Oreo Style Bat Cookies

Closer cropped Bright photo of large bat shaped chocolate sandwich cookies, on a large round wooden board, with white airy background and tiny pretend pumpkins and biege linen and pumpkin ornament.

Oreo style bat cookies are my homemade version of the popular shop bought chocolate sandwich cookie. This time in the shape of a scary bat for Halloween baking! These bat cookies are perfect for a Halloween party. So easy to make, try making with the kiddies or give out to the 'trick or treaters'.

Caro @ Caroline's Easy Baking Lessons

Prep Time 45

Cook Time 15

Chilling Time 1

Total Time 2

Serving Size Large Bats (minimum)

Equipment

Scales or measuring cups
Measuring Spoons
Stand/Hand-mixer
Mixing bowl for dry ingredients
Sieve
Baking sheets/trays (2 or 3)
Baking/parchment paper
Rolling Pin
Small bowl to dip cutter
Bat Cookie Cutters (large bats were 11 cm x 5cm (4 ⅓″ x 2″), but smaller/other cutters can be used)
Cooling rack
Timer or Phone Timer
Small Cooking Pot
Palette knife/Baking Spatula (Off-set spatula, butter knife, small spoon or piping bag)

Ingredients

For The Cookie Dough

113 grams Butter, unsalted, cubed & soft (4 oz, ½ cup, 1 stick)
100 grams Granulated Sugar (3½ oz, ½ cup)
3 tbsp Golden Syrup (60g/2 oz, *see notes for alternatives)
½ tsp Bicarbonate of Soda (Baking Soda)
⅛ tsp Salt
157 grams Plain Flour (5½ oz, 1¼ cup All Purpose)
48 grams Cocoa Powder (1¾ oz, ⅓ cup + 1 tbsp)

For The Buttercream Filling

128 grams Butter, unsalted & melted (6 oz, ¾ cup)
¾ tsp Vanilla Extract (Try some homemade vanilla extract)
1 Pinch Salt
187 grams Icing Sugar, sieved (6½ oz, 1½ cup Powdered sugar)

For The 'Eyes'

20 Sprinkles, oven-safe (see notes)

Get Recipe Ingredients

Instructions

Prepare The Cookie Dough

Combine butter, sugar, golden syrup, bicarbonate of soda, (baking soda) & salt in a large mixing bowl and mix on low (or by hand), before increasing to medium speed & beating until light & fluffy.
Sieve flour & cocoa powder on top of the mixture, & start to mix on low speed. Use the back of a spoon to push down on the mixture, to let the flour take on the moisture. Alternatively use a mixer on low to medium speed, until the thick dough starts to come together. Then knead by hand against the sides of the bowl, and form a smooth flat disc shape.
Next line the baking trays/sheets with baking/parchment paper.

Cut Out The Cookies

Between 2 sheets of paper, & some icing/powdered sugar if needed, roll out the dough to a 4-5mm (⅙" - ⅕″) thickness. Note I used 2 x 10p pieces as a guide.
Dust the cutter in flour or icing/powdered sugar and cut out the cookies. Go over the cuts again if needed for a neater edge. Carefully transfer to the prepared baking tray/sheet with just a little gap in-between. Re-roll the excess dough and make enough cookies for pairs.
Press your chosen oven-safe sprinkle in position for the bat eyes, or add after baking. Chill in the fridge for 1 hour, (or 5 minutes fridge, followed by 25 minutes freezer). Do not skip the chilling stage. Heat up the oven to 180°c/160°c Fan Oven/350°f/Gas Mark 4, to coincide with the 1-hour chilling time ending.

Bake The Cookies

Bake the cookies for 10 - 15 minutes until ready. They will still be soft, but after 8 or 9 minute mark, check by seeing if they will move when gently pushed with the spatula. If they stick or crack, bake a few minutes longer and check again. Chocolate cookies are easy to over-bake so better to remove before completely set.
Leave on the baking tray/sheet a few minutes & then transfer to a cooling rack with the paper, to cool down completely.

