31 Days of Halloween!(+1!) Nov 1 - Day of the Dead

Make: Skulls!
Recipe: Krispy Treat Skulls!
Made:Skulls!



Make: Day of the Dead Skulls

Recipe: Rice Krispy Treat Skulls and Skull Cake

Made: Leather Day of the Dead Masks

~> The first recipe I'm posting for Day of the Dead is crispy rice treat skulls! Information about the skull cake will be posted second.



~~> Recipe: Rice Krispy Treat Skulls

Most of this recipe follows a regular rice krispy treat recipe!
Basically, the differences are that you smash up the rice krispies before you start and you mash them in to skull molds instead of a pan! (you can do this with any firm mold and they are great used as cake toppers or individual treats)
ONE batch would fit a 13x9x2 inch pan.


Ingredients:
Rice Crispy Treat 
3 Tsp butter OR margarine
1 package (10 oz., ~40) regular marshmallows OR 4 cups miniature marshmallows
5 1/2 cups crispy rice cereal (a bit less makes for a denser cast of the skull, can decrease to 5 cups)
Decoration (optional)
fondant/sugar paste or marzipan
melting chocolate
sanding sugar
sprinkles


Crush the rice cereal a bit in a heavy food bag (a freezer bag works fine); you can use a rolling pin or the back of a wooden spoon). Smaller pieces make for more detail in your castings of your food molds! (and make the treat much more dense!)
Use a light baking spray on your mold pan (I used the Wilton  3-D mini skull baking pan as a press mold).
Use a large saucepan (a paella pan or wok also works great ; ) to melt butter on low heat, add the marshmallows, and stir until melted in.
Add your crispy rice cereal and stir until evenly mixed and well coated.
Use wax paper or a buttered spoon/spatula to press mixture into molds (or you could lay it out on aluminum foil and cut it with cookie cutters).
Allow to cool.
These are best if served the same or the next day. If you need to hold them you can freeze them between layers of wax paper for up to 6 weeks.


