To prove I haven’t totally lost it, I made something a little more normal for Halloween this year as well as the crazy brain piñata cake with oozing bloody maggots. I just can’t let the holiday pass without doing something orange.

Why is it that Halloween and the colour orange are so synonymous? Yet another question I pondered as I walked past my orange bucket filled with lollies to hand out to the adorable trick-or-treaters tomorrow night.

This year I will remember to be watered, fed and have been to the bathroom before they start arriving. Last year we had such an onslaught when Will got home I had to throw the bucket at him and race to the bathroom because I’d been handing out lollies for nearly 2 hours straight (and I was preggas).

These little bites of deliciousness combine two of my favourite things – chocolate and cinnamon along with a tip of the hat to good old pumpkins in the form of pumpkin pie spice. I make up a little jar of it every now and then and add it to all sorts of things – not just pumpkin pie.

On Sunday, Ollie had pumpkin pie porridge for breakfast and I added a bit to my choc-banana afternoon smoothie earlier in the week.

These smelled amazing as they were baking. It was a bit of a made up recipe so I wasn’t sure how they’d turn out taste-wise or appearance-wise but both got a big tick from me. They’re a fun little biscuit and you could use the recipe as a base for any holiday, tinting the orange any colour you like or just leaving it plain vanilla.

You can also make the dough log ahead of time and freeze it. I made it then realised my spiders for the photo hadn’t arrived so popped it in the freezer. The spiders never arrived sadly so I had to find a substitute which I have to say I probably like better. Who knew there was Halloween tinsel? Enjoy!

What about you? Are you celebrating Halloween? Will you be accepting trick-or-treaters?

Chocolate spice swirl cookies

Yield: 30

Prep Time: 2 hours

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours 10 minutes

Print

Ingredients

• 85 g/3ozs butter, softened
• 140g/5ozs coconut sugar (or caster sugar)
• 1 free-range egg
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 180g wholemeal flour (or plain (AP) flour)
• Red and yellow food colouring
• 1 tbsp cocoa
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Instructions

1. Beat the butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer until smooth and creamy.
2. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until incorporated.
3. Add the flour and mix until the dough comes together.
4. Remove half the dough from the bowl.
5. To the remaining dough, add a little yellow and red food colouring and mix until the dough turns orange.
6. Remove the dough from the bowl, shape into a ball then flatten to a rectangle and wrap in plastic wrap.
7. Return the rest of the dough to the bowl and add the cocoa and pumpkin pie spice.
8. Mix until it is incorporated.
9. Form the chocolate dough into a rectangle as well and wrap it in plastic wrap then refrigerate the two doughs for at least 30 minutes.
10. Take the doughs out of the fridge.
11. Dust the bench with flour and roll the doughs out to rectangles measuring approximately 35x28cm (14x11").
12. Very carefully, lift the orange dough and place it on top of the chocolate dough. Using the rolling pin, roll them out a little to stick them together.
13. Starting from the long side, roll the doughs together as tightly as possible into a log and then roll it along the bench to stick the layers together.
14. Wrap the log in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour (the dough can also be frozen at this stage for up to three months).
15. Pre-heat the oven to 180C (390F) fan-forced and line a baking tray with baking paper.
16. Take the dough out of the fridge and trim the ends.
17. Using a serrated knife, cut the dough into 1cm (0.5") pieces and place them on the baking tray leaving just a little space between them as they won't spread much.
18. Bake for 10 minutes or until set.
19. Leave to rest on the tray for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

The post Chocolate spice swirl cookies appeared first on Claire K Creations.