By Knight Ridder Newspaper,Woman’s Day

All Hallow’s Eve comes only once a year, so Woman’s Day helps you go all out with the following tasty dessert recipe sure to please goblins big and small.

Chocolate Cookie Haunted House

Preparation: 30 minutes

Bake: 17-20 minutes

Ingredients:

4 rolls (18 ounces each) refrigerated sugar cookie dough

2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 boxes (16 ounces each) confectioners sugar

6 tablespoons egg white powder or meringue powder

3/4 cup water

1 can (16 ounces) vanilla frosting

Black paste food coloring

1/2 cup black decorating sugar

1 cup small round chocolate candy pieces (such as Popables or Kit Kat pieces)

Yellow or orange cellophane

1 cup harvest candy corn

1 box (14 ounces) small square cheese crackers (such as Cheez-Its)

2 bags (1 pound, 1.25 ounces each) candy-coated peanut butter pieces (such as Reese’s Pieces)

1 cup small gummy orange slices (such as Brach’s or Sunkist)

1 bag (12 ounces) chocolate chunk chips

1 bag (1 pound, 2 ounces) chocolate cream-filled sandwich cookies (such as Hydrox or Oreos), crushed fine

1 cup candy pumpkins

(Diagrams can be accessed at www.womansday.com/specials)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Knead cookie dough with the flour and cocoa powder until well blended. Using diagrams, make cardboard or paper patterns for sides of house. Working with 1/6 of the dough at a time, roll out dough onto sheets of foil to a scant 1/4-inch thickness. Cut out largest pattern pieces first, 1 side of house per sheet of foil. Cut out all windows and doors with a small knife, saving scraps. Transfer pattern pieces on the foil to ungreased baking sheet. Bake 17 to 20 minutes until golden. Transfer to wire rack; cool completely. Repeat with all the remaining patterns, rerolling scraps. Cut out and bake several tombstone-shaped cookies for decoration.

2. Combine sugar, egg white powder and water in a large mixing bowl. Beat with electric mixer until mixture is thick and fluffy, about 1 minute. Tint frosting black with paste food coloring. Put some of the frosting in a 1-quart resealable food-storage bag. Keep remaining frosting covered to prevent it from drying out.

3. Spread front panel of house with some of the frosting. Cover all but the cupola with black sugar. Attach small round chocolate candies as the cupola “roof” and other decorations; set aside to dry.

4. For all “windows,” cut out yellow or orange cellophane slightly larger than the windows. Snip a small corner from bag with frosting and attach “windows” to back side of panel to secure. Turn panels over and pipe window panes. Attach harvest candy decorations above some of the windows.

5. Assemble larger part of house on cardboard or serving platter, attaching panels with a generous amount of the frosting or a hot glue gun (then the house can be used only for decoration). Use large cans or bottles to help support structure. Let house dry at least 1 hour before continuing. Add the side structures (supporting them as well with cans and bottles); let dry at least 1 hour. Attach side roof panels supporting roof with cans or boxes. Allow structure to dry at least 1 hour.

6. Decorate sides and roof with crackers, candies and chunk chips as shown, trimming crackers with a serrated knife if necessary. (For the roof, start decorating from the bottom up.) Pipe RIP on the tombstone cookies and decoration on door. Arrange the crushed cookie crumbs around house as “dirt.” Place candy pumpkins in “dirt.”