Foodstirs Cocoa & White Chocolate Cobweb Cookies
Halloween is coming and Pinterest tells me it's officially time to deck the halls in cobwebs.
But I prefer to do my decorating in the kitchen. With frosting.
That's where Foodstirs can help.
As I mentioned in a previous post, Foodstirs does fantastic baking kits for the whole family, made from organic ingredients and whole grain goodness. So you can focus on having a spooky good time in the kitchen without worrying about the artificial flavors, colorings, and other unhealthy additives you'll find in most grocery store baking mixes. Best of all, Foodstirs focuses on simple, easy to follow recipes that take you to from start to finish in six steps or less. That means even recipes like these fancy cobweb cookies can be fun for the whole family.
These cookies began as a Foodstirs sugar cookie mix, accompanied by their organic vanilla frosting. I made some small adjustments, including adding cocoa and some extra butter to the sugar cookies.
One of the things I adore about Foodstirs mixes is the whole wheat flour. It's finely ground, so it doesn't interrupt the consistency of a soft cookie, but the extra nuttiness adds complexity to the flavor.
Rolling these out is the best part. Lots of little hands make for light work. Or less cookie dough. Probably both.
Our family prefers soft sugar cookies, so I under baked these a bit and let them stiffen up on the cookie sheet before removing them to the rack to cool. In general, if you want a softer, chewier cookie, it's best to stay on the shorter side of the recommended bake time for most recipes.
Next we'll whip up some white chocolate frosting from Foodstirs organic mix. Instead of yogurt, I added a decadent melted white chocolate and some meringue powder. Then I followed instructions for making royal icing. This is an important component of this recipe because the frosting needs to be loose enough to swirl but then stiffen up and hold pattern later. A traditional buttercream just won't cut it.
You won't believe me until I show you, but the decorating part is so simple, my four year old could do it. And she did.
You simply take a small amount of frosting and tint it black. Put it in a piping bag or Ziploc with a very small tip. Frost your cookie in white, then add a spiraling circle of black. Drag a toothpick from center to edge several times at irregular intervals That's it. See. Spooky simple.
Mix up a little magic this holiday with a kit from Foodstirs. You might finally find that having your kids in the kitchen is a real treat.
Until next time, friends, keep it sweet and simple and don't let baking scare you.
Cocoa & White Chocolate Cobweb Cookies
For the cookies:
Foodstirs Organic Sweet Tooth Sugar Cookie Mix
1 egg
1/2 cup cocoa
16 Tbsp. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold (cubed)
For the frosting:
Foodstirs Organic Vanilla Frosting Mix
3 Tbsp. butter, cold
4 oz. white chocolate, melted
2 Tbsp. meringue powder
1 Tbsp. water
Directions (Cocoa Cookies):
1: In mixing bowl, beat 16 Tbsp. butter on low speed until creamy, then blend in egg.
2: Toss Foodstirs Organic Sweet tooth Sugar Cookie Mix with 1/2 cup coca, then add slowly to butter and egg mixture, blending until incorporated.
3: Gather dough into a ball, flatten into disc, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze until dough is firm. (20 min.)
4: Preheat oven to 350. Remove dough from freezer and roll out about 1/4 inch thick. Cut out circles with 2 inch cookie cutter and place on ungreased cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.
5: Bake 12 minutes or until tops just begin to show signs of cracking. Cool for five minutes on cookie sheet, then remove to wire rack. Cool completely before decorating.
Directions (White Chocolate Royal Icing):
1: Mix meringue powder with 1 Tbsp. water.
2: In mixing bowl, beat cold butter until creamy, then add frosting mix. Blend well.
3: Drizzle in white chocolate, then slowly add moistened meringue powder.
4: Whip until stiff peaks form, 7-10 minutes.
5: Remove 1/4-1/3 cup frosting and tint with black food coloring. Deposit into piping bag or Ziploc with fine tip.
To Decorate:
Frost each cooled cocoa cookie with white royal icing. Pipe a spiral beginning at the center of the cookie and ending at the edge. Quickly, before it hardens, take toothpick and draw it through the icing from the center of the spiral to the outer edge. Do this at irregular intervals around the cookie until you have something that resembles a spider web. Sit back and marvel at your ingenuity.