Spider Web Chocolate Cookies
20 mins + cooling 
12 cookies 
It’s the time of the year for some spookalicious Spider Web Chocolate Cookies! Intensely chocolatey and using Food Thoughts Organic Cocoa Powder and our award winning Food Thoughts Chocolate Coated Cacao Nibs, these are perfect for any trick-or-treat. They are really easy to make, so along with the pumpkin carving, you can use it as another kitchen-based activity to entertain the kids (and feed the adults!). The Spider Web Chocolate Cookies decoration is deceptively easy to achieve and a fun way to get ready for Halloween. And they are very adaptable depending on your taste preferences – milk, white or dark chocolate chips can be used on their own or as a combination. Let us know which ones work best. Treak-or-treat?
Recipe created by cake designer Charlotte White of www.restorationcake.com
You will need
- 200g unsalted butter
- 1 large egg
- 200g golden caster sugar
- 50g Food Thoughts Organic Cocoa Powder
- 350g plain flour
- 50g Food Thoughts Chocolate Coated Cacao Nibs
- 150g Food Thoughts White Chocolate Chips
- 150g Food Thoughts Dark Chocolate Chips, or Pure Cacao Melts
Method
You will need a 7cm round cookie cutter baking sheet lined with baking parchment disposable piping bags cocktail stick.
Begin by creaming together the butter and sugar until smooth. I use the paddle attachment of a free-standing mixer for this, though an electric handwhisk or good old-fashioned elbow grease will also work.
Add the egg and beat until completely incorporated.
Add the cocoa powder, plain flour, and cacao nibs and beat until the mixture forms a ball of chocolatey dough.
Turn the dough out of the mixing bowl and wrap in clingfilm. Chill this in the fridge for 20 minutes to firm up. Preheat oven to 180⁰C / 350⁰F / Gas Mark 4.
Roll out the dough to 3-5mm thickness on a lightly floured work surface. Cut out 12 round cookies using a cookie cutter and place these on a lined baking sheet. Return the baking sheet to the fridge for a further 15 minutes. This chilling prevents the cookies from spreading out as they bake.
Bake in a preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies feel dry and set to the touch. Allow them to cool completely on the baking sheet before lifting away. If the cookies are under cooked on the underside, you can return them to the oven for a few minutes to bake a little more. Cookies are magic like that!
To decorate, melt the white chocolate chips in glass bowl in microwave in 30 seconds bursts. Check and stir after each 30 seconds and stop heating only when a few lumps remain as these will melt in the heat of the bowl. Spoon melted white chocolate on top of a cookie. Spread the covering out to a few millimetres away from the edge.
Melt as above the dark chocolate chips or the pure cacao melts, depending on your preference and spoon into disposable piping bags with a small hole cut into the end. Squeeze rings of these darker cacao melts onto the still wet white chocolate, starting with a small ring near the centre and working out towards the edges.
Drag a cocktail stick through the rings of melted chocolate from the centre towards the edge to create the spider web effect. Set the cookie aside to set completely and continue to decorate each cookie in this way.
