Flying Biscotti Bats and Blood Velvet Cocoa!

For this awesome challenge I wanted to try and come up with a Halloween food I've never seen before, and add a fun magical twist! These yummy Biscotti Bats are paired with decadent Blood (Red) Velvet Cocoa, for a vampire's cozy night in, on a chilly October night. And YES, you can have them flying over your Halloween table setting for the most magical treat ever! Let's get started boys and ghouls!

Ingredients

• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 2 tbs Pero instant drink mix

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt and Pero
• In a separate bowl cream the butter, eggs and sugar until light and fluffy
• Add the dry ingredients until combined, and dust a work surface with flour.

• Using your hands, shape the dough into a rough ball (if it's still too sticky, dust with a bit more flour)

• Shape your bats, they grow slightly so be sure to make them slightly smaller than you want. Keep the dough about 1 inch high.
• Place bats onto the prepared baking sheet
• Bake for about 35-45 minutes, until firm
• Let the bats cool on a flat surface for about 5 minutes (if you wait too long, the biscotti will be difficult to cut)
• Using a sharp knife, slice the edges of your bats to give that nice Biscotti look
• You can pop them back in the oven for about 10 minutes if you'd like them extra crunchy, or keep them as they are, for a slightly softer Biscotti
• Let cool for about another hour

For the faces and wings, you will need:

• Fondant (bought or made)
• Fondant shaping tools
• Wilton dye (black and brown)
• Edible brown color dust
• Edible shimmer dust
• Edible Rice Paper (can be found in most Asian food markets)
• Black Wilton food writer
• Print outs of bat wings to trace
• Scissors
• Clear fishing line

I used homemade fondant to create the bat faces, and you can find homemade fondant recipes right here on instructables! But store bought fondant works great as well.

You need:

• Light brown fondant
• Black fondant
• White fondant (I used Wilson dye)

• First, shape a small amount of brown fondant into a slightly diamond shape
• Adhere to the biscotti with a little water
• Next, use a fondant shaping tool to create the basic features
• Add a mouth and nostrils with a pointed fondant tool
• Add small black fondant balls for eyes. to add dimension, place a small white ball of fondant on each eye, as it's pupil
• Create fangs and teeth out of white fondant and add to the mouth
• Add eye brows with a thin rolled line of brown fondant. This is where you can get creative with expression! Raised eye brows, droopy ones, they give your bats character!
• Form ears out of loose triangles of brown fondant. The ears can give personality as well! Give them texture by adding indented lines

These bat wings are edible!

Using edible rice paper, trace bat wings a black food writer. (Be careful, rice paper is delicate, and may break, make extra wings just in case) I went through a few, getting these right.

• Cut out wings.
• Add brown, and shimmer dust to wings, by gently rubbing it on with your finger
• Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time, stirring each time you check, until creamy.
• Adhere wings to bats with melted chocolate.
• Let cool face down on a wire rack ( be mindful of the face)
• Using a variety of bat wings, will give personality to your bats, so get creative!

Clear fishing line is one of my all time favorite things to work with! I've made candles fly, cakes fly and I've even done this with edible butterflies for a baby shower! There is nothing quite as magical as letting your guest pluck their dessert from the air! For this display I hung my bats from a chandelier, but they can also be hung from the ceiling, using eye-hooks.

• Measure out how low you want your bats to hang
• Cut your strands
• Hang your bats one by one until you achieve your desire look
• Keep in mind that they may spin or tangle if they are too close to each-other

This cocoa is inspired by my favorite red velvet hot chocolate recipe! And no red velvet is complete without a delicious cream cheese whipped cream topping!

For Cocoa:

• 4 cups whole milk
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup baking cocoa
• 2 teaspoons Red Food Color

For Whipped Topping:

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions for Cocoa

• Heat milk on low in a small sauce pan
• Stir slowly as you add cocoa, and sugar
• Turn heat up to medium, and continuously stir as you add in your red food color.

Directions for Topping

• By hand or with a hand held mixer, beat all ingredients together, until the topping is the consistency of cool whip
• Add topping to Blood Velvet Cocoa and enjoy!

Makes 6-8 servings

I hope you enjoyed creating these cute critters, and I hope you LOVED eating them! My kids sure did... Happy Halloween! And please vote for me for the Halloween Food Contest!

All my love!

-That Redhead