Tombstone Cookies for Halloween

I attended a Halloween party recently and was asked to bring a dessert. Late the night before I was searching the Internet for Halloween themed ideas and found several that I liked but nothing that I had all the ingredients for. I didn't have any time to shop so I had to come up with something else.

I made a "Haunted Graveyard" using No Bake Oatmeal Cookies shaped and decorated like tombstones.

Here is the recipe I like (It doesn't use any peanut butter).

No Bake Oatmeal Cookies:

In a pot put,

- 2 cups sugar

- 1/2 cup butter

- 1/2 cup milk

- 1/3 cup cocoa powder

-Bring to a boil over medium heat stirring constantly

- Boil for only 3 minutes, stirring constantly

- Remove from heat

- Stir in 3 cups Quick Oats

- Using two spoons to scoop and drop mix onto wax paper in the shape of an oval or rectangle

- Shape each one with the spoons as you drop them by arching the top and flattening the bottom
- Now let them cool

Tip: You will need to move quickly so they don't harden too much to shape. If you want to do a double batch, Either get help when you form them or make the batches separately so you will have enough time.

While they are cooling, prepare your frosting (or just use premade frosting)

I made Vanilla Buttercream Frosting and Chocolate Buttercream.

Tip: To make it chocolate I just made the vanilla and then added cocoa powder until it was the flavor that I wanted. If it is too thick, add a tad more milk.

Tip: To pipe frosting without the piping equipment, simply put some frosting in a Ziploc bag and squish it into one corner at the bottom. Then snip (a very small section) the corner off with scissors and start squeezing the bag to force the frosting out the opening.

Piping:

When the cookies have cooled, turn them over and pipe onto the flat side. You can pipe an outline of the tombstone if you choose, I did this on some of them and letters I could fit 4 characters across max, but that depends on the size of your piping bag hole.

Here are some ideas,

- C. U. Soon

- U. R. Next

- U. R. DEAD

- RIP

- FRED DED

- WHY TRY

- I. CRY

- I. M. DED

- NO MO

After piping, place the cookies on a baking a sheet and put them in the fridge to set the frosting

Display as a Haunted Graveyard:

I placed the headstones at an angle in lines in a baking dish.

-First I melted Crunch bars and rubbed it on the bottom of the dish.

- Then I dusted it with cocoa powder

- Using the Chocolate Buttercream I adhered the cookies to the bottom. This worked pretty well, but it did take a lot of frosting to keep them in place.

It may be easier to just make a large cake, frost it with the chocolate buttercream, push the cookies down into the cake, sprinkle with chocolate rice crispies and dust with cocoa powder. Everyone gets more dessert this way as well.

You can also add gummy worms and bugs, plastic spiders and bugs, or if you are even more ambitious and happen to have an at home cotton candy machine (I do), you can spin plain white sugar and make edible cobwebs.

Have Fun!