They say the best blaze burns brightest when circumstances are at their worst.
—Sophie Hatter, Howl’s Moving Castle (ハウルの動く城)
Happy Halloween!
Spooky season has definitely been scary for me. I’m studying for my final two core board exams (last ones before my full boards!), interviewing for fellowship, signing out my final stint at Bellevue, while trying to stay relatively sane.
I had been testing a black cocoa choux pastry (with black cocoa craquelin) to try to make soot sprite cream puffs. Even though they were delicious and tasted like cookies and cream, I didn’t feel like they were spherical enough. Probably because the cocoa powder doesn’t provide any gluten, so limits rise.
By the time I got to the third round of testing, I realized that this truly wasn’t the month to be troubleshooting that much. I was near a nervous breakdown over 0.5cm of lift.
I had long-saved a brownie cookie with soot sprite decorations on it on my Pinterest from a sadly now defunct blog. Quick pivot.
These cookies are only very lightly adapted from Scientifically Sweet. They produce the most heavenly, crinkly, fudgy, shiny-topped brownie cookies. They are quite deep and rich in chocolate flavor thanks to the Dutch cocoa + bittersweet chocolate combo. They store really well overnight.
The decorations are star sprinkles + konpeitō + mini oreos, scraped of their filling and then finished with royal icing eyes and wiggly, waggling arms.
The little mischievous, mute soot sprites are one of my favorite characters from Ghibli, and this is such an easy and fun way to recreate their whimsy/weirdness.
Halloween, previously:
Spooky Sea Cake, an anemone made with actual algae oil
Punch Biopsy Cake, or every dermatologist’s dream
Kaonashi/No Face’s Feast Tart with the teeniest tiniest sculptures
Eve’s temptation with bleeding pomegranate
Pumpkin Milk Tea Cake with eenie-meenie piped decorations
Brown butter pumpkin cake with chocolate chili ganache with teeny marzipan pumpkins
Pumpkin and condensed milk cakes, à la tres leches
Edward Gorey-inspired skeleton cat and bat cookies
Ghosts trapped in chocolate ganache on a pumpkin cake
Bats, eyeballs, and pumpkin-moji cookies
Old, old peanut butter cup cake with Reese’s
Of course, this ludicrous bleeding heart cake
Soot Sprite Brownie Cookies
makes 9 2-inch cookies
lightly adapted from Scientifically Sweet
ingredients:
90 grams (2/3 cup) AP flour
18 grams (3 tablespoons) Dutch process cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
170 grams (6 ounces) 70% cocoa (bittersweet) chocolate
75 grams (1/3 cup) butter
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
200 grams (1 cup) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
mini oreos, sprinkles, konpeito for decoration
directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking powder together and set aside.
Gently melt chocolate, butter, and salt together in a bain-marie or in the microwave.
Stir until glossy and smooth.
Whisk sugar, vanilla, and eggs together for 2 minutes, until glossy, lightened, and smooth.
Slowly stream in warm chocolate mix while whisking vigorously.
Gently stir in the flour mixture until fully incorporated.
Portion out using a cookie scoop, leaving at least 2 inches of space between them.
Using a large round cookie cutter sprayed lightly with oil, gently form the cookies into circles.
Decorate as desired with sprinkles/oreos.
Bake for 9 minutes; leave on tray for 10 minutes, then move to a cooling tray.
Decorate with royal icing (for the eyes) as desired.