Kids will love to help make and decorate these spooky Halloween treats!
- 1¾ cups Pamela's All-Purpose Flour Artisan Blend
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ cup powdered sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup butter*, shortening or butter substitute
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 egg*, large or egg replacer equivalent
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ¼ tsp almond extract (optional)
- *recommended for best results
- 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- 3-4 tablespoons whole milk
- 1 ½ tablespoons raw honey
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract (use clear vanilla extract if you need the icing to be bright white
- 3” or 4” web shape cookie cutters or stiff paper for a cut out stencil
- #1 and 2 icing decorating tips (or #2 & 3 for bolder lines as seen in our photos)
- small pastry bags, disposable decorating bags or frosting pens
- black food coloring
Yield: approx. 12 large or 18 medium sized cookies
TO MAKE COOKIES: In a medium bowl whisk together the first four dry ingredients, and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter until soft, add sugar, and beat until light and fluffy. Add egg, vanilla, and extract, and mix until well combined. Add dry ingredients and mix on low until the dough is completely mixed, scraping down the dough as needed.
TO ROLL AND CUT THE DOUGH: Divide dough in half. Roll each piece of dough between two sheets of parchment to approximately ¼” thick. Place dough with parchment on cookie sheets and chill until firm. If you do not have a web-shaped cookie cutter, you can draw a web shape on stiff paper, cut it out with scissors, lay it on the dough, and cut it around with a sharp paring knife. Cut out web shapes, re-rolling scrap dough and chilling as needed.
Preheat oven to 350° with rack in top third of the oven. Bake for 13 to 17 minutes, until the cookies are starting to turn a golden color on the edges. Cookies should be crisp so they will hold up to being decorated.
TO DECORATE THE COOKIES: Stir together the sugar, 3 tablespoons milk, honey, and vanilla in a medium-sized bowl until combined. If icing is too thick, add the remaining tablespoon of milk, until the icing is thick but pipeable. If it's too thin, add a little more powdered sugar until the desired texture is reached. If you drizzle a little of the icing with a whisk, the ribbon of icing will hold for a few seconds before melting back into the icing. That is when you know it’s the right consistency and is ready to use.
Fill a pastry bag with about 3/4 of a batch of white frosting. Color the rest of the frosting black and set aside.
Use a small piping tip (either a #1 or #2 size) with the white frosting to outline the web shape around the outside of the cookie and allow to dry. After piping the white outline, change the tip on the white frosting bag to a larger tip. Fill in the web shape with white, using a back-and-forth motion, but don’t fill with too much frosting, as the frosting will spread and you can use a toothpick to move it around and fill in any empty spaces. If bubbles form, poke with a toothpick and they will disappear.
Fill another pastry bag or frosting pen with the black frosting and put on the smallest piping tip. Starting almost in the middle, make a thin spiral around and around the cookie until you get to the white edge.
Use a toothpick to pull the web from the middle to the points of the cookie, repeating the process all the way around the cookie.
Work on three or four cookies at a time and set aside to dry while working on the rest of the cookies.
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