Hell of a Halloween Time

Tired of all things Halloween? Bear with me, this is my last post to the run up of the eve of Halloween!

I baked these cookie using the Chocolate Cookie recipe by Toba Garrett, "Creative Cookie". Toba Garrett is one of those wonderful Manhatten pastry chefs whose cakes and cookies are well sought by the rich and famous. Well, who else could afford to pay US$15 for a 3" monogram cookie?

ME? No thanks, I will take the book.

I first saw this recipe in the book but took no heed until my gregarious course mate Freda raved about the recipe she got in the previous class. So when I received her email, I went "orhhhh..." Next, I got down to make the dough. She told me she refrigerate it overnight so that the cookie will maintain it's shape better - Thanks pal, it did as you could see from my cookies.




I used to think that the baking powder or soda will distort the cookie but went ahead to add it. A leap of faith, you can say. I wasn't disappointed. The cookie turned out well. Another advice Freda gave was to add choc chips - surprise for the kids. Hers loved it, and well, you see Bevis did!



Chocolate Cookie
1 c (230g) unsalted butter
2/3 c (150g) granulated sugar - I used 1/3 cup
1/3 c (75g) dark brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1 tbsp extra strong coffee or 1 tbsp choc liqueur - I used Kahlua
1/3 c (35g) dutch processed cocoa powder
3 c (336g) ap flour
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt

1. Cream the butter and sugar together, add the egg and vanilla and blend well.


2. Add the powdered ingredients and blend into the butter mixture a bit at a time, blending well after each addition.


3. Divide the finished dough into two balls, and wrap one ball in plastic until ready to use.


4. Roll out the other ball on a floured surface to 1/4 inch. Cut out cookies using a knife or cookie cutter and remove cookies with a spatula to an ungreased, non-stick cookie sheet.


5. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, taking care not to let the cookies brown. Jezzzz, i was stunned by this, the cookie IS brown!

Although the original recipe calls for use of a mixer, I made the dough by hand with a wooden spoon and was easy. As I mixed dough, I was caught eating the dough. Really aromatic and I bet you would be chomping away too! So pls stop that smirk now... *pout*

Royal Icing
500g confectioner's sugar
3 tablespoons of powdered egg white
5-6 tbsp of warm water

1. Beat them together, adding water very slowly, tablespoon by tablespoon until you have a fairly thick, pipable icing.
2. Divide the white icing into separate smaller bowls before adding colour paste. Pls check that you had the icing colours. The last round, I unknowningly bought the candy colours and was wondering why my icing melted to be unpipe-able. It was flowing out of my tip2 even without any pressure. Only much later that I realised that the candy colour is oil-based, which will break down the royal icing. Well, another lesson learnt!
   
3. Fit a pastry bag with a #3 tip, fill with the icing and have a little fun.

My plain dark Bat - work in progress:



A simple outline adds some liveliness:



Pumpkin. J said the H'ween pumpkin should have a evil face... I will do it next round.


Ghost. Bevis' avourite cos he could use his edible food marker to scribble his name on the cookie. This is like his canvas, when done, he'll eat up the mess.

Additional Icing Tips:

• When mixing the colours, pls make sure you mix enough icing for your cookie cos it would be very difficult to achieve the same colour subsequently.
• Also, cover your icing with an airtight lid when not in use. Remember it dries up fast!