Cheddar-Artichoke Bat Tarts

Make these Cheddar-Artichoke Bat Tarts inspired by The Café at the Edge of the Woods to celebrate Halloween or any time you (or your local monsters) are craving an easy-cheesy snack.

Halloween is, admittedly, for kids, but I unabashedly love it, too. I'm down for any excuse to dress up in a costume, put up seasonal decorations, and wander a neighborhood getting a little glimpse into people's homes. I emphatically do not like jump-scares (miss me with your haunted hayride), but a little bit of spookiness I can get behind, especially when it comes to food. Last year I made a Blood Punch with Floating Eyeballs that was rated 10/10 by local trick-or-treaters, and I still fondly remember a friend's "Terror-misu," complete with a hand bursting out of the surface, from one of her epic Halloween parties.

The Café at the Edge of the Woods isn't specifically a Halloween book, but it's full of goblins, ghouls, and gorgeously gross food, so this felt like the perfect time to cover this tale and offer a fun seasonal treat inspired by the story.

About The Café at the Edge of the Woods

The Café at the Edge of the Woods (2024) is the debut picture book by English author, illustrator, and animator Mikey Please (1984-Present). According to The Guardian, the concept for the book grew out of a game that he, his wife, and his son played together during Covid lockdown. His wife would pretend to be a “pompous chef," his son would play the “downtrodden waiter," and he would act the part of a demanding customer.

From that imaginative world-building came the story of Rene, a fine-dining chef who opens a café next to an enchanted forest. To her horror, her customers (local monsters), demand the most disgusting of foods, rather than her elegantly prepared dishes. Thankfully, her steadfast waiter, Glumfoot, knows just how to disguise and transform the chef's creations into menu items the customers will love.

The text of the book is set in a charming rhyme scheme, and Please's illustrations show off his animation background—full of life, movement, and humor. The book went on to win the Waterstones Children's Book Prize in 2025 as well as Children's Book of the Year. There are now two more books in the Rene and Glumfoot series, The Cave Downwind of the Café (2025) and The Thieves Beneath the Floorboards (2026), which I'm excited to check out next.

Recipe Inspiration

"The truffle stew is rather nice, it comes with peas and long grain rice."
"Bats! And slugs and battered mice!"
"Slugs and mice?!" gasped Rene. "Perhaps you'd like the cheddar tart? Topped with chopped artichoke heart."
— Mikey Please, The Café at the Edge of the Woods

Rene's first customer at the café is a huge, hulking ogre, and he has no interest in the fancy items on her menu. He demands instead bats, slugs, and mice, and the aspiring chef is insulted and flabbergasted. But clever Glumfoot convinces her to make her dishes anyways, and when her back is turned, rearranges how they're presented so they resemble what the customer wants. A cheddar tart turns into a bat, a truffle stew becomes slugs in goo, and the rice becomes maggot fondue (ew!).

I liked the sound of the cheddar-artichoke tart in the story, and played around in the kitchen with a few different ways to transform that concept into something that looked like a bat. While Rene's version was undoubtedly very fancy and all made from scratch, I wanted to keep this recipe easy for kids to make, so I turned to pre-made doughs to start. Frozen puff pastry was fancy, but a little sticky and finicky to work with. Refrigerated pie dough—the "just unroll" kind—proved to be just the ticket: easy to manipulate, flaky and buttery, with no need to roll or shape it.

The cheddar part was easy (I went with yellow cheddar for orange Halloween vibes!), but the artichoke element took some more tinkering. After trying to incorporate canned and jarred marinated artichoke hearts into the filling (too wet, and too chunky), an unlikely ingredient proved the best option: a refrigerated tub of spinach-artichoke dip. The dip provided creamy richness and artichoke flavor in the filling, making the tarts feel fancy and elegant. Best of of all, using it meant zero prep was needed, and that the whole recipe came together with just four main ingredients.

With the dough and filling settled, I went around a few times to figure out how to shape everything into bats. I considered making a large tart in a tart pan, then cutting it up and rearranging it into a bat shape, as in the story, but that felt clunky and hard to serve. I liked the idea of little individual hand-held treats to share at a Halloween party or other fall gathering, and tried folding the dough various ways to make small hand pies, but that proved fussy, too. In the end, spreading the filling between two rounds of dough and then cutting out little bat sandwiches with a bat-shaped cookie cutter proved to be fun and easy.

From there, an egg wash on top made the little tartlets shiny and golden, and a sprinkle of optional black sesame seeds or poppy seeds turned them their signature black color. Crisp and flaky on the outside, gooey, cheesy, and savory in the middle, I think any ogre or hungry trick-or-treater would be delighted to find these cute little snacks on offer.

Ingredients You'll Need

To make these Cheddar-Artichoke Bat Tarts, you'll need:

• Pie dough: I developed this recipe with store-bought unroll-style refrigerated pie dough, such as Pillsbury, for ease. You'll need one box with two crusts.
• Shredded cheddar cheese: I like to use yellow cheddar here as a nod to Halloween with orange and black, but you can use any kind of cheddar you have on hand, or another melty cheese of your choice like Monterey Jack or Havarti.
• Spinach-artichoke dip: Store-bought dip brings artichoke flavor and extra richness to the tart filling with zero work.
• 1 large egg
• Poppy seeds or black sesame seeds: These are optional, but they are what give the bats their black color!