~~> Recipe: Skull Cake

There are (at least) two good 3-D baking molds for "full sized" skulls available: Wilton and NordicWare. The Nordic Ware pan has a more complete skull shape, with the back of the skull being more rounded, but may be harder to find. Wilton also has a 3-D mini skull baking pan with molds for 4 complete smaller skulls which are great for baking or using as a press mold.
Prep baking mold (grease / lightly flour).
Fill with any standard cake recipe or mix (The recipes and mixes we have used are given here).
Allow to cool and remove from mold pan, breaking the edge of the cake/pan border with a butter knife.
After the cake has cooled, cut the un-molded edges flat and spread some frosting thinly across both facing edges to "glue" together.
Gently frost the cake. Using the Wilton mold I tend to frost the base differently than the skull.
Then pipe decoration. You can use a small plastic food bag with a tiny corner snipped off for piping.


~~~> Made:

  

           

  

Enjoy! 
 
DeWyk

31 Days of Halloween! Day17- Recipe: Guacamole 'dy with Creepy Crunchings

guacamole mold ingredients (*optional):

1 packet gelatin, plain
cup water
3 avocados, chopped
3 Tbsp lime juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped small
1 tsp chile powder or cumin
pinch of cayenne*
1/4 red pepper, cut very thinly*

salsa ingredients*
salsa ~> fresh or store bought
4 medium tomatoes
2 peppers (hot or mild, to taste)
1 medium onion
3 garlic cloves
1 tsp salt

creepy crunchings (chips) ingredients:
fresh tortillas (assorted packets)
oil or butter
seasonings: salt, pepper, garlic, chile powder, etc.

Guacamole Foot (increase recipe for large molds):
These molds are available at most craft and party stores.
Combine the avocados, lime juice, salt, cilantro and spices in a bowl and blend well.
*Add red pepper and stir until well mixed.
Mix packet of plain gelatin using 1/2 the water stated in directions on the box.
Let gelatin cool a bit and add 1/2 of the gelatin into the avocado mixture, blend thoroughly (you ONLY use half of the gelatin mixture, so you can make a half packet, double the recipe and use the entire packet, or have another recipe ready to go... our brain mold is larger than our foot mold
; )  .
Brush the mold lightly with olive or vegetable oil. Pour your guacamole mixture into the mold. Cover and refrigerate until set, at least 2 hours.
Remove from mold by dipping mold in warm water and break contact along the edge with a knife, then put the serving plate over the mold and turn the mold over onto the plate.

Salsa:
If you have time roast or lightly char/grill (in pan/ baking sheet to retain fluids) the tomatoes, onion, peppers, and garlic cloves, about 10 min.
Combine garlic and peppers and coarsely puree together in a food processor. Add the tomatoes and juices to the mixture and chop.
Chop the onion and put the onion and tomato mixture into a bowl and stir thoroughly. Season to taste with salt, generally ~1tsp.
Garnish around/ over the guacamole foot.

Tortilla Chips:
You can serve with regular tortilla chips or make these baked or fried creepy crunchings at home!

Start with packets of fresh tortillas (we like to include assorted flavors/ colors: multi-grain, spinach, tomato, etc.)... you could make your own tortillas, but we usually cheat on this step! If baking, pre-heat oven to 350°F and brush both sides of the tortillas lightly with oil or melted butter (ignore this step if deep frying : ) . Use Halloween cookie cutters to cut the tortillas, on a cutting board, into creepy shapes. Set aside the shapes and the scraps as you cut, you will use both. 
Baking: place the shapes and scraps in a single layer on cookie sheets, season, and bake for ~12-15 minutes (until browning lightly).
Frying: follow directions on your deep fryer. Fry shapes and scraps lightly (until crisp) and remove to dish for immediate light seasoning.


Enjoy! 
 
DeWyk

31 days of Halloween! Day14- Recipe: Meringue Bones!

I'm always amazed just how easy these are!

Ingredients:
3 large egg whites
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/8 tsp. salt
2/3 cup white sugar
1/2+ tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 200°F. Line cookie sheet with parchment or a (very) clean paper bag. Beat egg whites, cream of tartar and salt ‘til fluffy in medium bowl at high speed. Slowly beat in sugar. Add vanilla (or other flavoring). Place mix in pastry bag fitted with a medium plain piping tip to create 3" bone shapes on parchment or brown paper bag (I’ve also used a heavy Ziploc bag as a piping bag by cutting a small piece off of a lower corner). Bake 1 hour until set. Turn off oven, allow to dry in the oven 1 hour more. Be sure to store in airtight containers or they will absorb moisture and get sticky / soggy. 

Makes ~50 small finger-sized bones

I frequently make a variety of flavors of these by adding other flavors in place of the vanilla: almond, rum, chocolate, chocolate and a touch of cayenne, coffee, and citrus. 

Coffee or dark chocolate powder gives them a nice “antique” look.

large meringue skeleton

Enjoy! 

DeWyk

31 days of Halloween! Day11- Recipe: Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

If you haven't carved your pumpkins yet, it's that time ...and that means roasting pumpkin seeds!


I'm posting our instructions for roasting pumpkin seeds before our "how to" on carving pumpkins so that you can have the supplies needed for roasting those fresh seeds all ready as you carve your jack o'lanterns!





Roasting pumpkins seeds is very simple, all that is required is clean pumpkin seeds, an oven, and some oil or butter. There are some extras that we like to add, I'll cover some of those too...



Base Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups fresh pumpkin seeds
2 tsp butter or oil (olive, vegetable, etc.)


Commonly Added Ingredients:
1+ tsp salt (table, coarse, specialty salts, etc.)
1/2 tsp pepper




Additional Optional Ingredients / Combinations:
Sugar & Cinnamon ~> 2 Tbsp sugar combined with 2 tsp cinnamon with 1/2 tsp salt
Cinnamon Spice ~> 2 Tbsp sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg with 1/2 tsp salt
Pumpkin Spice ~> 2 Tbsp sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, pinch of nutmeg, 1 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp allspice with 1/2 tsp salt
Harvest Special ~> 1 Tbsp sugar, 1 tsp coarse salt, 1/4 cup sunflower seeds (shelled)
Ginger Orange ~> 2 Tbsp sugar, 1/2 tsp grated orange zest, 1 tsp ginger with 1/2 tsp sea salt
Autumn Spice ~> 2 Tbsp sugar, 1/4 tsp cayenne, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp paprika with 1/2 tsp salt and dash of pepper
Cheesy ~> 1/4 cup hard cheese (e.g. asiago, parmesan, pecorino, grana, etc.) with 1/4 tsp pepper


Pre-heat oven to 325°F.
Scoop the seeds out of the pumpkin and separate the pumpkin seed from the flesh, but don't worry about removing all of the flesh.
Put the seeds and the butter / oil into a bowl and mix well. Mix the rest of the seasonings together in a small bowl and pour over the seed mixture, mix thoroughly. Spread the seed mixture in a single layer across a large greased cookie sheet.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, stirring on the pan several times to roast evenly, until seeds turn golden brown.
Let cool...
...and Enjoy! 

DeWyk

31 Days of Halloween! Day2- Recipe: Severed Fingers

I really love these, they look creepy and taste incredible!

Severed (Witches') Fingers 

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 tsp almond extract (or alternate flavoring extract)
1 tsp vanilla
2 2/3 cups flour
*1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup almonds, whole 

**red frosting/ gel

*** red jam or jelly (especially raspberry)

****cocoa powder or finely ground coffee

Beat together butter, sugar, egg, almond extract and vanilla in a bowl. 

Beat into the mix flour, baking powder (*frequently I don’t use any baking powder, which makes the fingers denser/less puffy), and salt. 

Cover mix and refrigerate 30 minutes. 

Work with one quarter of the dough mix at a time and keep remainder refrigerated.

Scoop out a slight tablespoon of dough, roll and shape into a finger for each cookie > gently squeeze dough to create knuckle shapes to either side and use a toothpick/knife to make knuckle crinkles.

Press an almond firmly into rounded end of each "finger" for a fingernail.

Bake at 325°F (160°C) on lightly greased cookie sheets for 20-25 minutes or until lightly golden. 

Allow to cool for ~3 minutes. 

** I've used red frosting to stick down the almonds and then put cuts into the fingers and line them with frosting.
Remove fingers from baking sheets and let cool.

*** Red jam or jelly can be heated to melting and used as a dip to make the ends of the fingers look bloody.

**** Cocoa powder and finely ground coffee can be used in the dough to flavor the fingers or mixed with a little water and brushed onto the fingers to antique them.

This shortbread recipe has a similar taste and consistency to biscotti and goes great with coffee or tea.

I've made this (approximate) recipe every year for over 10 years and have experimented quite a bit with it. This particular recipe has worked best for me, holds the finger shape, the flavor is great, and the base recipe is very easily altered.

 Enjoy! 

DeWyk