Eww, How Delicious! Halloween Cookies with Cockroaches

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Are you looking for easy Halloween cookies that look really spooky and are great fun to bake with kids? Then our Halloween cookies with cockroaches are just what you need! On top of crispy butter cookies sit surprisingly realistic little creepy-crawlies made from dates and chocolate. A fun Halloween recipe for kids that is guaranteed to cause some surprised faces at any Halloween party.

Eww! What's crawling on our cookies?

Only two weeks left until Halloween, and my Minis and I are already busy preparing the spookiest treats for our Halloween party. Every year, we come up with a delightfully spooky treat for our Halloween party. (Here you can find our Halloween cake highlights from previous years.)

This year, however, things are going to get a little more disgusting on our cookie plate. Instead of cute pumpkins or friendly ghosts, we're serving Halloween cookies with cockroaches!

Yes, you read that right: cockroaches! Not real ones, of course. Our little creepy-crawlies are made from sweet dates and melted chocolate. Together with crispy, homemade butter cookies, they become truly spooky Halloween cookies.

The best part? The cookies are much easier to make than they look. And your Minis can help with almost every step. So, aprons on, mixing bowls out, and let's get started with our spookily delicious Halloween recipe!

Why Our Halloween Cookies with Cockroaches Are So Brilliant

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best.

For our cockroach cookies, you don't need any special Halloween cookie cutters, elaborate fondant figures or special baking skills. The base is a very simple butter cookie dough. The little cockroaches are then made from halved dates, which are attached to the cookies with chocolate. Using a piping bag, we add the head, antennae and six little legs. And suddenly, there are lots of cockroaches crawling all over our cookie plate!

What I particularly love about this recipe is that the Minis can get really creative when decorating. After all, not every cockroach has to look the same. One gets particularly long antennae, another has very crooked legs. And if a cockroach ends up looking more like a spider? Then it's simply an especially spooky Halloween monster.

Recipe for Halloween Cookies with Cockroaches

 

Ingredients for Halloween Cookies with Cockroaches

Dough for approx. 25–30 Halloween Cookies

• 250 g all-purpose flour
• 125 g cold butter
• 125 g sugar
• 1 packet of vanilla sugar (15g)
• 1 egg (size M)

Decoration

• 13–15 dates
• 50 g chocolate (we used milk chocolate couverture)

Mini-Tip Use soft, pitted dates if possible. They are easy to cut in half and have a lovely oval shape that works perfectly for our little cockroaches.

Baking accessories

Mixing bowl, kitchen scales, plastic wrap, round cookie cutter* or glass for cutting out cookies (diameter 6–8 cm), rolling pin*, baking tray lined with parchment paper, cooling rack, cutting board and knife, saucepan with a chocolate-melting bowl*, disposable piping bag*

How to Make Halloween Cookies with Cockroaches

• Weigh all the ingredients and place them in a mixing bowl. Knead the ingredients with your hands until you have a smooth dough.
• Shape the finished dough into a flat disc, wrap it in plastic wrap or place it in an airtight container, and refrigerate it for at least one hour. Why is this important? Chilling allows the butter in the dough to firm up again. This makes the cookie dough easier to roll out later and helps the Halloween cookies keep their round shape during baking.
• After the chilling time, take the cookie dough out of the refrigerator and preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F, conventional heat (top and bottom heat).
• Dust your work surface with a little flour and roll out the cookie dough to a thickness of approximately 5 mm. Now your Minis can use a round cookie cutter or a glass to cut out circles for the Halloween cookies and place them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.

Mini-Tip If the dough has become very soft while rolling and cutting it out, you can chill the tray with the cut-out cookies again for about 10–15 minutes. This will help prevent the cookies from spreading too much during baking.

• Bake the Halloween cookies in the preheated oven for 10–11 minutes. The edges should turn slightly golden, but the cookies shouldn't become too dark. Don't be surprised if they are still a little soft immediately after baking. That's completely normal for butter cookies!
• Leave the cookies to cool on the baking tray for 2 minutes, then carefully transfer them to a cooling rack and allow them to cool completely.
• While the cookies are cooling, melt the chocolate over a water bath. Make sure no water gets into the chocolate.
• Cut the dates in half with a knife and remove the pits. Each date makes two cockroach bodies.
• Transfer the melted chocolate to a disposable piping bag and use the chocolate to attach the date halves to the center of the cooled round cookies.

Mini-Tip The smaller the opening, the easier it will be to draw the thin legs and antennae of our cockroaches later.

• Now use the chocolate to pipe a head with two antennae and six legs onto each date body.

And our spooky-looking Halloween cookies with cockroaches are ready! Eww, how delicious!

Preparation in pictures

The 5 Best Tips to Prevent Halloween Cut-Out Cookies from Spreading

Does this sound familiar? You've cut out beautiful cookies with your Minis, put them in the oven, and suddenly those lovely shapes turn into shapeless blobs of dough. To prevent this from happening, I've put together our best tips for successful cut-out cookies.

1. Use Cold Butter

For our butter cookie dough, we use cold butter. The butter shouldn't be melted, as very soft dough can spread more easily during baking. It's best to cut the cold butter into small cubes. This makes it easier to knead together with the other ingredients.

