Spider Web Biscuits
Chocolate Empire Biscuits sandwiched with chocolate spread, topped with simple white icing and decorated with black spider-web designs. These Halloween biscuits use a simple water icing rather than royal icing, making them super easy to decorate.
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Servings: 9 biscuits
INGREDIENTS
- 250 g Block Margarine or Butter (at room temperature)
- 130 g Caster Sugar
- 1 Free-range Egg (beaten; at room temperature; see Egg Size note below)
- 450 g Plain Flour
- 50 g Cocoa Powder
- 9 tsp Chocolate Spread (such as Nutella)
For the Decoration
- 300 g Icing Sugar
- Boiling Water (a few teaspoonfuls)
- Black Food Colouring (gel food colouring preferable)
EQUIPMENT
- Cocktail Stick (Toothpick)
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat your oven to 180°C (160°C for a fan-assisted oven, Gas Mark 4 or 350°F) and line a couple of
baking trays withgreaseproof paper . Set aside. - In a large bowl, cream together your butter/margarine and sugar until light and fluffy in both colour and texture. Add the egg and mix until combined.
- Sift the flour and cocoa powder into the mixture and mix to form a somewhat stiff dough - you may need to use your hands to bring it together.
- Gently knead the dough on a work surface before rolling it to around 5mm (¼ inch) between two sheets of
greaseproof paper . Using a circular-shaped cutter, cut your biscuits and transfer them to your preparedbaking trays . - Bake your biscuits in your preheated oven for 12-15 minutes, until they appear dry on top.
- When still warm but cool enough to touch, add a teaspoon of the chocolate spread to the underside of half your biscuits, then top with the other half to sandwich them together. Leave to cool completely on a wire cooling rack before decorating.
I like a 7.5cm ( 3 inches) round cutter for these biscuits, which gives you around 9 sandwiched biscuits (or 18 single biscuits). You can use a bigger/smaller cutter, but you may need to adjust the baking time.
For the Decoration
- In a small bowl, add the
icing sugar and gradually add small amounts of boiling water until you have a thick, somewhat still-pourable consistency – "gloopy" is a great way to describe it! Remove a couple of tablespoons of your icing into a separate bowl, and mix with your black food colouring. Transfer the black icing to a piping bag and set aside. - Carefully dip the tops of your biscuits into the icing to coat, allowing any excess to drip off before flipping upright again. (Alternatively, you can spread the icing on top, but this won't allow as even a finish.)
- While the icing is still wet, pipe a few circles with the black icing on top of your white icing, finishing with a decent-sized dot in the centre. With a
cocktail stick , drag around half a dozen straight lines from the middle dot, through the circles to the biscuit edge. This will make your spider web design. Allow them to set for a couple of hours before enjoying!
IMPORTANT NOTE:
All my recipes are developed using a digital scale and the metric system (grams and millilitres). Cup measurements are available as a conversion, but these, unfortunately, won't always be as accurate. For best results, I always recommend baking with a digital scale.
RECIPE NOTES:
Egg Size: I usually buy mixed-weight free-range eggs. If you're buying a specific size, use a medium egg in the UK, which is roughly equivalent to a large egg in the US. That's what this recipe has been tested with.
Biscuit Size: This recipe is based on using a 3-inch (7.5cm) cutter, giving around 18 individual biscuits or 9 once sandwiched together. Baking times will vary depending on the size of your cutter.
Black Icing: For a deep black icing, mix a little cocoa powder into the portion of icing before adding the black food colouring. Black food colouring can be used on its own, but you may need quite a lot to achieve a deep colour.
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