Chocolate Ginger Halloween Cookies

Happy Halloween!

I made it just under the wire.

Okay, confession time. I’ve never really cared for Halloween.  Scary movies, dressing up, voluntarily going up to strangers (even if they would give me candy) – just not my thing.

Then my nephews and nieces came along.  How can you not get caught up in a child’s excitement? My sister’s kids LOVE costumes.  The only way my nephew agreed to dress up to be my other sister’s ring bearer was to explain that we would all be wearing costumes to the wedding.  As soon as he heard that, he was on board.  Now, whenever we have a family event, we always talk about what kind of costume we’ll be wearing.

But costumes aren’t just for weddings and Halloween.  My four-year-old niece can find princess attire to suit any occasion - dinner, birthday party, bowling.  And my nephew certainly knows how to dress up creatively.  I think Spiderman cowboy was my favorite, with Batman storm trooper coming in a close second.

To help them celebrate, this year I made them some chocolate ginger cookies.

Chocolate Ginger Halloween Cookies (adapted from allrecipes.com)

2 c sugar

1 ¼ c butter

2 eggs

2 t vanilla

2 ½ c flour

¾ c cocoa powder

1 t ground ginger

1 t baking soda

½ t salt

For topping

1/3 c sugar

1 t ground ginger

About 50 mellowcreme pumpkins

¼ c mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla and combine thoroughly.

Gradually beat in flour, cocoa powder, ginger, baking soda, and salt until combined.

In a small bowl, stir together sugar and ginger.

Roll dough into 1-inch balls and then roll in sugar-ginger mixture.

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Bake for 8-10 minutes. While the cookies are baking, melt chocolate chips.

When the cookies come out of the oven, dip the bottom of the pumpkins in the melted chocolate and place a pumpkin on each cookie.  Wait about 5 minutes and then transfer the cookies to a rack to finish cooling.