2. Chill the Cookie Dough Long Enough

After kneading, the dough should rest in the refrigerator for at least one hour. This allows the fat to firm up again and makes the dough easier to work with.

3. Chill the Cut-Out Cookies Again

Especially when baking with kids, the dough often becomes soft quite quickly because of their warm hands. If your Minis have spent a particularly long time kneading or cutting out cookies, simply chill the cut-out cookies again for 10–15 minutes before baking.

4. Preheat the Oven Completely

Only put your Halloween cookies into the oven once it has reached the desired temperature. This way, the cookies start baking under more consistent conditions, and the fat doesn't melt before the egg-and-flour mixture begins to set.

5. Skip the Baking Powder for Cut-Out Cookies

That Hold Their Shape Our butter cookie dough deliberately contains no baking powder. After all, we don't want to bake particularly airy cookies that rise a lot, but rather evenly shaped round cookies with plenty of room for our cockroaches later.

Extra Tip: Roll out the dough as evenly as possible so that all the cookies are approximately the same thickness and need a similar amount of baking time.

Baking Halloween Cookies with Kids – These Are the Tasks Your Minis Can Help With

I think Halloween recipes are particularly lovely for baking with kids. Why? Because the Minis don't just get to help with the dough, but can also get really creative with the decorations.

With our cockroach cookies, there are lots of little tasks that can easily be shared out:

Younger Minis can add ingredients to the mixing bowl, knead the dough with their hands, cut out round cookies and place the date halves on the cookies.

Older Minis can also weigh the ingredients independently, roll out the dough and use a piping bag to draw the cockroach legs and antennae.

Adults should take over or provide appropriate assistance when cutting the dates, melting the chocolate and working with the hot oven.

And of course, no cockroach has to look perfect. After all, our Halloween cookies are homemade!

What Do Kids Learn When Baking Together for Halloween?

When baking together, kids practice lots of different skills along the way.

While weighing the ingredients, they learn about quantities and numbers. Kneading, rolling out and cutting out the dough help develop hand strength, coordination and fine motor skills.

But decorating is particularly exciting when making our Halloween cookies. After all, drawing the little cockroach legs and antennae with chocolate requires a little patience and a steady hand. And when the first cockroach is finished, the Minis can of course be proud of their little work of art!

That's exactly what I love about baking with kids: in the end, we haven't just baked something delicious, but we've also experimented, learned and had lots of fun together.

Can I Prepare the Halloween Cookies in Advance?

Yes, and that's particularly practical for a Halloween party! You can prepare the butter cookie dough the day before and store it well covered in the refrigerator. The round cookies can also easily be baked in advance. Store the completely cooled, undecorated cookies in a tightly sealed cookie tin. I prefer to attach the cockroaches made from dates and chocolate to the cookies no earlier than the day before the Halloween party, or on the day of the party itself. This keeps the butter cookies as crispy as possible and the decorations looking nice and fresh.

How Should I Store Halloween Cookies with Cockroaches?

Because our Halloween cookies are decorated with dates, I prefer to store them in a tightly sealed container in a cool, dry place after decorating. If possible, place the cookies next to each other so that the delicate chocolate legs and antennae don't break off.

The undecorated butter cookies can be stored for considerably longer than the fully decorated cookies.

For a Halloween party, I therefore recommend baking the cookies in advance and decorating them shortly before serving.

Frequently Asked Questions About Our Halloween Cookies

How Can You Bake Easy Halloween Cookies with Kids?

Halloween cookies made from classic butter cookie dough are particularly easy. Round cookie cutters can be used to quickly prepare cookies that kids can then transform into little cockroaches using chocolate and dates.

How Are the Cockroaches on the Halloween Cookies Made?

The cockroaches are made from halved dates that are attached to the cookies with melted chocolate. The head, antennae and six legs are then drawn on with chocolate using a piping bag.

Which Dates Are Best for Cockroach Cookies?

Soft, elongated dates work best. They are easy to cut in half, and their oval shape makes them perfect for creating a cockroach body.

Can I Bake the Halloween Cookies Without Special Cookie Cutters?

Yes! For our cockroach cookies, all you need is a round cookie cutter or a glass with a diameter of approximately 6–8 cm. Special Halloween cookie cutters aren't necessary.

Are Cockroach Cookies Suitable for a Halloween Party?

Absolutely! The cookies are easy to prepare in advance, are easy to eat by hand and add a fun, spooky touch to any Halloween buffet with their unusual decorations.

Eww, How Delicious! Our Spooky Halloween Cookies

I think Halloween treats are allowed to look a little unusual. And our Halloween cookies with cockroaches are simply perfect for that!

A classic butter cookie dough, a few dates and some chocolate are transformed into wonderfully spooky cookies that are still incredibly easy to bake.

Of course, decorating them together with the Minis is particularly fun.

And when the finished cockroach cookies are finally sitting on the Halloween buffet, they're guaranteed to cause quite a surprise.

After all, who wants a cockroach on their cookie? We do, of course!

I hope you and your Minis have lots of fun baking together for Halloween!

Yours, Lia

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Halloween-Baking with kids – Would you also like to have a spooky Halloween baking event with your kids and friends? I've put together great baking highlights for Halloween for you here! From muffin and baking cups to matching edible decorations, you'll find spooky Halloween cake decorations in this list! Have fun browsing!*

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