Make The Buttercream Filling

Melt cubed butter in a small cooking pot, on medium to high heat, before turning down to low-medium, letting simmer & stirring occasionally. The butter will hiss and bubble and eventually foam will be formed on the surface as well as fat residue on the sides of the pot.
Remove from the heat, carefully add the vanilla extract & salt, before mixing through. Then sieve the melted butter until you have a relatively clear golden coloured butter liquid. Leave to the side for 5 minutes. (See photos before recipe card for photos).
Meanwhile, prepare for making the buttercream by sieving your icing/powdered sugar into a mixing bowl, and having white or purple food colouring if you want to make the buttercream more 'white'.
Very gradually add in the clarified butter to the sugar, mixing well in-between each addition. You can do by hand with a metal spoon or by mixer, just note you might not need all the melted butter. Add white or even a tiny drop of purple food colouring if you want, and mix the buttercream until you have a smooth, spreadable consistency. Thin with a little milk if you want to pipe it.

Assemble The Cookies

Using a baking off-set spatula, palette knife or butter knife, spread a generous amount of filling on top of the underside of one of the cookies. Place a second cookie on top & squeeze together very slightly & gently. You can use the end of a small spoon to scrape excess buttercream along the edges if you want.
Or, you can smooth the edges of buttercream, before applying the top cookie. Another option is to apply with a piping bag and small nozzle. You might have to thin the filling down a bit to do this though, with a little milk.

Serving & Storing

Once the Oreo-style bat cookies are all filled, place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, the filling to set up again (this is optional). You can serve now or serve directly from the fridge if the room temperature is warm.
Store in a tin or airtight container and they will be good for at least 3 days. Store in the fridge and they will last nearer to 7 days.

Notes

Golden Syrup - this can be found in the US/Canada or online. See my Gingerbread recipe for where to buy Golden Syrup. Alternatively, for this recipe you can use Maple Syrup or honey.

Vanilla - Make your own Vanilla Extract At Home

Gluten Free - these have also been tested using Gluten Free Plain/A.P. flour and ½ + ⅛ tsp Xanthan Gum.

Cookie Cutter - the bat cutter was 11 cm x 5cm (4 ⅓ " x 2 ") at it’s widest points. But smaller cutters can be used, just bake a shorter time.

Sprinkles - using sprinkles for 'eyes', make sure they are oven-save (such as harder bigger flat ones), or add after baking.

Recipe Yield - using large bat cookie cutter, I got 10 sandwich cookies, with some left over for smaller cookies. So you could get 12 cookies or more, depending on size of your own cutter. There will be left-over buttercream.

Tips

•For butter to soften quicker, cut into smaller pieces (about 1cm, ⅓″ size). Alternatively watch this How To Soften Butter In 12 minutes Video.

•If you think you have baked too much, don’t allow any cooling on baking tray/sheet and move to the rack immediately.

•UK butter is much more yellow in colour, so for a white buttercream, add white food colouring, or a tiny amount of purple.

More Oreos - Red Velvet Oreo Style Cookies, or Chocolate Orange Oreo Cookies.

**See note & detailed instructions & process photos, before this Recipe Card.

Dark photo of Bat cookies flying on night sky.

Try another bat-themed cookie but this time, a savoury one. Go to my Turkish Savoury Biscuits (Tuzlu Kurabiye)

Find more cookies on my Biscuits Page.

Nutrition: I am not a qualified nutritionist, so all values are estimates, based on ingredients listed & calculated via FitnessPal.com. Information based on serving of 1 large bat sandwich cookie, assuming 12 sandwich cookies (24 bats are baked). If more are made, or smaller cutter are used, these value will reduce. Paste recipe link into website/app MyFitnesPal.com to see these values, & log them for future use if tracking your food.

Nutrition Facts

Oreo Style Bat Cookies

Serving Size

1 Cookie

Amount per Serving

Calories

307

% Daily Value*

Fat

Saturated Fat

Polyunsaturated Fat

1.5

Monounsaturated Fat

4.5

Cholesterol

Sodium

189

Potassium

Carbohydrates

Fiber

Sugar

Protein

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.