Monster cookie cups – a Halloween must have

Monster cookie cups – more googly than gruesome, these monster cookies are certainly the friendly cousins to their sinister Halloween relatives. How could you not fall in love with their darling little faces?

The deeply dark chocolate cookie base is perfect with the intense flavours of the ghoulish trifecta of blackberry jam, lemon and lime and orange marmalades. Purple, green and orange, you can’t go far wrong with these colours at this time of year.

The endearing little eyes, zest and Halloween sprinkles make everything come to life; making these a perfect playful treat to celebrate the season.

Monster cookie cups

Ingredients

160g plain flour

65g cocoa powder

100g caster sugar

150g softened butter

1 tbsp milk

1 ½ tsp coffee granules

½ tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp salt

Mix and match with 1 tsp of choice of fillings – blackberry jam, lime and orange marmalade

Sprinkles (for decoration)

Zest of one lime and ½ an orange for decoration

Makes approx. 15 cookie cups

Method for monster cookie cups

Measure out and sieve the dry ingredients (plain flour, cocoa powder and salt). The coffee granules won’t really go through the sieve, so they can be added afterwards.

Using a food mixer or an electric hand mixer, mix the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. This should take about 3 minutes.

Lower the mixer speed and add in the milk and vanilla. Mixing to combine into a smooth mixture.

Then gradually add the flour mixture. As soon as this is combined turn the mixer off, to prevent working the gluten in the flour too much.

Cover the soft dough and put in the fridge for 1-2 hours to firm up a little.

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.

Grease 2 shallow tart tins. (I used low fat cooking spray).

Take the cookie dough out of the fridge. Break off a ball of dough about 30g in size. Then press the balls of dough into the tin, pressing down around each tart shape, so the sides are fairly even.

Spoon in the jam or marmalade, about a teaspoon in each.  I made the same number of each flavour but you can mix and match how you like.

Bake for 18-20 mins. The biscuits will have set and the jam will be oozing and bubbly. (Don’t touch, it will be searingly hot.)

Almost immediately use a palette knife or dinner knife to loosen the cookies out from the tin and transfer to a wire rack to cool. Don’t wait too long to do this otherwise the cookies will set too much and it will be really hard to get them out.

Once the cookies have cooled a bit you can add the icing eyes, zest and sprinkles (and anything else you fancy) as decoration.

Tips

If you forget to leave your butter out to get to room temperature simply weigh out what you need and stick it in the microwave for 20 secs and that will soften it right up. Done.

Bake the cookies in the middle of the oven – if you put them too high, they will just brown too much before they are baked.

Try not to over-fill the cookie cups. Too much and the jam/marmalade will just ooze straight out.

Preheat a baking tray when you are heating the oven and put the tin straight on top when you bake. This will heat the bottom straight away and will help them cook more evenly.

Looking for other Halloween baking ideas? Try my Halloween cupcakes – matcha mash or Halloween splatter cookies or maybe even Devilishly dark chocolate liquorice truffles – perfect for Halloween they’re great for the grown ups.

On the look out for simple halloween decoration ideas? Take a look at house beautiful recommendations. Looking for kid friendly decorations? Hobbycraft have got some good ideas.