A Cookie and a Smile

My niece recently came over for an afternoon with a specific plan in mind for our time together.  Under her arm she had a copy of Fairy Cooking, a cookbook I didn't know.  She pointed out the cookies she said we were going to make -- Chocolate Cobweb Cookies.  Come on, we all love baking cookies but making them with a child makes them taste even better.
A fantastically simple recipe that requires equipment we all have...our hands. This is a keeper for Halloween. The recipe makes 18 cookies:

1 1/3 cups All Purpose Flour
3 tbs Cocoa Powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) Butter, cold cut into pieces
2 tbs Milk
White Writing Icing (ok, I fess up, I bought the stuff in the tube at the supermarket)
2 cookie sheets lined with a silpat
Round Cookie Cutters
1 Toothpick

Preheat you oven to 350*

• Put the flour and cocoa powder in a large bowl.  Add the cold butter, then rub the mixture together with your fingers

•  When the mixture looks like breadcrumbs, stir in the sugar.  Sprinkle the milk over the mixtures and give everything a mix.

• Continue to mix until everything sticks together and you can form into a ball of dough.

•  Wrap the dough in cling wrap and place in your fridge for at least 20 minutes.

• Sprinkle some flour on a clean surface and roll out the dough until 1/4-inch thick

•  Using a round cookie cutter, cut out circles and place on the baking sheets

• Bake for 12-15 minutes, then remove from the oven and leave the cookies on the sheets for 5-minutes to cool before moving them to a wire rack to cool. 

• With the writing icing, draw a spiral on each cookie, starting in the middle and working out toward the edge. Then, with a toothpick, drag the icing from the middle to make a cob-web.  Let the icing set.