Want to impress your little ghouls this Halloween? Make a big batch of these cute and yummy witches hats! Freshly baked, tender-sweet chocolate cookies are topped with a round of orange-flavored icing and then capped off with a milk or dark chocolate Hershey’s® Kiss®.

The cookie dough, an extra chocolaty sugar cookie dough, can be made up to 1 week in advance and refrigerated or up to 1 month in advance and frozen. You can even roll and cut the cookies, then freeze them before baking (just freeze them separately on a baking sheet, then transfer them to an airtight container; make sure to bake them directly from frozen).

The sugar cookies are even great on their own, and can be rolled and cut with your favorite Halloween cookie cutters if you like. And even though I think the cookies are the best part, if you run out of time you can always use chocolate wafer cookies in a pinch.

Chocolate Wicked Witch Hat Cookies (Wendy Goodfriend)

Chocolate Wicked Witch Hat Cookies

Makes about 40 cookies

Ingredients:

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Chocolate sugar cookies

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
12 tbsp unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
1 tbsp cream cheese
1 large egg yolk
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Icing

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 1/2 tbsp orange juice
A few drops yellow and red food coloring

About 40 Hershey’s® Kisses®, unwrapped

Instructions:

1. To make the cookies, whisk together the flour and cocoa powder in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the sugar and salt and mix together with the paddle attachment. Add the butter and cream cheese and mix until the mixture is crumbly. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and mix until the dough comes together and the ingredients are thoroughly combined; the dough will come together in one large lump.

Adding vanilla to the cookie dough (Wendy Goodfriend)

1. Scrape the dough onto a work surface, divide it in half and form it into two disks. (If you want to only do half of the cookies, you can wrap and freeze one disk at this point to use later.)

Divide the dough in half and form it into two disks. (Wendy Goodfriend)

1. Roll out one disk of dough between 2 large pieces of parchment paper to about 1/8th to 1/16th inch thick. Repeat with the 2nd dough disk. Refrigerate until chilled, about 30 minutes.

Roll out one disk of dough between 2 large pieces of parchment paper (Wendy Goodfriend)

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Remove the top sheets of parchment and use them to line 2 baking sheets. Using a round 2 1/4-inch cookie cutter, cut out as many rounds as possible. Transfer the cookies to a prepared baking sheet.

Using a round 2 1/4-inch cookie cutter, cut out as many rounds as possible. (Wendy Goodfriend)

1. Repeat with remaining cookie dough, rerolling the scraps. Place the re-rolled cookies on a 2nd lined baking sheet, and chill. You should end up with about 40 cookies total.

Transfer the cookies to a prepared baking sheet. (Wendy Goodfriend)

1. Bake the cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until they are firm to the touch, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Bake the cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until they are firm to the touch, about 8 minutes. (Wendy Goodfriend)

1. To make the icing, in a bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, orange juice and vanilla extract until smooth. Color with yellow and red food coloring to create orange icing. (The icing will be thick, but it makes it easier to pipe it on.)

Color the icing with yellow and red food coloring to create orange icing. (Wendy Goodfriend)

1. To assemble the witches hats, pipe or spread a dime-size round of icing on the top of each sandwich cookie, then top with a kiss. Let set for 30 minutes, then serve or store in an airtight container for up to 1 day.

To assemble the witches hats, pipe or spread a dime-size round of icing on the top of each sandwich cookie, then top with a kiss. (Wendy Goodfriend)

Serve the Wicked Witch Hat Cookies with spiders. (Wendy Goodfriend)

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Halloween Chocolate Wicked Witch Hat Cookies