Halloween Recipes, post 'em here!

[Clive]

Pumpkin Bread

I'm not sure where I originally discovered this recipe - I've had it stashed away in my file of ritual outlines and recipes for years. It turns out more like cake than bread, very moist and delicious.

Ingredients:
I cup all-purpose flour, or 1/2 cup each all-purpose and wholewheat flours
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon powder (more or less to taste)
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup pumpkin pur

[Gardenia]

Re: Halloween Recipes, post 'em here!

Spiced Candy Nuts

1/3 cup dark brown sugar
2/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon allspice
a pinch of ground clove
1 teaspoon salt
1 pound of nuts - walnuts, pecan halves, hazelnuts, and peanuts all work well individually, or a mix of them
1 egg white at room temperature
1 tablespoon apple cider (or water)

Mix the sugars, spices, and salt well. Beat the egg white and cider until frothy. Add the nuts to the egg white mixture, and stir until evenly coated. Sprinkle the sugar mixture over the nuts, and coat evenly. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, and spread the nuts in a single layer. Bake for 30 minutes, at 300F, stirring occasionally. Remove from the oven, and separate them a bit to dry, to prevent them from all sticking together in one big lump.

[Clive]

Re: Halloween Recipes, post 'em here!

[quote author=Gardenia link=topic=99.msg383#msg383 date=1286655445]
Spiced Candy Nuts[/quote]

Those sound delicious! I must try them.

[Dez]

Re: Halloween Recipes, post 'em here!

Stumbled on this the other day, I think it's adorable.

Goblin Cheese Ball

[Dez]

Re: Halloween Recipes, post 'em here!

Trying to think what else we do around Halloween...

Make little eyeballs for your tomato soup using little ball mozzarella and a pimento-stuffed olive.

Grilled cheese sandwiches using dark bread, with a cookie cutter shape like a witch hat, or moon and star, taken out of the top slice.

Witch Fingers

Tried these pumpkin cupcakes last year, with good results.


Does anyone have a good mulled cider recipe? Alcoholic or otherwise.

[Gardenia]

Re: Halloween Recipes, post 'em here!

Those cupcakes are so cute! Their pretzel tops reminds me of these little witch boom cookies I made one year... hmm, will have to dig that recipe out.

The mulled cider recipe I use...
1 gallon of apple cider
1 orange, sliced
1/8 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup white sugar
3 3" cinnamon sticks
5 whole allspice
about 7 cloves
a pinch or two of ground nutmeg

Bring everything to boil in a large pot, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer about 20 minutes.

Or, the cider, sugars, cinnamon sticks, a star anise pod, and a bit of ginger. Something a little different than the traditional mulling spices most around here use.

[Gardenia]

Re: Halloween Recipes, post 'em here!

My favorite Halloween treat to make is caramel apples. They're pretty easy, and there are a lot of different things you can do with them.

For just plain caramel apples you'll of course need apples (I like small granny smith), caramel (about 16 oz for six apples?), a bit of milk, and some sticks.
A lot of apples from the store come with a coat of wax on them, which can cause the caramel to slip down the apple when it is setting. Dip the apple into boiling water for just a second or so, and then wipe it dry.
Melt the caramel in a double boiler, with a bit of the milk to thin it out - I go 2 tbsp to 16oz of caramel. Dip the apples, and twirl them a bit in the caramel. Let the excess run off, and cool on a lined cookie sheet.

The real fun, for me anyway, is coming up with ideas for extras on the apples. Some of the things I've used... candy corn, peanut butter candies, crushed candy bars, M&Ms, peanuts, pecans, cashews, sunflower seeds, sprinkles, crushed graham crackers or ginger snaps, mini marshmallows, and white or milk chocolate. (If you use white, you can food color it different colors, which can look neat.) Or any mix of those.
My fiance's favorite is crushed peanuts on the caramel, and milk chocolate drizzled over it all. I'm a big fan of marshmallows, chocolates, and a bit of ginger snap sprinkled over it. Kinda like a caramel apple smore.

(Oh man idea for this year, gonna try putting crushed candied nuts on them... mmmm...)

[Bjorn]

Re: Halloween Recipes, post 'em here!

WASSAIL

Ok, yeah, its generally a Yuletide thing but I think that the ingredients make it distinctly autumnal.

