October 26: Spider's Web Candies

I don't prefer a real spider's web. It's too sticky and stringy and, I don't know, usually attached to a spider for my comfort. Ever had a spider ON you? I have. In the car. Not good. Nooooo, not good at all. <shudder>

Nevertheless, candy made in the shape of a spider's web? That I can support. It's not sticky or stringy, nor is an arachnid anywhere near it. Plus, it's made of white- and semi-sweet- chocolate and there's coconut. Hello! Bring on the candy webbage!

I saw this recipe in the 2010 Taste of Home Halloween mag. (Big surprise, right?) I selected it as today's treat because it's another low-yield recipe and because it sounded like something I want to eat for dessert tonight. What? Those are solid reasons.

Bonus: It's another easy one consisting mostly of melting.

Let's get down and go for it, shall we? (Oh, and do yourself a favor and skip past the first 29 seconds of that video as it's a needlessly long intro. But don't skip the video. SBTB forever!)

Assemble ingredients. Here's what you need:

1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
6 oz white chocolate (NOT white chips)
1/3 cup coconut flakes, chopped (just run a knife through them)
1 teaspoon shortening (I used coconut oil in its solid form)
a toothpick or two
small freezer storage baggie

Start by melting chocolate chips in a microwaveable bowl. Mine took 40 seconds. Be sure to stir them when you remove them from the microwave because, in a lot of cases, the heat from the melted chocolate will help melt the rest. Do not over-heat the chocolate or it'll burn. If it burns, don't try to save it. Start again. Burnt chocolate is nasty.

Remove from microwave and allow to cool slightly while you work with the white chocolate.

Add the white chocolate and shortening to a separate microwaveable bowl. Microwave on 50% power for 90 seconds. Stir. If the chocolate isn't melted, put it in for another 30 seconds at 50% power. Be sure to keep stirring and be extra careful not to burn. White chocolate burns easily. Mine took about 2 minutes and 15 seconds. Just check it. This is the nice, creamy texture it should have when it's ready.

Now add in that coconut you chopped up.

Stir to combine. Obviously, now the mixture has some texture. 

Drop onto waxed paper-lined cookie sheet in 2 tablespoon dollops. (I used my OXO medium scoop.)

  
Use the back of a spoon to spread the dollop so it's about 4 inches around.

This actually was only just shy of the full 4" but no photo angle would show it. Weird!

Now let's deal with that chocolate that's had a little time to cool down. Gently scoop it into one corner of a freezer baggie (remember: I always suggest freezer baggies instead of regular baggies because the plastic is thicker. I've used the regular baggies and the seam has burst open because of the wimpy plastic.) Note the pointy tip at the end in the photo below. That gets snipped off in a minute.

 

Back to the circles. (I got 6 on my pan, by the way. The original recipe said it had a yield of only 5.)

Look at the texture of that coconut! Yum-a-lum-a-ding-dong!

Snip the tip--a tiny snip because you do not want globs or too-thick lines--of the baggie holding the semi-sweet chocolate. Starting in the center of the white chocolate circles, pipe a swirl shape as in the photo below. Repeat for each candy round.

Take a toothpick and, working from the center, gently pull in a straight line from the center to the outer edge of the candy. Keep the toothpick near the surface of the candy--it should only graze the white chocolate part. Repeat 10-12 times for each circle, as below. Wipe the toothpick as needed (or get a new toothpick) if you find chocolate accumulating on it.

Try to work quickly to avoid the chocolate setting before you're done.

Pop the tray into the fridge for about 30 minutes so the chocolate sets.

That's it! Easy peasy. (PS- That's an easy Halloween costume idea for you, also. You're welcome!)

October 25: Ghostly Brownie Bites & Witch Brooms

This morning when I woke up I heard my husband listening to Halloween music downstairs with my daughters. The first song he played was this H-A-double L-O-W- double E- N spells Halloween song I sang in elementary school and still, to this day, sing to myself every time I write the word Halloween. After that gem, he put on Double Trouble from Harry Potter. I love that one, especially because of its Macbeth connections. He rounded things out with Monster Mash. I don't care for that song since it conjures awkward memories of middle school Halloween dances... yikes.