How To Make Cheddar-Artichoke Bat Tarts

The full recipe with detailed timing and instructions for these tarts is below, but here are some key moments to look out for along the way:

1. Spread the filling: Spread a mixture of cheddar and spinach-artichoke dip into an even layer on a round of pie dough set on parchment.

2. Cut out the bats: Unroll another round of pie dough on top of the filling, then use a bat-shaped cookie cutter to cut out individual bats.

3. Egg wash and sprinkle: Use a pastry brush to paint each bat with a mix of beaten egg and water, then sprinkle with seeds, if you're using them.

4. Bake: Bake the bats until the pastry is golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Let cool slightly on the baking sheet, then serve warm.

• If you buy pre-shredded cheddar, there's nothing sharp in this recipe other than the cookie cutter, making it great for younger chefs to try.
• Kids can use whatever shape of cookie cutter they like to cut out their tarts! Other fall shapes like leaves, pumpkins, ghosts, or black cats would be fun here instead of bats. Or, they can use a paring knife to cut out free-form shapes from the dough in any shape they'd like to imagine.
• These treats are great to make for a Halloween gathering or other fall party, and you can easily make a double batch or more to serve a crowd.

Cheddar-Artichoke Bat Tarts

Make these Cheddar-Artichoke Bat Tarts inspired by The Café at the Edge of the Woods to celebrate Halloween or any time you or your local monsters are craving an easy-cheesy snack.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Cooling Time 5 minutes mins

Total Time 50 minutes mins

Course Snack

Cuisine American

Servings 9

Good To Know

• If you don’t have a bat-shaped cookie cutter (or just want to try another shape), you can use any shape of cookie cutter you like with this recipe! Pumpkins, ghosts, or black cats would also be fun for Halloween.
• You’ll have scraps left over after cutting out the shapes. If you like, save the scraps and use a paring knife to cut them into pieces. Transfer the parchment to a second baking sheet, spread out the pieces, and bake them as directed. They’ll be more like blobs and squiggles, but still delicious to eat.
• You can sprinkle these treats with other savory seasonings instead of the black sesame or poppy seeds (everything bagel seasoning would be tasty, I bet!), or leave them plain if you prefer.

Equipment You'll Need

• Rimmed baking sheet
• Parchment paper
• 2 Small bowls
• Spoon
• Bat-shaped cookie cutter (about 5 inches wide)
• Fork or small whisk
• Pastry brush
• Oven mitts
• Cooling rack

Measure Your Ingredients

• 1 (14-ounce) box unroll-style refrigerated pie dough (2 crusts)
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
• ⅔ cup refrigerated spinach-artichoke dip
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon water
• 1 to 2 tablespoons black sesame seeds or poppy seeds

Let's Cook!

 

• 1 (14-ounce) box unroll-style refrigerated pie dough
  Remove the pie crusts from the refrigerator and let the pouches stand at room temperature to soften up, 10 to 15 minutes.
• Meanwhile, set your oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 425°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese, ⅔ cup refrigerated spinach-artichoke dip
  In a small bowl, use a spoon to stir together the shredded cheddar and artichoke dip until well combined.
• Lay out another sheet of parchment paper on the counter. Gently unroll one of the softened pie crusts onto the parchment sheet. Use the spoon to spread the cheddar-artichoke filling evenly over the pie dough.
• Unroll the second pie crust/pastry and place it on top of the filling to form a sandwich. Press the top crust down gently to stick everything together.

  Use a bat-shaped cookie cutter to cut out shapes from the filled pastry and transfer them to the parchment-lined baking sheet. Keep the cutouts as close together as you can to get as many bats as possible; you'll get 8 to 10 depending on the size of your cutter. If the cutouts don’t transfer easily in the cookie cutter, use a small offset spatula to help move them to the baking sheet.
• For the cleanest edges of the bat shapes, transfer the baking sheet to the freezer for 15 minutes or the fridge for 30 minutes. If you don’t mind them being a little messy, keep going!
• 1 large egg, 1 teaspoon water, 1 to 2 tablespoons black sesame seeds or poppy seeds
  In a second small bowl, combine the egg and water. Use a fork or small whisk to beat until well combined. Use a pastry brush to lightly paint the tops of the bats with the beaten egg. Sprinkle each bat evenly with the black sesame seeds or poppy seeds, if you like.
• Place the baking sheet in the preheated oven. Bake until the pastry is deep golden and the cheese is bubbly inside, 12 to 15 minutes. Some of the cheese may bubble out of the sides, and that's okay!
• Use oven mitts to remove the baking sheet from the oven and place it on the stovetop or a cooling rack. Let cool for 5 minutes, then use a spatula to transfer each bat to a serving plate or a platter and serve warm.

Keyword Cheddar-Artichoke Bat Tarts, Easy Halloween Snacks

Conversation Starters

While your bat tarts are baking and when you sit down to enjoy them together, talk about what it was like to make the recipe and the themes in The Café at the Edge of the Woods. You can help young readers make connections to the book and share your own answers, ideas, and stories with them with the following prompts:

• Chef Rene wants to make fancy food for her customers. What's the fanciest food you've ever eaten, and what was it like?
• If you could open your own restaurant, where would you want it to be, and what would you put on the menu? Who would you want your customers to be?
• Can you think of a food that you could transform into something a little bit creepy by changing its appearance or its name? Do you think people would try it, or would they be scared?