batches as necessary
- bake them in the preheated oven at 170 degrees Celsius (340 Fahrenheit, 150 fan oven) for 20 minutes
- remove them from the oven and leave them to cool down completely
- if you wish to decorate them, pipe out 2 dots of icing for the eyes, and stick the googly eyes on top

Expert tips
You only need to use a little bit of this black cocoa powder to get excellent results, do not be tempted to increase the amount use, as the cookies might turn out bitter.
Because of their peculiar dark colour, it is very hard to tell when the cookies are done, I wouldn't bake them for longer than 20 minutes to avoid them turning too crispy and overbaked.
The baking time also depends greatly on the size of the cookies - the smaller the cookie cutters, the less time they need in the oven.
The cookies will harden further once they cool down - it is best to leave them on the baking tray to cool down for 5-10 minutes before transferring them onto a cooling rack.
Other Halloween cookies

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Bat Cookies
Ingredients
- 250 g plain flour (2 cups)
- 125 g granulated sugar (1 cup)
- 225 g butter, soft ( 1cup)
- 75 g cornflour ( corn starch, ¾ cup)
- 25 g black cocoa powder (¼ cup)
- googly eyes and icing for decorating (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius (340 Fahrenheit, 150 fan oven).
- Add the sugar and butter to a large mixing bowl and use a hand mixer to cream them together until you get a pale yellow colour.
- Sift in the flour, cornflour and black cocoa powder, and use your hands to knead everything into a dough.
- Transfer the dough to the work surface and use a rolling pin to roll the dough to a 1 cm thickness (½ inch).
- Use a bat cookie cutter to cut out bat shapes.
- Carefully transfer them to a baking tray working in batches ( I used 4 baking trays) and bake them for 20 minutes.
- Remove them from the heat and leave them to cool on the trays for 5-10 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool down completely.
- If you wish to decorate them, pipe out 2 dots of icing and stick 2 googly eyes on top.
Video
Notes
- You only need to use a little bit of this black cocoa powder to get excellent results, do not be tempted to increase the amount use, as the cookies might turn out bitter.
- Because of their peculiar dark colour, it is very hard to tell when the cookies are done, I wouldn't bake them for longer than 20 minutes to avoid them turning too crispy and overbaked.
- The baking time also depends greatly on the size of the cookies - the smaller the cookie cutters, the less time they need in the oven.
- The cookies will harden further once they cool down - it is best to leave them on the baking tray to cool down for 5-10 minutes before transferring them onto a cooling rack.
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