Bat Cookies

5 from 1 vote

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!

Prep Time10

Cook Time40

Cooling Time30

Total Time1 20

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: International

Servings: cookies

Calories: 152kcal

Author: Daniela Apostol

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.

Nutrition