A few days ago, we passed International Bat Appreciation Day, a day I normally love to celebrate with fun recipes and DIY projects. Unfortunately, with all the chaos of the current pandemic, I totally missed this otherwise very important day!
Because bats are some of my favorite animals and seem to be receiving a fair amount of potentially unwanted attention lately, I’ve decided to extend International Bat Day into International Bat Month.
To celebrate our incredibly beneficial and often misunderstood flying friends, I decided to whip up a frosty cool pumpkin-spiced “flappucino”…(oh yeah, you see what I did there? Flap…pucino? As in bat wings go flap and frappucino and…Ahahaha…oh man do I need to get out more) and in keeping with our goal of staying both frugal and simple, everything you need for this recipe should either already be in your pantry, or readily available at your local grocer and hopefully in stock (good thing this recipe doesn’t require toilet paper…)
I also wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you to the incredible team behind the Zulay Kitchen line of kitchen tools and accessories.
MONTHS ago they reached out and asked if I would participate in a sponsored post with them and sent me a gorgeous glass cold brew coffee maker to use in one of my recipes.
Life being as it is, that sponsored post got pushed back…and back…and back (in case there was any question, I put the PRO in procrastination.)
Finally, with this lockdown in place, there were no more excuses and I knew it was time to finally do a post that would highlight their amazing iced coffee maker AND give me the opportunity to finally give them their very well deserved and very long coming shout out.
So yes, before we officially get started on this recipe…this is a sponsored post (yay!) and I am eternally grateful for the generosity and patience of the Zulay Kitchen team for not only sending me their gorgeous coffee maker but for being so patient in waiting for this post. 😊
Now let’s get started! This recipe actually takes a few steps and is best done in two parts spanning two days, so we’ll start with day 1 first.
DAY ONE
You will need:
- Coffee grounds
- Water
- Cold brew coffee maker – obviously I totally suggest this one!
- 2 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
- 6 Tablespoons Dutch-process cocoa
- 2 Tablespoons black cocoa (if you don’t have black cocoa, simply increase your Dutch-process cocoa by 2 tablespoons.)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup salted butter, cold and cut into chunks
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder
- 1 egg
- Black food coloring (optional)
The first thing we need to do is brew some cold brew coffee. In your cold brew coffee maker, measure out your coffee grounds and place them in the center of your stainless strainer. I like my coffee STRONG so I always add a bit extra but the general rule of thumb is 2 Tablespoons of grounds to every 8 ounces of water.
For this recipe, you will need 1 cup of coffee, but I suggest brewing an entire pot as it’s a nice treat to have around and cold brew can be safely stored in your fridge for up to two weeks.
Fill your carafe up with the proper water to your coffee grounds ratio and place in the fridge to brew for at least 12 hours.
While your coffee is brewing, let’s make the dark chocolate sugar cookies we’ll be using to make our bat wings.
Whisk the flour, cocoa powders, baking powder, and salt together. Set aside.
In another bowl, cream together your butter and sugars until fluffy and well combined. Add in your vanilla and espresso powder and egg. To make your wings extra dark, add in a teaspoon or so of black food coloring. This is purely optional.
Slowly sift in your flour/cocoa mix and continue to blend until your dough is combined.
Wrap your dough in plastic wrap and pop in the fridge to chill overnight.
DAY TWO
Day two has us making our actual flappucino and assembling our whole project, so let’s get going by first making those wings!
Preheat your oven to 350F/176C.
Using a piece of wax paper and a rolling pin, roll your dough out to a thickness of approximately ¼”.
To cut out the bat wings, I used this template:
The notches in the wings are there to allow the cookies to fit over the edge of your cup when serving. To ensure that the notch is the right size/depth for the cup you’re using, I strongly suggest printing out the template and testing a paper version first. Adjust accordingly and once you get the right size, you can make the rest of your wings using your sugar cookie dough.
Once you have your wing template sized properly, carefully cut out your bat wings. Don’t forget to make sure you cut out both the right wings and the left wings.
Chill the cut shapes for 5-10 minutes before baking (this helps prevent spread). Bake for 10-14 minutes. Let cool on the rack for a minute or two, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
While the cookies are cooling, let’s make our pumpkin spice flappucino.
You will need:
- 1/4 cup canned pumpkin
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 package of Jell-O Instant Pudding, any flavor (I used vanilla, but butterscotch is also amazingly delicious)
- 1 cup strong cold brewed coffee
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1 cup ice
- Whipped Cream
- Black sanding sugar
In a small saucepan, heat the pumpkin, sugar and pie spice until the sugar is just dissolved. Don’t overheat as the mixture can burn easily.
Remove from heat and add in your vanilla. Set aside and allow to cool.
Once cooled, combine in your blender your pumpkin mixture, your instant pudding, 1 cup of your cold-brewed coffee, your milk and a cup of ice.
Pulse until your ice is crushed and the whole mixture is well blended.
Divide your mixture between two mugs and top with a generous swirl of whipped cream and a sprinkle of black sanding sugar.
Carefully place one set of your sugar cookie bat wings on the rim of your mug and serve!
This sweet treat is a perfect blast of cool fall flavors and colors and a great way to bring a little spooky Halloween into your spring!
And please, if you decide to grab your own stainless steel and glass cold brew coffee maker, consider Zulay Kitchen. I refuse to endorse any product I don’t believe in or use myself, but I have been exceptionally happy with them. The cold brew coffee maker is in my fridge all the time and there is nothing better on a slow spring afternoon than a cup of cold brew to help wake me back up.
Bone appetite!
Because we’re continuing Bat Appreciation Week into the rest of the month, here are a few past bat-tastic posts that deserve to be shared again!
