Hi, Friend,
…Halloween is coming!
BOO!
Just kidding… I don’t want to scare you at all!
But, wait… It’s Halloween, right? You HAVE to get scared!
Umm… not in my world, you don’t! Why? Because I don’t believe that being scared is that great for us…
It’s just… when you’re scared, terrified, disturbed, it means that there is something out there that you don’t want to happen to you, right? …Something that may have to do with pain, sorrow, loss… Those aren’t good things…
And so, (it’s just mine, one person’s opinion; I’m no pushing it on anybody!) being scared and disturbed isn’t the healthiest state of your mind…
But why does Halloween have to be scary? Why can’t it can be FUN instead?!
…And here is my family’s most favorite Halloween character: The BLACK KITTY! Yeah, the cute, funny, furry, mischievous, silly and adorable Black Cat! (We are the CAT family in general: we LOVE cats! And me… I am a big-time CAT-LADY! 🙂 )
And so it made perfect sense for me to make these super-cute and super-fun BLACK CAT COOKIES to celebrate Halloween! (aka the Chocolate Cutout Sugar Cookies, because that’s what they really are.)
…Oh, these dark as night black kitty cookies! It took me a few tries to come up with the perfect recipe for them…
…To make my cookies DARK-DARK BLACK as the black kitty is supposed to be I only used the dutch-pressed dark cocoa powder…
But the big problem with the dark cocoa powder, though, is that it makes the dough REALLY crumbly: it falls apart if you just sub the regular cocoa powder with the dutch-pressed cocoa powder…
But I’ve finally found the solution to this problem (after a few crumbly batches that were tasty, but… crumbly and consequently shapeless)!
The honey! Yes, because if you substitute some of the sugar with this sticky sweetener, the honey binds the otherwise crumbly dough!
And… voila! I could roll and cut the dough just alright now!
I used a little bit of sugar in these cookies, though. But it wasn’t the regular kind of sugar. I used the coarse raw sugar to add some texture to my cookies to reminiscent the kitty’s fur…
And of course since I like to indulge on more than one or two cookies at a time I made my cookies lower in calories by using less butter than the usual cut-out cookies call for (and I’d recommend using the real butter to make them, because even a little bit of it taste-wise goes a long way!) and by replacing one of the eggs with an egg-white.
For the Kitty Eyes I used the All-Natural Gold Nonpareils. It’s optional, but those Nonpareils looked REALLY cute as they made the kitties’ eyes pop!
And when I put these cookies on the tray, it looked like the kitties were literally STARING back at me!
So what’s your favorite Halloween treat? 🙂
Happy (and HEALTHY) Halloween, my friend!!
Healthy Black Cat Dark Chocolate Cookies for Halloween!
Ingredients
- 1 cup white whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup coarse sugar
- 1/4 cup honey
- 3 tbsp butter
- 1 egg
- 1 egg white
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp corn starch
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1 pinch salt
- a few golden nonpareils optional
Instructions
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Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, corn starch and sugar.
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In another bowl whisk the egg and the egg white, just until the eggs are incorporated (you don't want to whip them). Mix in the melted butter, honey and vanilla extract. Mix everything well.
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Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture. Mix well, until the ingredients are incorporated. Roll the dough into an inch-thick rectangle.
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Cover the dough with a plastic wrap and let it chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
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Preheat your oven to 350 F. Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it out until it's about 1/2-1/4 inch thick.
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Cut the cookies with your cookie-cutter and gently put them on a lined with some parchment paper cookie-sheet. Gently press in the golden nonpareils into the cookies to reminiscent the kitty's eyes.
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Bake the cookies for 15 minutes. Take the cookies out and let them cool and harden before putting them in a cookie-jar.
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Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
Note: you can make the dough beforehand and stick it in the fridge for a few days or wrapped tightly in a plastic wrap in the freezer for up to a couple of months.
Please, comment!