It’s officially fall! I know it actually officially became fall several days ago, but at least around here, it doesn’t really seem fall until October and it’s not so blazing hot. We’ve been in the 80s here the last several days and it has been AMAZING. I’m so fall ready. October to me seems like the official kick-off to the holiday season, when you really start theming it up, and decorating your house and food.

However, it doesn’t seem to matter what time of year it is, we seem to be equally busy no matter the month. This past Friday, we picked up our second lab puppy, and are now parents to a six month old lab and a seven week old lab. Steven was on-call at the hospital to cover if anyone called in sick (they call this Jeopardy week), and wasn’t allowed to leave town, so my college best friend (she’s still my best friend, we just met in college) came to visit from San Angelo, and went with me to pick up Gump.

Hannah (Han) shared this recipe for owl cookies with me light years ago when we were in college. Her sweet mom’s birthday is on Halloween and Mrs. Fish has been making these cookies since she was a child, so Han has been making them since she was a child as well. I’m in love with how adorable they are, how easy they are, and how delicious they are.

Since she was in town visiting, and since October means owl cookies for us, I thought it would be fun to break out the old tradition and make some, and then share the recipe with all of you!

I actually ended up with a copy of this recipe from a magazine Steven’s granny gave me last fall, but I think I lost it somehow in the three times I moved since then. 😐 The good news is that Han has the original recipe, which is the original copy Mrs. Fish used as a child!

 

You will need:

• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 t vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t salt
• 3 T cocoa powder + 1 T butter OR 1 square unsweetened baking chocolate (melted)
• M&Ms
• Cashews

To start, cream the butter and brown sugar using a mixer. 

Add in the egg and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Once the egg and vanilla is incorporated into the butter and brown sugar, slowly add your bowl of dry ingredients and mix together well.

Once the dough is mixed, put onto a flat surface and make it into a round disk shape. Take a sharp knife and cut this disk into thirds.

Take 1/3 of the dough and put it back into the mixer bowl. Add in the cocoa (or unsweetened chocolate. I used cocoa.) and mix together until the cocoa is thoroughly mixed with the dough.

Next, lay out one of the thirds of plain dough and make it into a rectangle shape.

Take half the chocolate dough, and and roll it into a cylinder long enough to fit the rectangle.

Roll the plain dough around the chocolate dough, making it a log shape with the chocolate in the middle. Repeat with the other 1/3 of plain dough and 1/2 of chocolate dough. Wrap these in plastic wrap, parchment paper, or foil, and chill for at least 2 hours (trust me, you do NOT want to cut these if they aren’t chilled well enough!).

After your chill time (we had dinner, played with the pups, had a heart-to-heart, and watched Big Bang Theory), pull out your chilled dough and slice it. We just eye-ball the size of the slices, but you can make them as thick as you like.

Take a baking sheet, line it with foil, and spray it with baking spray. Take two slices at a time and put them together on the pan, squishing the middles together a little. Pinch the top outside corners a little so they perk up like an owl.

Once you have all your slices laid out and put together, put an M&M on top of each chocolate center, and one cashew in the middle to look like eyes and a beak. I put the same color M&Ms on each cookie, but you could be non-OCD and mix it up. Han and I had a discussion about this time about which direction to set the cashew. I honestly haven’t ever noticed which way I place it, and it looks like an owl either way.

Bake your cookies at 350* for about 8-12 minutes (look for them to be brown on the bottom, and more golden on top. They don’t puff up or expand as they bake, so you won’t see a size difference).

And then enjoy!

Ruger really wanted some, but was not invited to have any…

We enjoyed ours with coffee in the cute owl coffee mugs Steven’s granny gave me! It was a hoot! 😉

Let me know if you have any questions, and I hope you enjoy some owl cookies this fall season! They are perfect to enjoy yourself, or whip up for a fall bake sale, kid’s party, or fall get-together!

We also did pumpkin pictures with Ruger and Gump that you are welcome to enjoy below. I may or may not be the weird dog mom in the neighborhood now…