Coffin cookies for Halloween

The butter should be really soft: if you can press a dent into it with your finger without any resistance, it is perfect. Beat it with caster sugar, salt and vanilla for two to three minutes with a hand mixer, until the mixture is noticeably lighter. This incorporates air into the dough, and the cookies will turn out nicely short.

Let the beaten egg run in in a thin stream while the mixer keeps going. Please don't add it all at once, otherwise the butter and egg will separate.

Then add the flour. Mix only until no dry flour is visible: the less you work the dough, the more tender it becomes.

Press the crumbly mixture together briefly with your hands, do not knead! Weigh out 215 g for the light dough. Work the cocoa powder into the rest (about 205 g) until the colour is even.

Press both doughs into flat discs, wrap them in cling film and put them in the fridge for about one hour. Chilled flat, they will then be very easy to roll out.

Preheat the oven to 190 °C fan. Roll the dough out on a little flour to 3 mm thick. Using rolling-pin guides on the left and right, it will be the same thickness everywhere, and the walls will fit together perfectly later.

Now the 3D coffin cookie cutter comes into play. It has four shapes, and you need each one twice per coffin: the coffin shape for the base and lid, the long walls, the angled walls, and the head and foot ends. That makes eight pieces per coffin.

Place the pieces on a baking tray lined with baking paper, leaving some space between them.

Bake the pieces for 9 minutes at 190 °C fan, until the edges just take on a little colour. Let them cool completely on the tray: when warm they are still soft and will break when assembled.

To stick everything together, you'll need tempered couverture: white for the light coffins and dark for the dark ones. If you'd rather not temper, cake icing works wonderfully too. Fill the chocolate into a small piping bag.

Pipe a fine line of chocolate along the edges of the walls. Our little trick: always put the chocolate on the side that was facing up during baking. That side will face inward later, and the smooth underside stays visible on the outside.

Place the walls one after another onto the edge of the base and press them on briefly.

Finally, pipe a line of chocolate into all the seams on the inside. This makes your coffin stable and watertight for the filling. Let the chocolate set before you move on.

For the dark coffins, bring the double cream and butter to the boil, pour both over the chopped dark couverture, let it stand briefly, then stir to a smooth, glossy ganache. Let it cool slightly so it pipes easily.

First pipe the Caramel cream into the dark coffins and smooth it out. Then top with the ganache, filling almost up to the rim.

Mix the chopped walnuts into the Caramel cream, fill the light coffins with it and smooth the surface. Finally, sprinkle the Oreo crumbs over the top, and it will look just like fresh soil.

Now it gets really spooky! With white and dark chocolate in a piping bag, you freehand crosses, chains, spider webs, skulls or an "R.I.P." onto the lids. Faster still is ready-made sugar decoration, which you stick on with a dab of chocolate. Let your imagination run wild!

Place the lids on the coffins with a dab of chocolate, either fully closed or slightly shifted so the filling peeks out.