Halloween in focus

So, if you did read my Fall tag, I hinted about a blog post of Halloween snacks. (If you haven’t had the time to read my Fall tag, read it for getting to know me a little bit more. Go to the Fall tag!) My plan for this year’s Halloween is to watch a scary movie and a comedy movie related to the season of horror.

I don’t really enjoy scary or horror movies, I’m more about the bad comedy or just lousy movies which has the lowest ratings in IMDb or in Rotten Tomatoes. 😆 Most of the ingredients I purchased from Lidl or had already in my pantry. For example Lidl has a great selection of Halloween related candies and decorations and is affordable.

The snacks

Mummy Cookies

As my first Halloween snack, I made salted dark chocolate mummy cookies. This recipe is easy and can be made ready for the next day. The recipe that I used for the base of the cookies was from the Sally’s baking addiction. And in the recipe they suggested to chill the mixture for at least few hours for the best cookies. So you need to consider the resting time when creating these. The dark chocolate was basic dark chocolate from Lidl and it had a cocoa content of 50 % and I used sea salt flakes to give some saltiness to the cookies as well as bringing the chocolate flavor to pop more.

The decoration for these mummies were easy to do. I used just a basic white chocolate from Marabou to decorate the mummy cookies. I melted the chocolate, firstly I cut the chocolate to smaller pieces and put them to a freezer bag. The best method to melt the chocolate without burning it is, in my opinion, to melt the chocolate on a water bath. Add water to a kettle and bring it almost to a boil, rest the freezer bag in the water for few minutes. You can check if the chocolate has melted completely by pressing the bag lightly and feeling if there’s any big pieces left to melt. The mummy wraps are just chocolate drizzled across the cookies and the eyes are made with black royal icing and the melted white chocolate. The cookies were yummy and gooey in the middle but the edges were beautifully crispy.

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Royal icing

Royal icing is the easiest icing in the world! Literally you need few tablespoons of powdered sugar and few splashes of lemon juice, you need to remember to add the lemon juice little at a time because little goes a long way. Lastly add the gel paste color in black to get the deep black color to the eyes. Gel paste colors are very pigmented, so few drops will be enough.

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Blondie Fingers

My second Halloween snack is blondie fingers in dirt. For the base I used a blondies recipe from inspired taste. Blondies are almost like brownies, but the only difference is usually the lack of chocolate. Blondies are usually flavored with vanilla and brown sugar. Although blondies doesn’t have any chocolate, you could add milk or white chocolate chips if desired. I decided to add some bitter almond extract, sliced almonds and few teaspoons of Nescafe Gold instant coffee grounds.

The blondies batter is fast to do and I actually used about a 25 cm x 25 cm square baking pan. After baking I cooled the blondies for about 15 minutes and then sliced to  finger shapes. Firstly cut to rectangles (about 1,5 cm x 8 cm) and then trim off the other end to resemble a finger nail, so cut almost to a triangle shape. The finger nail is almost the same type of a royal icing that was used in the mummy cookies, but the lemon juice is substituted with raspberry puree and I also added some red gel paste coloring to the icing to give a more intense red shade. This recipe made about 15 fingers.

As seen on the picture above, for decoration I did just a small plate of fingers and added other Halloween candy. I also made dirt from the leftover pieces of the blondies by adding those to a bowl and break them up to a crumble, added some cacao powder and liquorice powder. These blondies were soft and chewy with hint of bitter almond with a burst of raspberry in the end.

Sprouty Green Cupcakes

Something savory and gruesome that I made were sprouty green cupcakes. I didn’t have a recipe for these and I used ingredients that I already had. I didn’t really measure out the ingredients.

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Savory cupcakes

• about 4 eggs
• 4 small sausages/wieners finely chopped
• some pineapple finely chopped
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp white pepper, basil and cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• about 240 g of flour

Add all ingredients to a bowl and give it a whisk. Divide to silicon cupcake molds and baked at 175°C / 347°F for 15-20 minutes until golden.

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I also made the filling just with ingredients that I already had in my pantry. So I decided to do a spinach filling for added flavor and it would be more Halloween themed to have something green.

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Spinach filling

• defrosted spinach (40 g frozen spinach)
• 4 creamy Swiss cheese wedges (The Laughing Cow cheese)
• 1 tablespoon of Caesar salad dressing

Process the spinach with handheld food processor to a fine crumb and combine the other ingredients well to fine paste and chilled it in the fridge until the cupcakes were ready and chilled.

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I cored the cupcakes, added the filling and decorated with warmed (whisked cream cheese to not to be so thick and cold which makes it easier to handle or use) chanterelle cream cheese as a savory icing with sprouts on top. These were SO good and in my opinion the sausage and pineapple was a good mix for the cupcakes.

The drinks

I have two different drink ideas, which both have liquor in them which can be easily turned into mocktails (cocktails which has no alcohol). I didn’t measure out any of the liqueurs, actually this was probably the first time that I tried to do my own drinks from scratch and without any recipes. 😅I took some inspiration from Pinterest’s Halloween boards but that’s pretty much it.

Bloody Blue Toxic

The first drink is a blue toxic shot. The syringe contains Bols Blue Curacao liqueur with Koskenkorva vodka and the glass is filled with Sprite with few teaspoons of the Grenada syrup on the bottom of the glass for a bloody and gruesome effect.

When the blue shot is mixed to the drink, it will have a layered effect. At first the drink is purple but then when the drink is settled down the drink has a red, purple and blue tones in the bottom of the glass.

Sewage water

The second drink idea is a sewage water cocktail with maggots. I used Captain Morgan Spiced Rum, Coca-Cola and lemon juice with candy maggots served from a cocktail glass. This drink has a warm tone with a hint of vanilla. The lemon juice gives this drink a little freshness and compliments the Captain Morgan beautifully.

Hope you all have a great Halloween! Do you have any special plans for the Halloween? 🧛🏻‍♀️