I love these cookies because, unlike most Halloween cookies, they're chocolate. But it wasn't until this year's baking that I realized that not only do these pack a delightfully deep-chocolate flavor and a delicate crunch, but with a little tinkering, they also manage to be vegan.

Now, it's been my experience that most recipes (especially dessert) that go from being omnivorous to vegetarian, or vegetarian to vegan, only do so at a certain cost. The result can be a bit apologetic. The dish (or treat) tastes as if it's pulling its punches.

But these cookies were already there. Their recipes started off without any eggs, and without any need of them. Using some margarine instead of the butter originally called for was all it took to take them into the realm of the vegan.

And what fun, for once, to have a nice dark cookie dough to play with for Halloween! You can make bats, spiders, cats, witch's hats -- and you won't have to ice them after to make them look their parts convincingly.

To start: in a small bowl, whisk together the following:

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup cake flour

(Be sure to whisk these thoroughly, so the cocoa incorporates smoothly into the other ingredients.)

In a large bowl, cream together:

3/4 cup margarine
3/4 cup vegan powdered sugar

If you want your cookies to be vegan, that last ingredient is an important one to watch out for. Most ordinary, grocery-store sugar (either powdered or confectioners) is not vegan, because the processing method for cane sugar often uses bone char -- that is, charcoal made from animal bones. You can find vegan powdered sugar, such as Hain Pure Foods Organic, at health food stores or online.

After the sugar and margarine are creamed, add:

2 tablespoons real vanilla extract
The flour mixture

Mix thoroughly. Roll the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate it for at least two hours.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Roll out the dough on a floured surface and cut it into whatever shapes you like. Put them on an ungreased baking sheet.

Bake the cookies for 16 to 18 minutes -- start checking earlier if you made them very thin. Cool the cookies on their baking sheets on wire racks.

These are chocolate cookies I find myself craving all year long. Fortunately, they're easy to make; and if you don't want to explain why you're nibbling on a little black cat cookie in March, you can just make them in plain circles or squares the rest of the year.