Spider Web Halloween Biscuits

Disclosure: this post features baking products sent to me for free courtesy of BakingMad; I chose to make Halloween-themed biscuits using some of these items–which are, anyway, already from brands I use in my everyday baking.

Items marked with an asterisk (*) indicate the free products in the following post.

It’s that time of year again!

I’ve always secretly adored Halloween, perhaps becaue I was one of those British kids who got exposure to American pop culture early on, and have had internet friends from across the pond for years. Brits old and young do enjoy a bit of a dress-up and throw parties, do a bit of trick or treating and pumpkin carving, but it doesn’t seem to be quite as much of an institution. Perhaps it’s all to do with slightly different attitudes towards autumn: there’s probably reams written about how Halloween is this sticky, sugar-filled, orange-and-black climax of the United States’ national adoration of Fall.

I do rejoice in Halloween’s general ugliness, but I wanted something just a tiny bit different for my baked goods. I was inspired by these Halloween cakes featured as on BakingMad’s Halloween ideas, but wanted to make these Halloween biscuits instead, as they keep better so I can nibble on them throughout the season. It was easy enough to transfer my ideas for decoration to the flat surface of the biscuit, and I knew from experience I could work with royal icing as I helped my best friend and her then-fiancee make over 100 brush embroidery biscuits for their wedding last year.

What I had in mind was something distinctly Halloween-like but a little sweeter and, dare I say it, prettier. Something with pastel colours, which in Britain is usually coded as spring/Easter, but I wanted to also make it cute and spooky. I also love the delicate, natural precision of spider webs. So, to help refine my design a bit more I made a quick collage:

Image credits:
All cookie designs by SweetAmbs
Dress: Sugary Carnival JSK by Angelic Pretty (2009)
Top left spiderweb: Pest Products
Middle left spider web: Shawn Olson

These are what I made:

The webs are more silly string than spider silk, but I think they turned out alright. Next time I’d pipe the icing much closer to the edge.

For the biscuits, I used the BakingMad recipe as a base, but as I wanted a beautifully dark background for the pastel colours, I added cocoa powder for depth. This addition does make the dough quite dry, so be extra careful not to overbake: they should still be soft when fresh from the oven as they’ll set upon cooling. I’ve also found that the flavour improves if you leave it overnight, making them slightly reminiscent of oreos.

I also wanted a simple text-base design for variety. Being unsteady with icing, I wasn’t going to attempt to replicate a spooky font, but recognised my limits and took inspiration from the adorable, childlike, hand-drawn typeface I use in my blog header – Before Breakfast by Simon Straford (it’s free!) – and piped that stock holiday phrase:

SPIDER WEB HALLOWEEN BISCUITS + PHRASE BISCUITS

Adapted from BakingMad’s Halloween biscuits recipe

Make these in stages over a day or two if that’s easier – the royal icing takes up to 6 hours to dry completely. To speed things along you could do wet-on-wet icing to cut drying time, or do spiderwebs straight on naked cookies.

Makes around 500g dough; about 15 – 20 cookies measuring about 6cm (2.5″) across and around 5mm (3/16″) thick. Eat within 2 weeks of baking.

ingredients

for the biscuits
225 g plain flour
50g good quality cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tsp baking powder
100 g granulated sugar
75 grams cold unsalted butter, diced
1 egg, beaten
2 tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract (I used Nielsen-Massey)
Black food colouring (I used a 10g whole tube of Dr Oetker’s jet black gel colouring; add colour cautiously according to the colouring you have)

for the icing
500g powdered royal icing, with more ready just in case (I use Silver Spoon + water but you can try it from scratch; I’ve heard lots of good things about Antonia 47’s recipe)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (or other flavouring as you wish)
Food colouring: you’ll only need a few drops to create delicate hues. I used Silver Spoon colour creators in lilac* and green*, though you could of course use their pink+blue and yellow+blue colours respectively, which is exactly the route I went for my friend’s vintage pastel wedding cookies last year.

For the writing on the phrase cookies, I used designer icing in blue.* It’s an eerily cold bright will-o’-the-wisp blue, standing out against the natural warm brown.

Equipment: Icing bags/bottles, 1 small round piping tip (#3 Wilton), 1 extremely small round piping tip (#1 Wilton), toothpicks and brushes for neatening things up

instructions

to make the biscuit dough:

Sift the plain flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar and add the diced butter. Using a pastry cutter or cool fingertips and thumbs, rub everything together until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Combine the egg, golden syrup, vanilla extract and some black food colouring. Pour into the crumbly mixture and stir until everything is moistened and clumpy. Bring together, pressing firmly, until you get a lumpy dough. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or overnight.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius/150 fan. Let the dough sit and come to room temperature. Working on a lightly flour-dusted surface, cut dough into quarters and roll each quarter out to about 3 – 5 mm thick, it’ll be a bit difficult at first but don’t worry too much about crumbling: gently press and knead the dough and re-dust the board at intervals.

Cut out the shapes and place them on lined baking trays 2 – 3 cm apart. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes until just dry on top but still soft. Leave to cool completely before icing.

to make the royal icing:

You can prepare the plain icing up to a week in advance, storing it well covered in the fridge. Use water from a spray bottle for ease and accuracy when you need to thin the icing and dissolve any crusts.

Make the royal icing according to packet instructions, adding the flavouring with the water. My one called for 80ml water per 500g royal icing mix. If you are slovenly like me you’ll half-heartedly go at it with your hand mixer until it’s fairly thick and very slow-flowing, like toothpaste.

Separate the icing into 3 different mixing bowls. A third will be left plain white; this is the piping icing that you’ll use for spiderwebs. The other two thirds will be the coloured background. Set aside the plain white icing for now.

To make the coloured icing, tint the icing first before diluting. For the lilac background, mix in  4 – 8 drops of the lilac gel colour one drop at a time into a portion of icing,  mixing thoroughly until you have the colour you want. Repeat with the remaining portion of icing to make pale green.

Now thin all 3 portions by cautiously add a drop or two of cold water to the mixture, combining well until you get a glossy, slow-flowing icing that resembles bath/shower gel.  If you cut the mixture with a knife, the mark should take 15 – 20 seconds to smooth over again.

to ice the biscuits:

I’ve found the best and easiest way to use this icing is with squeeze bottles, which can be found in baking shops or on Amazon or eBay. Otherwise, fill up a bag with a smallish round tip. Either way you can use the background icing to outline and flood in one go.

Work with one background colour at a time. Pipe a circle, following as close as possible to the edge of the biscuit. Flood within the outline using a zig-zag motion, nudging with the tip to cover gaps and smooth bumps.  Leave to set, uncovered at room temp, for about 4 – 6 hours. It’s alright if you have some un-iced cookies.

For the spiderwebs, use a very fine tip with your bag/bottle. It may help to doodle some spiderwebs on paper first before attempting with icing. I start with outermost curved edges, then the radiating spoke-like lines connecting the outer points to the centre, and finally add the spiral-like pattern of nearly parallel curves. For a slightly more naturalistic spider web, make the gaps between each line slightly uneven, and try to think about the whole shape you’re creating. Use a lightly dampened brush and a toothpick to neaten. Leave to dry for a further 6 hours.

For the writing, use the small round tip with the designer icing to carefully form each stroke of the letter. I write the first and last letters first to ensure a sense of proportion. Again, toothpicks and brushes help to neaten the shapes. Leave to dry for a few hours.