Trick or treat.

Snickers Bar: Hey, Almond Joy, what are you going as for Halloween?
Almond Joy: Hm...good question. Do you want to go as something together?
Snickers Bar: Sure! I have an idea -- let's dress up as cookies.

In observance of Halloween, this week I baked cookies inspired by candy bars:

• "Almond Joy": chocolate cookie with coconut, toasted sliced almonds, and chocolate chips
• "Snickers": a sandwich cookie (one side peanut butter cookie, one side chocolate cookie) filled with vanilla buttercream and finished with a caramel drizzle

And now for a brief a lesson in cooking safety: I keep sugar and flour in big glass jars on my counter, because that makes staple ingredients easily accessible (and it looks pretty that way on TV). I had just removed the first batch of Almond Joys from the oven when I started sifting flour for the chocolate half of the Snickers batch. As I was pushing the last bits of flour, cocoa, baking soda, and baking powder through the sieve, I cut my finger on a tiny splinter of glass. I immediately inspected my flour jar and located a tiny chip in the glass edge. I didn't know which was more horrifying: the idea that I had to throw away all of those cookies or just how much a tiny glass cut can bleed. Tip for new bakers:don't for a moment second-guess whether or not you should serve baked goods which risk containing broken glass (no matter how much work the first batch required). I tossed the cookies, flour, and jar in the trash.

Fortunately I had another unopened bag of flour in my pantry, so I was able to re-make the cookies. If I do say so myself, they were quite popular in the office the next day.

~

Base cookies all by Martha Stewart. Adapted for candy bar versions by me. I only used half recipes of the PB and chocolate cookies since I was going to sandwich them together.

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 c all-purpose flour

1/4 t coarse salt

1/4 t baking soda

4 T unsalted butter, softened

1 1/4 c packed light-brown sugar

1 large egg

1 t pure vanilla extract
1 c smooth peanut butter

1 c salted whole peanuts - for a fabulous peanutty crunch

Preheat oven to 350°F. Sift together flour, salt, and baking soda. Put butter and sugar in a (different) bowl of an electric mixer; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in egg, vanilla and peanut butter. Fold in flour until combined (don't overmix). Stir in peanuts.

Drop 2 teaspoons of dough on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing about 3" apart. Lightly flatten to 1 1/2" in diameter. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges are just golden, about 13 minutes.

Chocolate Cookies

1 1/4 c all-purpose flour

3/4 c Dutch-process cocoa powder

1 t baking soda

1/4 t baking powder

1 1/2 c sugar, plus more for flattening cookies

10 T (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 large egg, room temperature

Preheat oven to 375°F. Into a medium-size bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg; beat to combine. Stir in flour completely without overmixing. Using a 1 1/4" ice cream scoop, drop dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets about 2" apart. Dip bottom of a glass in sugar; press to flatten cookies to about 1/8" thick. (Keep dipping the glass in sugar to avoid sticking.) Transfer to oven, and bake until cookies are firm, about 10 to 12 minutes, rotating baking sheets halfway through.

Double-Chocolate Coconut Cookies

1 c (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 c granulated sugar

3/4 c packed light-brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 t pure vanilla extract

1 3/4 c all-purpose flour

1/4 c unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

1 t baking soda

1/2 t baking powder

1/2 t coarse salt

2 c white-chocolate chunks (about 9 oz) - I used semi-sweet to stay more true to an Almond Joy

1 3/4 c sweetened flaked coconut

1 3/4 c coarsely chopped walnuts, (about 6 oz) - I used almonds instead

Preheat oven to 350°F. Put butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer; mix on medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Mix in eggs, 1 at a time. Stir in vanilla. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl. Mix into butter mixture well combined. Stir in chocolate, coconut, and nuts. Using a 1 1/2" ice cream scoop, drop batter onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing 2" apart. Flatten slightly. Bake until set (they'll still be very soft, but you should be able to touch without getting batter on your hands), 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks 2 minutes.