Old Apple tree, old apple tree;
We've come to wassail thee;
To bear and to bow apples enow;
Hats full, caps full, three bushel bags full;
Barn floors full and a little heap under the stairs!

1 gallon apple cider
27 whole cloves
8 cinnamon sticks
1 quart pineapple juice
1 can (6 ounce) orange juice
couple of splashes of lemon juice

Add everything into a crock pot and let it warm up for about 30-60 minutes, or until the whole kitchen smells like wassail. Some recipes are alcoholic but that's not what I know how to make so this is what I can give ya.

[Dez]

Re: Halloween Recipes, post 'em here!

Realized I never linked the cupcakes--they were on the cover of Good Housekeeping or something similar last year: http://community.tasteofhome.com/for...5/5732321.aspx

[Clive]

Re: Halloween Recipes, post 'em here!

Schweet! Thanks for sharing, Deseret, Gardenia, and Bjorn.

Those pumpkin cupcakes are looking mighty scrumptious.

I don't know a lot about wassail, but would it be a bad idea, for the sake of discussion, to make it as described here and then spike it with some kind of liquor?

[Amber]

Re: Halloween Recipes, post 'em here!

Grave Yard Dirt Cake



This is a fun 'no bake' pudding dessert that you can really get creative with on Halloween.

Graveyard Cake Ingredients
3 1/2 cups of low fat milk
2 - 3 oz packages of Jell-O Chocolate Flavor Instant Pudding & Pie Filling
1 - 12 ounce tub of Cool Whip Whipped Topping
1 - 16 ounce package of Oreo cookies, crushed
1 package of Milano cookies (to make the tombstones and ghosts)
2 - 12 ounce package of white chocolate morsels
2 tablespoons of Crisco shortening
black food coloring or black frosting tint
black icing gel to decorate your tombstones and ghosts
a spooky tree, bones, and other Halloween type things to decorate the graveyard
Preparation
Pour the milk into a large bowl, add the pudding mix, and beat with a wire whisk or electric mixer on its lowest speed for 2 minutes or until blended.

Gently stir in the whipped topping and half of the crushed Oreo cookies and pour it all into a 13x9 inch dish. Sprinkle it with the remaining crushed Oreo cookies, and refrigerate it for at least an hour.

While your 'dirt' is chilling, you can take some time to make your tombstones and ghosts:

Melt 1 package of the white chocolate morsels and 1 tablespoon of the shortening in a microwave safe bowl on High for 1 minute, stirring every 20 seconds until it is well melted. Dip one of the Milano cookies into the melted white chocolate mixture and then lay it on a piece of wax paper. It is okay to leave one end of the cookie undipped, since it will be covered with 'dirt' anyway, and completely dipping the cookie would be a little too messy.

You can repeat this to make as many ghosts as you like, and then put the cookies in the refrigerator until the chocolate gets hard.

You can add black frosting tint to your melted white chocolate mixture to make some gray tombstones, like we have pictured above. You may have to use the second package of white chocolate morsels and melt it with the second tablespoon of shortening if you need more 'dressing' for your tombstones. You only want to prepare one package of chocolate at a time, because it hardens too quickly unless you are a very fast worker.

When your tombstones and ghosts are done, decorate them with your black icing gel and position them in your graveyard.

Keep your graveyard cake refrigerated until you are ready for it to be served.

http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/halloween/graveyard_cake.html

[Raphaeline]

Re: Halloween Recipes, post 'em here!

Applesauce-Spice Cupcakes




aaand


Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

[Clive]

Re: Halloween Recipes, post 'em here!

That graveyard dirt cake is so cool, and my god, those cupcakes look goooood.

Btw, is it my imagination or did the OP get cut off? ???

[Bjorn]

Re: Halloween Recipes, post 'em here!

[quote author=Clive link=topic=99.msg2899#msg2899 date=1287112568]
I don't know a lot about wassail, but would it be a bad idea, for the sake of discussion, to make it as described here and then spike it with some kind of liquor?
[/quote]

Personally, I wouldn't. I have looked a bit on google for what liquor to put in it and it always tells me that wassail is an ale - I you might be ok to stick some of that apple cider beer in it though! I would steer clear of liquor though. I misspoke. My mistake.

[catsraven]