Happy Halloween! I love fall and Halloween. I think it’s because I have great childhood memories driving though farm country in upstate New York. We’d buy fresh fall produce from the farm stands and make the annual trip to Kights giant pumpkin patch to pick out our giant pumpkin. By giant I mean giant, 30+ pounds and a foot and a half high! It’d take two people to get it into the back of our car. I also loved all of the fun decorations and of course Halloween costumes. I was very particular about my Halloween costumes, I wouldn’t just buy them from the store, they had to be original and look authentic. Lucky for me I had an amazingly talented grandmother who was a seamstress and for some reason catered to my elaborate childhood desires. This resulted in me having the coolest homemade Halloween costumes, from renaissance princesses to pioneer women to witches and wizards.
This year to get in the spirit I decided to go the route of cutouts. I felt that way I could express all of my creative decorating ideas through fun shapes and colorful frosting techniques. To make the recipe more festive and a little spooky I went chocolate! My cream cheese cutout recipe is already great so converting to chocolate seemed like a natural progression. To deepen the flavor profile I also added some espresso and cinnamon! These tasty treats are sure to go fast at your next holiday party even if it’s not Halloween. They’re even better with my peanut butter or chocolate icing!
Halloween Bats - Chocolate Cutouts
Ingredients
- Ingredients
- 1 Cup butter 2 sticks
- 1 8 oz package cream cheese
- 1 ½ Cup Sugar
- 1 Cup cocoa powder
- 2 ½ Cups flour
- 1 Teaspoon vanilla
- 1 Tablespoon espresso or instant coffee optional
- ½ Teaspoon cinnamon optional
- Peanut Butter Icing
- 1/4 Cup icing sugar
- 2 Tablespoons peanut butter powder
- 2 to 3 Tablespoons water as needed
- Chocolate Icing
- 1/4 Cup icing sugar
- 1 Tablespoon cocoa powder
- 1 to 2 Tablespoons water as needed
Instructions
- In a large bowl combine butter and cream cheese. Beat until well combined
- Next, add sugar, espresso, and cinnamon and beat until fluffy. Next, add egg & vanilla and beat well
- In a separate medium bowl stir together flour, cocoa and baking powder
- Add flour mixture to cream cheese mixture and beat until well mixed
- Cover the dough and chill in the refrigerator for around 1 ½ hours or until easy to handle
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees
- Lightly flour a work surface and roll out the dough to about a ⅛ th inch thickness. Be careful not to roll it out too thin or your cookies may be too fragile or burn.
- Cut your dough with desired cookie cutters and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. I prefer to line with a silpat or parchment paper to prevent sticking.
- Bake in a 375 degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until done. Be very careful as these cookies cook quickly and can easily burn if you’ve chosen a small cookie cutter. Err on the side of caution and take them out early!
- When finished remove from the oven and put them on cooling racks to cool and frost if desired!
