Halloween Cobweb Cookies

Method

Bite through the jet-black crumb of these Halloween cookies and you find a molten, pumpkin-orange centre of creamy White Chocolatey Hazelnut Spread, frozen and baked right inside. Favorich Black Alkalised Cocoa Powder gives the dough its gothic, Oreo-style colour, dark chocolate chunks run through every bite, and each cookie is finished with its own stretched-marshmallow cobweb — as much fun to decorate as they are to eat.

Ingredients

Cookie dough

450g Favorich Dark Chocolate Chunks (SCM348)
230g cold butter
160g soft light brown sugar
160g caster sugar
200g self-raising flour
300g plain flour
70g Favorich Black Alkalised Cocoa Powder (SCC9504)
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp baking powder
2½ beaten eggs

Orange filling

300g White Chocolatey Hazelnut Spread (SCM824)
Q.S. Roxy & Rich Orange Colouring Gel (SCR3218A)

To decorate

75g Pink and White Mini Marshmallows (SCM447)

Method

1. Colour the White Chocolatey hazelnut Spread with the orange gel, adding a few drops at a time and stirring well, until you reach a pumpkin orange. Fill ice cube trays with the spread and freeze until solid, at least 2 hours.
2. Mix the flours, black cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl.
3. Start by adding the cold butter to the bowl of a stand mixer, giving it a quick pulse with the paddle to loosen the butter, add the sugars and briefly stir until just combined, add the dark chocolate chunks and stir until just combined, add the dry ingredients and stir until it reaches a breadcrumb-like consistency, add the beaten eggs and stir until just combined.
4. Form the dough into rough balls weighing 80g each. Flatten each ball in your palm, sit a frozen orange filling portion in the middle, wrap the dough around it and pinch it closed so none of the filling shows. Freeze for at least 90 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to 165°C with a parchment-lined baking sheet inside.
6. Once the oven has come up to temperature, put the frozen dough balls at least 2 inches (5cm) apart on the preheated baking sheet. Bake for 17 minutes.

7. Leave the cookies to cool completely. 

   For the cobwebs, microwave a small handful of marshmallows in short 10-second bursts until just melted, then, with lightly greased hands, pinch off a little and stretch it between your fingers into fine strands, draping them back and forth over each cookie until it looks like a cobweb.