DIY Halloween Chalkboard Cookies!
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott/Not Quite Nigella
Preparation time: 25 minutes plus overnight drying and 1 hour decorating
Cooking time: 15 minutes
- 85g/3ozs. butter, softened
- 140g/4.9ozs. caster or superfine sugar
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 180g-200g/6.3-7ozs. plain all purpose flour
- 1 egg white
- 250g/8.8ozs. icing sugar, sifted
- Black food colouring
- White on white edible colouring (Wilton)
- Fine paintbrush
- Plaque, square or round cutters
Step 1 - Cream butter and sugar together with an electric beater until light and fluffy. Add the egg in and then the vanilla. Add in the flour and mix on lowest speed until just combined. Roll into a ball and tear two sheets of parchment. Roll out the dough between the parchment to desired thinness (about 1/4 inch) and place on a baking tray in the fridge for an hour.
Step 2 - Preheat oven to 200C/400F and line 2 trays with parchment. Cut out shapes using plaque, square or round cutters. Bake for 8-10 minutes (depending on how thin you've rolled them and how large they are). Cool completely on the tray.
Step 3 - Make a quick royal icing (I usually do this while I wait for the dough to firm up as that allows the air bubbles to dissipate). In a food processor add the icing sugar and process until you get rid of the lumps. Then add the egg white and black food colouring and whizz until you get a good stiff consistency that can hold a hard line without it blurring. You may need to add more icing sugar in which case just whizz again. Always keep royal icing covered up well as it dries out very easily.
Step 4 - Fill a small piping bag with a small amount of the stiff icing (about 3 tablespoon's worth). Pipe around the edges of the cookie as shown. Allow to set hard (this can take anything from 10 minutes to 30). Then add a few drops of water to the royal icing so that it becomes a more runny texture. Using a small spoon "flood" the cookies with this icing. Allow to dry completely (I usually dry it overnight).
Step 5 - Take a fine brush and dip it very lightly in the white colouring. I drew a few examples of what I wanted the end design to look like. Draw your patterns - I find the most effective chalkboard look is if I dip the paintbrush in the white colouring and then brush it against the tray before drawing, otherwise the white is too bold. Allow to dry and you can adhere these firmly to a chalkboard with any leftover royal icing.