Bat and Cobweb Cookies
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Halloween 2004, October Holiday 2004
- Yield Makes about 30
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Ingredients
- 6 cups all-purpose flour (sifted, then measured), plus more for dusting
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup packed dark-brown sugar
- 4 teaspoons ground ginger
- 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups unsulfured molasses
- Royal Icing
Directions
- Sift flour, baking soda, and baking powder together into a large bowl; set aside.
- Put butter and sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; beat on medium-high speed until fluffy. Beat in ginger, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Beat in eggs and molasses. Reduce speed to low; beat in flour mixture.
- Divide dough into three equal pieces, and flatten into disks. Wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Print out the bat and cobweb templates found here, and cut them out. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out dough to 1/8 inch thick. Refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes. Using templates and a paring knife, cut dough into shapes. Transfer shapes to baking sheets and refrigerate 15 minutes.
- Bake until crisp but not darkened, 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool completely on wire racks. Decorate with royal icing.
Don't judge this recipe by the taste of the batter or the cookie before it is iced. They have an overpowering molasses taste initially but after baking and sitting for a day they mellow and are terrific. They also soften after a day, making them suitable for little mouths. The dough is wonderful to handle after chilling for a few hours. These will become a tradition for us!
I loved the strong flavour of these cookies. And so did all my guests. I am making them again this year.
The molasses flavour is way too strong in the dough, but after baking and waiting a day, the flavour mellows and the cookies taste much better. I think that 1.5 cups of molasses is way too much, and the dough is impossible to handle. I ended up adding more flour and chilling the dough for an extra hour. When I was rolling it out and cutting out the cookies, I could only work with a small amount at a time while leaving the rest in the fridge.
I just made these and their flavor is very strong. My son does not like the dough flavor at all. I will freeze it and pull it out for ginger bread house season.
Can anyone tell me if they actually made the cookies and how they tasted?
Here are the instructions for the technique:
http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/spiderweb-cookies
This maybe my "go to cookie" from now on!
to make the spider web you start in the center and make a spiral working from the center of the cookie on out towards the edges.Then take a tookpick and put it in the center of the cookie and draw it out towards each point. Then in between each point put the toothpick again at the edge and go towards the center..go luck they come out great!
Does it give instructions anywhere for decorating cob web cookies?
It takes a lot of black gel color to get a rich black. One way to achieve it easier and use less gel color is to add cocoa powder first and make your icing dark brown then add a few drops of the black gel color to get to the desired color faster.
You can purchase black food gel coloring. Michaels craft store actually carries the Wilton brand gel coloring in their "cake decorating" section. You can find the black color gel there. If you find and go to your local cake decorating supply store, they will also carry black gel coloring in different brands as well.
they have black food coloring paste
I am concerned about making the icing with the figures appearing on the picture. Can you explain how is it done? I notice the bat icing is dark... is that chocolatre?