Haunted House Cookies
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 2.5 hours (plus drying time)
Cooking time: 15 minutes
For cookies
- 85g/3ozs butter, softened
- 140g/5ozs/3/4 cup white caster superfine sugar
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 200g//7ozs. all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Royal icing
- 2 egg whites
- 300g/10.6ozs icing or confectioners sugar plus more if needed
- Colouring gels in black, orange, purple, red, forest green and yellow
Step 1 - Beat the butter and sugar together for 3-4 minutes until white on medium high speed. Add the egg and beat together. Then on low speed add the flour and spices until just combined. Knead for a few seconds and form a ball.
Step 2 - Tear two large sheets of parchment and roll out the dough to fit a large baking tray. Lay it on the tray and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Step 3 - Preheat oven to 200C/400F and line two baking trays with parchment. Dip a house cutter in flour and cut out houses using the cutter. Bake for 12-15 minutes until done. Cool completely.
Step 4 - Place the icing sugar in a food processor and process until all the lumps are gone. Add the egg whites and process until smooth. Check the consistency. If a line holds then it is ready. If the line blurs and becomes indistinct then sift in more icing sugar until you get a pipeable consistency.
Step 5 - Take seven bowls and then add the colour to six of them leaving one white. Place 2 teaspoons of each icing in 6 small piping bags. Pipe an outline around the perimeter of the cookies and allow to set. Place the piping bags in an airtight container as you don't want them to dry out as you'll need them later.
Step 6 - Add a few drops of water to the bowls of icing. You want to make it more liquid in texture. Flood the outline with the more liquid icing. Allow to set completely (you may have to leave these for a few hours, I left them overnight).
Step 7 - Draw patterns on the cookies giving each cookie its own distinct personality. I sketched a rough idea of what I wanted to draw.
Step 8 - You can also use edible colours to paint very small details.