Sweetish House Mafia's Peanut-Butter & Chocolate-Spider Halloween Cookies Are Bloody Delicious

Moon’s out, goons out! #HGCircus is back and this time we’re bringing you a creep-tacular Halloween bash with HG Freak Show. But we would never dream of letting you party on an empty stomach so we caught up with Neha Sethi, founder of Sweetish House Mafia and baker extraordinaire who helped us create some wonderfully weird (but totally delicious) Peanut Butter and Chocolate Spider Cookies. We’ve taken the Halloween experience to another level so come on down to Social at Todi Mills this Thursday and join in the fun! You can get your hands on these special cookies at any one of their four outlets, or if you’re feeling lazy, get them delivered to your door exclusively via Swiggy. For all the master chefs out there or those of you who feel adventurous, we’ve included this exclusive recipe so you can whip up a batch of SHM cookies in your own kitchen.

Halloween Special : Peanut Butter and Chocolate Spider Cookies

Sweetish House Mafia, Lower Parel

Ingredients for cookies:

• 2.5 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 0.5 tsp baking powder
• 230 grams butter
• 250 grams peanut butter (crunchy or smooth, either work)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 0.75 cup castor sugar
• 2 eggs
• 0.5 cups sugar for rolling
• 0.5 cups chocolate chips for topping

Ingredients for Chocolate Ganache Filling:

• 150 grams cream
• 150 grams chocolate

Method for cookies:
1. Mix together flour, soda and baking powder. Set aside.
2. Beat together butter and peanut butter till smooth. Add both sugars and mix again. To this mixture add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition.
3. Lastly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. The dough will be soft. If too sticky, refrigerate briefly.

4. Take approximately 1.5 tablespoons of dough per cookie ball. Roll the dough into small balls and drop them into a bowl of sugar, rolling them around so that they are coated with sugar. Place the sugar coated balls on the baking tray and make criss-cross indentations with a fork. Place them about 1.5 inches apart. Place 3 chocolate chips on top of every alternate dough ball. These make the top of the sandwiches.
5. Bake at 175 Celsius for approximately 8-10 minutes depending on your oven. The cookies should be lightly coloured. Allow to cool.

Method for Ganache:
1. Bring cream to a boil. Take off stove. Quickly whisk in the chocolate chips till melted. Allow to cool.

Assembling:
1. Take a piping bag with the smallest tip and fill it with the cooled chocolate filling. Pipe little spider legs from the chocolate chips that were placed on the cookies (these make the top of the sandwiches).
2. With a piping bag of a larger tip or with a spoon, cover the bottom cookie (the one without the chocolate chips) with a thick chocolate layer making sure to stay away from the edges as the filling will spread once the top of the sandwich is in place.
3. Place the spidery top cookie on the chocolate layer to complete the cookie sandwich.

While we were waiting for the cookies to bake we decided to catch up with Neha and find out how it all began. Sweetish House Mafia started out as a small venture with Neha selling her delicious cupcakes, pies, waffles and cookies from the back of her car. She had a background in investment banking but quickly discovered that the Finance industry was not her cup of tea so while she decided what path to take in life she started baking. She loves to bake and even at a young age used to help her mother make desserts for dinner parties. Her friends and family loved her work and
Amazingly, she has no formal training but that has never deterred her, as she says ‘I like baking, and I like to bake for myself’ This passion project soon started gathering steam and Neha decided to move her operation to a more permanent location and in September 2014 she opened up her first brick-and-mortar store in Lower Parel and she was stunned at how quickly the project took off.
Today Sweetish House Mafia has four outlets across the city and plans for many more on the way. Neha is passionate about her work and makes sure that each of her creations is special. ‘I love what I do because I love eating what I make. It’s a win-win really. The combinations I work with are the ones I myself love eating. In this case peanut butter and chocolate just go together naturally’ Her divine products are the talk of the town and SHM has become synonymous with indulgence so being able to work with her to create our Choco-peanut butter spider cookies was a really wonderful experience.

Featured Image Courtesy Tanya Prasad

Cookie Recipe Courtesy Neha Sethi of Sweetish House Mafia

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