Halloween sandwich cookies
Halloween sandwich cookies. These cheeky monsters are more cute than creepy but with their bright colours and googly eyes are perfect for a spooky treat. Rich dark chocolate biscuits sandwiched with buttercream. A simple biscuit to make but a gorgeous little show stopper for a party. These are fab to make ahead too; just make the biscuits a few days before you need them and fill them on the day. Sorted. Beyond happy with these fellas. They taste great but they look so bloomin’ good I *almost* couldn’t eat them. Almost.
Halloween sandwich cookies
Recipe
100g unsalted butter
70 ml golden syrup
1 tbsp milk
125g caster sugar
150g plain flour
50g cocoa powder (my favourite is Dr Oetker)
½ tsp salt
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp coffee powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda
Demerera sugar (or icing sugar to coat the cookies in before baking)
Buttercream for Halloween sandwich cookies
150g unsalted butter
300g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
Choice of food colouring (I used purple, orange and green)
Monster googly eyes
Makes 12 sandwich cookies
Method
Over a low heat, gently melt the butter and golden syrup together in a small pan. Once everything is combined turn it off the heat and transfer into a bowl so that it can cool quickly.
Add the milk and vanilla extract to the butter and golden syrup mixture then leave to one side while you make the rest of the biscuits.
Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, coffee powder and cinnamon together in a bowl with the salt.
Then add the caster sugar to the flour mix.
Make a well in the centre and add the egg yolk. By this time the butter should be cool enough to add into the main mix. (You want this to be cool because if the butter was too hot it could scramble the egg yolk; not the type of scary treat we were going for here.)
Pour in the wet ingredients and stir to combine.
Cover the biscuit dough and pop in the fridge for at least 30 minutes (if I have time I leave it an hour) before rolling.
Rolling the biscuit dough
Preheat the oven to 170c.
To make the biscuits an even size, I like to measure them into 15g balls.
Line two baking trays with baking paper.
Roll the biscuits and either coat them in demerara sugar or icing sugar and then place on the tray.
Leave a few inches between each cookie, because they spread a bit in the oven.
Once the biscuits have cooked, which takes about 15 minutes, take them out of the oven and let them cool completely on the tray. Then if you’re making them ahead, store in an airtight container. If not, start to make the buttercream icing.
Let’s make the buttercream
Add softened butter to a bowl and with a hand held mixer, beat the butter for a bit until it is smooth. Then add the sifted icing sugar gradually.
Once the butter and sugar are all mixed together add the vanilla and the salt and mix again quickly to combine.
Divide the buttercream into 3 bowls and colour with your chosen food colouring. (I love using Pro Gel by Rainbow Dust, this gel is brilliant.) Or if you prefer you can leave the icing as it is.
Take a spoonful or so of the icing and sandwich onto one biscuit and then top with another.
Take two googly monster eyes and add them to the middle of each sandwich cookie.
The sandwich biscuits will last about 3 days in an airtight container and then buttercream will soften the biscuits a little as they sit. So if you want crisp biscuits, sandwich them just before you want to serve them.
Looking for other spooky simple recipes? Try our White chocolate Halloween fudge, Halloween cupcakes – matcha mash or Devilishly dark chocolate liquorice truffles – perfect for Halloween