Bats Cats Chocolate Halloween Cookies Food

BAT AND CAT COOKIES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F. Make and cool cookies as directed.
• Remove 1/2 cup of frosting; tint remaining frosting with orange gel food color. Frost 8 cookies with white frosting. Frost 8 cookies with orange frosting. Place remaining orange frosting in food-storage plastic bag, and cut small hole in 1 corner.
• For bats, use white-frosted cookies. Place 1-inch spiral of string licorice in center of each cookie for body. Pipe wings on sides of body with orange frosting. For eyes, attach 2 green baking bits onto body of each with frosting; squeeze a dot of black decorating gel in middle of each eye. Place 2 miniature chocolate chips on each for ears.
• For cats, use orange-frosted cookies. Unroll and separate string licorice; place pieces of string licorice on cookies to look like ears and whiskers. Attach 2 green baking bits to each for eyes and 1 miniature chocolate chip for nose.

HALLOWEEN COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, and salt; set aside.
• In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy; beat in egg. On low speed, mix in flour mixture. Divide dough in half, and form into 2 disks, each about 3/4 inch thick. Wrap disks in plastic; chill until firm, at least 45 minutes and up to 2 days.
• On a lightly floured sheet of waxed paper, using a floured rolling pin, roll dough 1/2 inch thick. (If dough becomes too soft to work with, refrigerate for a few minutes.)
• Using 2- to 3-inch Halloween cookie cutters, cut out shapes, dipping cutters in flour as necessary to prevent sticking; place on a baking sheet, spacing them 1 inch apart.
• Bake until surface is dry to the touch, 10 to 15 minutes (if decorating, press candies into dough halfway through baking). Cool cookies 1 to 2 minutes on baking sheet; transfer to a rack to cool completely.