Creepy, Crawly Chocolate Chip Cookies #HalloweenEats

 

I love Halloween. I really do. I especially enjoy creating foods that look creepy. 

Forget heart-shaped and red foods for Valentines' Day, though I do those, too; I have the most fun creating things such as a Creepy Eyeball Martini and Cobweb Eggs!

So when I saw a friend post a photo of a chocolate chip cookie with the melted chocolate dragged out to look like spider legs, I knew I had to make them. They didn't end up being as easy as I thought. Maybe it's the kind of chocolate chips that I had, but they didn't melt into an oozy chocolate mess. I had to melt chocolate separately and draw on the legs with a toothpick. Still, they were worth the effort for a creepy, crawly chocolate chip cookie.

You can use your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. This is just one of many that I make. This one ends up being more crisp and a little bit more flat than my salted olive oil chocolate chip cookies. Have fun!

Ingredients 

makes approximately two dozen 3-inch cookies

• ½ cup organic granulated sugar
• ½ cup organic granulated sugar, lightly packed
• ½ cup butter, room temperature
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste (you can use extract if you don't have paste)
• 1 ¼ cups flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ cup semisweet chocolate chips, plus more for topping and melting
• ½ cup bittersweet chocolate chips*
• Also needed: baking sheet, parchment paper, toothpicks, cookie scoop (I use an 1½-inch scoop)

*You can use 1 cup of whichever chocolate chips you prefer. I like mixing the semisweet and bittersweet for a less sweet cookie.

Procedure

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugars until lightened and fluffy.

Beat in the egg and vanilla. Then mix in the flour and baking soda. Once it's a uniform texture, fold in the chocolate chips until evenly distributed throughout the dough.

Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes. While the dough chills, preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Scoop the dough onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Leave at least 2 inches between the cookies as they will spread. Press at least one chocolate chip into the cookie so that you'll have at a spider on the top otherwise the chips might all be enclosed inside.

Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, or until the edges have started to brown.

Remove sheet from the oven. And, if you can, carefully drag a toothpick through the chocolate chip on the top to create the spider. If, like my chips, they aren't molten enough to do that, melt some chocolate chips separately and draw the legs on the cookie with a toothpick.

Serve when cool enough to touch. Enjoy!