Delightfully Dark Mark Cookies

Okay, so how many of you blog-reading Harry Potter fans out there are representin’ Soytherin house? Because these cookies are for you!

These are the cookies I made to bring along to the midnight showing of Half-Blood Prince. They’re a dark chocolate shortbread cookie with the dark mark on top to show off your devotion to the Dark Lord. They have a very nice, light texture, but are a little crumbly so if you plan on sneaking them into the movies make sure you put them in a sturdier container, like tupperware. Don’t think you can just put these babies in ziplock bags and get away with it!

Chocolate Shortbread Cookies
Makes about 30

1 cup margarine
3/4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon chocolate extract (or more vanilla)
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tablespoon black cocoa powder (optional, but it makes both the flavour and colour a little darker)
1/4 teaspoon salt
Couple splashes of soymilk, if needed

In a large bowl, beat the margarine with an electric mixer until smooth. Add powdered sugar, and beat until smooth. Add the extracts and mix until an even consistency is reached.

In a separate bowl, stir together the salt, flour, and cocoa powders. Add to the wet mixture, and mix until well combined. The dough should be neither sticky nor dry. Mine was a little dry, so I added a little bit of soymilk just until it stuck together as a dough. If it’s too soft, chill in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes.

Transfer dough to a large plastic (ziplock) bag. Keeping the bag unzipped, use a rolling pin to flatten the dough evenly, making sure to spread it to the bottom corners, then working your way up to the open end. The dough should nearly fill the bag, and should only be about 1/8″ thick.

Refrigerate the rolled-out dough (making sure to keep it flat) for about a half hour. You can use this time to do a little death eater tango or, if you’re boring like me, clean up the kitchen a little and prepare for the last step.

Preheat oven to 350F.

When dough is nice and firm, cut the plastic bag and turn the dough onto a cutting board. Using a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut the dough into about 25-30 2″ squares.

Gently lift each square from the cutting board and transfer to a prepared baking sheet (ungreased or with parchment paper).

To avoid them puffing up, poke each cookie twice with a fork, penetrating to the baking sheet. You may need to hold the surrounding dough down with your fingers, as each piece will want to stick to the fork.

Bake for 9-12 minutes, until they look done. Immediately transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Evil Icing
Note: I never measure ingredients when I make this icing, so I’m not putting any amounts here. The amounts differ based on humidity, altitude, how much/what kind of food coloring you’re using, etc anyway. You’ve probably made icing before, but if not you’ll see how ridiculously easy it is.

Powdered sugar
Soymilk
Green food coloring (I used about 1/2 teaspoon green and a few drops neon green)

Put powdered sugar in a small/medium-sized bowl (use what looks like is going to be a little more than you need, when it gets wet it’ll get more compact). Add a few splashes of soymilk and mix. Add food coloring and mix. Add more sugar if too liquidy, more soymilk if too dry. Transfer to a small ziplock bag and close the bag. Cut a tiny corner out of the bag to pipe icing (Alternatively, you can put all the ingredients directly into the bag and mix them up that way).

Assembly:
Practice drawing dark marks on a piece of paper first to figure out your best way to do it (I just copied from the picture on the back of the HBP book). Then, once cookies are cooled completely, pipe dark marks onto the cookies. Voila! Delightfully dark mark cookies for all your death-eater friends. Plus, now you’re an expert at drawing dark marks!

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