Martha Stewart Bat and Cobweb Cookies for Halloween

Martha Stewart Bat and Cobweb Cookies for Halloween are crisp, spiced gingerbread-style cookies with molasses, cinnamon and royal icing that come together in about 3 hours. They're an easy dessert for Halloween parties, school bake sales or fall weekends, and they make a fun kid-friendly project.

Chill the cut-out shapes for 15 minutes before they go in the oven, because cold dough holds the sharp bat wings and web points. Skip it and the edges spread, so the icing designs lose their crisp outlines.

Martha has you drag a wooden skewer through the still-wet icing to pull the stripes on the bats and the web lines on the cobwebs. No stencils or special tools are needed. The dough also gets a heavy hit of ginger, cinnamon and cloves with a full 1 1/2 cups of molasses, which gives deep flavor against the sweet icing.

Martha Stewart Bat and Cobweb Cookies for Halloween

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Course: DessertCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Medium

Servings

30

servings

Prep time

2

hours 

Cooking time

10

minutes

Calories

190

kcal

A dark, spiced molasses dough bakes up crisp and sturdy enough to carry a full coat of royal icing. The marbled wings and webs are dragged into wet icing, so they set smooth and glossy.

Ingredients

• 6 cups all-purpose flour (sifted, then measured), plus more for dusting
  

• 1 teaspoon baking soda
  

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  

• 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  

• 1 cup packed dark-brown sugar
  

• 4 teaspoons ground ginger
  

• 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  

• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
  

• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  

• 2 large eggs
  

• 1 1/2 cups unsulfured molasses
  

• Royal Icing
  

Directions

• Sift the dry ingredients: Sift 6 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder into a large bowl. Set it aside while you make the dough.
• Cream butter and sugar: Beat 8 ounces softened butter and 1 cup packed dark-brown sugar in a mixer with the paddle attachment. Keep it on medium-high speed until the mixture turns fluffy.
• Add spices, eggs and molasses: Beat in 4 teaspoons ginger, 4 teaspoons cinnamon, 1 1/2 teaspoons cloves and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. Then beat in 2 eggs and 1 1/2 cups molasses until combined.
• Mix in the flour: Reduce the speed to low and beat in the flour mixture. Stop as soon as the dough comes together so the cookies stay tender.
• Divide and chill dough: Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces and flatten each into a disk. Wrap them in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
• Roll out the dough: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Roll one disk 1/8 inch thick on a floured surface, then move it to a parchment-lined baking sheet and refrigerate for about 30 minutes until firm.
• Cut out the shapes: Cut bats and cobwebs with cookie cutters and transfer them to baking sheets. Refrigerate for 15 minutes, then repeat with the remaining disks.
• Bake the cookies: Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through, until the cookies are crisp but not darkened. Cool them completely on wire racks before icing.
• Pipe the base color: Pipe a black outline for the bats and a white one for the cobwebs, using a pastry bag with a small plain round tip such as #3. Fill in with more icing and smooth it with an offset spatula before it dries.
• Decorate the bats: Pipe three arced lines of colored icing onto the wet base. For each wing, drag a wooden skewer across the width in alternating directions, then add eyes once the icing has dried.
• Decorate the cobwebs: Pipe a spiral of black icing onto the wet white base and add dots on the points of the cookie. Draw a skewer from the center outward to each dot, then add spiders after the icing has dried.

Tools for this recipe

• KitchenAid Artisan 5-quart stand mixer, Ateco 11-piece round cutter set, J.K. Adams French rolling pin. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

FAQs

Why do the cookies need to be chilled before baking?

Cold dough keeps its shape in the oven, so the bat wings and web points stay sharp instead of puffing and spreading. The recipe chills the disks for 1 hour, the rolled sheet for 30 minutes and the cut shapes for 15 minutes.

How do I store the decorated cookies?

Let the icing dry completely, which can take several hours, then layer the cookies between sheets of parchment in an airtight container. Kept at room temperature, they stay crisp for about a week.

Can I make the dough ahead of time?

Yes, the wrapped disks can sit in the refrigerator for a couple of days, and you can bake and cool the cookies a day before you decorate. Let a chilled disk soften for a few minutes so it rolls without cracking.

What if I don't have a pastry bag?

A zip-top bag with one bottom corner snipped to a tiny opening works fine. Fit a #3 tip if you have one, because a small opening gives the cleaner outlines this design needs.

What's the most common mistake when decorating?

Letting the base icing dry before adding the stripes or web lines is the big one. The skewer only drags the colors together while the icing is wet, so work on one or two cookies at a time.