Your Halloween Party Needs These Peanut Butter Bat Chocolate Chip Cookies
Aside from the agony over the details of your elaborate Rings of Power Halloween costume, part of the allure of October 31st is an excuse to eat copious amounts of sweets. While I do think Reese’s peanut butter cups are disgusting, I also admit that the combination of chocolate and peanut butter flavor is absolute perfection in itself. (My problem is the texture of the Hershey, not the taste, okay?) To celebrate this sacred union of flavors so that it slips out of the oven and not out of the orange plastic sleeve, make these delicious five-ingredient bat-shaped cookies. on Halloween.
Usually I like to spend too much time decorating things, but sometimes the occasion calls for simplicity. I wanted the cookies to have the same addictive quality as those peanut butter cups, that distinct, concentrated chocolate peanut flavor and easily feel like Halloween without the need for any extra icing or sprinkles to get the point across. I’ve shortened the list of ingredients so that the intense chocolate and peanut butter flavors remain undiluted. This recipe does not use flour, and as a result, they are gluten-free and delicious. The dough has the consistency of modeling clay, so making holiday bats out of them is a quick process, but you can also use this dough to make figurines for other occasions.
Cookie dough is the fastest. Simply blend smooth peanut butter with sugar, add two ounces of melted dark chocolate, and blend until smooth. Then add salt and one room temperature egg. At this point, the mixture will be thick and smell absolutely tempting. Resist the urge to spoon it into your mouth.
To shape the dough into bats, you can use a cookie cutter or shape it with your hands. If you cut it out, roll out this dough about ⅓ inch thick and then use a bat-shaped cookie cutter. If you’re shaping by hand, start with a tablespoon of cookie dough. Squeeze it between your palms to get a flat oval shape – no need to be perfect. Pressing the dough with your hands also heats up the fats in the dough, making it easier to form. Place the oval on a parchment-lined baking sheet and use your fingertips to guide the tips of the oval and bend them slightly; it will look like a rounded diamond or a pair of lips.
Use your fingertips to pinch the top and bottom of the ears and bottom of the bat. Do the same under each wing for a wavy look. I used the wide end of a chopstick to enlarge the indentations so that I could pinch them more effectively without cracking the dough. Once you’re happy with the bat shape, use the narrow end of your chopstick to make two small eyes. Press deeply to make sure they are distinguishable after baking. Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 10 minutes.
The only thing to pay attention to when kneading this dough is to make sure your ingredients are at room temperature and that you add the ingredients in order. If you add the egg too early, the batter will become very thick and difficult to pour the melted chocolate into. Luckily, this recipe is gluten-free, so if you have to work with the dough for another minute or two, you don’t have to worry about hard cookies. Store them at room temperature for up to five days, or freeze after baking for up to five months.
Chocolate chip cookies with peanut butter and bats
Ingredients:
- 1 cup smooth peanut butter
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 oz semi-sweet chocolate (melted)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 egg (room temperature)
Preheat oven to 350°F. Baking line with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, combine the peanut butter and sugar, then add each of the following ingredients in order.
Spread one tablespoon of dough and form a bat out of it, as described above.
Bake cookies at 350°F for 10 minutes. Cool them on a cooling rack. This recipe makes about 20 bat-shaped cookies.