I take great pleasure in exposing my kids to the things I enjoyed when I was a kid. We watch Michael Jackson's Thriller all year round, but especially enjoy it this time of year. And I've got several Disney shorts in my youtube playlist, among them,  Mickey's Haunted House  and Silly Symphony The Skeleton Dance. In fact, two years ago all four of us dressed up as skeletons because of the Skeleton Dance video. Before they went out trick-or-treating, the girls and I performed our own version of the dance in our kitchen!

All of this has nothing whatsoever to do with my treats for today, but still, I wanted to share some of those songs for your own Halloween enjoyment, especially as we're down to the final week here. It's now an official countdown to Halloween!

For today, I've got a couple bite sized Halloween desserts. I sent both these treats with my husband and daughters to a party. Easy to grab, easy to share. Perfect.

I made the simple witch brooms in the past and I came up with these ghostly brownie bites out of my own noodle.

Let's start with the brooms which, I just realized, I can tie in to this adorable Halloween story my younger daughter loves called Room on the Broom. You can make these and eat them whilst enjoying that story. Yes, that's a fine idea. Do that.

You need: Reese's mini peanut butter cups (the individually wrapped ones) and thin pretzel sticks.

The two ingredients for your brooms

Now... put the pretzel stick into the bottom of the peanut butter cup.

Insert pretzel & presto: it's a broom!

Ta Da! You're done! It's now a broom and you're a dessert hero.

I should warn you, though, that easy as that process is in theory, there are some annoying things that can happen which make the process more challenging than it seems.

1. The peanut butter cups, when unwrapped, are not always completely enrobed in the chocolate and have peanut butter showing through. (You can see what I mean in several of the cups in the zoomed in version of the above photo. In particular, look at the one that's second from left in the front row.)

2. The insertion of the stick very often cracks the chocolate. (See the first three front right samples in the photo above.) That happened to me A LOT this year, and less last year.

3. Occasionally the pretzel sticks break if they're handled too roughly while inserting them into the cup. That happens less often, but it's worth noting.

This year I tried avoiding some of these pitfalls by pre-drilling, if you will, a hole into the spot I'd be inserting the pretzel stick. I used a wooden kabob stick. It had a point on the end (like a toothpick) so it pierced through the chocolate easier than the blunt edge of the pretzel stick could, but it still wasn't as wide as the pretzel so there was still some chocolate cracking.

When they cracked, I just smooshed them back together as best I could. The others, I ate right then. :-)

Anyway, forewarned is forearmed, I always say. So now you know.

Next, the brownie bites.

I used a boxed brownie mix and followed the package instructions for making the batter. Then I lined my mini-cupcake pan with these cute spider liners. (I think they're Wilton brand from last year, but I'm not positive.) I scooped 1 medium OXO scoop of batter into each liner and baked according to package directions. Mine took about 18 minutes. Just keep your eye on them so they don't overbake.

After they cooled, I decorated them using my trusty "put store-bought frosting in a freezer bag and snip the tip for easy piping" method.

I used a new Pillsbury Fluffy Vanilla Marshmallow frosting I saw at the market. It just sounded good because chocolate and marshmallow? Yeah, they go together.

I piped little ghost mounds on top and used chocolate chips as eyes and mouth.

These were scrumptious. The brownies were chewy and chocolatey and that mound of fluffy marshmallowy goodness on top added the perfect sugary topping. So good. (This could so easily be turned into a s'mores treat, it's not even funny!)

So there you have it. Not one but two easy treats--perfect for classroom or office parties-- to kick off our countdown to H-A-double L-O-W-double E-N!

October 24: Bubbling Swamp Juice

Today is a chilly fall day. The kind of day made for heading outside and raking up piles of leaves and then coming inside to enjoy warm, tasty beverages. Even green ones named after "a tract of wet, spongy land, often having a growth of certain types of trees and other vegetation, but unfit for cultivation" (thanks, dictionary.com!) 

Here at my house we skipped the raking part and went right to the warm beverage part! 

Truthfully, this drink was on my schedule for earlier in the week. But I pushed it back the first time because it was too warm outside for hot drinks, and I pushed it back the second time because my kids were misbehaving and needed an early bedtime. Such is parenting. 

The photography for this "juice" (which is not juice at all but is, essentially, hot white chocolate made with milk and white chips) was tough. The camera was simply NOT picking up the green cast of the liquid. Thus, I needed to edit every photo on my favorite photo editing site picmonkey.com. (And in case you're wondering, no, I do not get kickbacks for ANY of the advertisement-like shout-outs I give on my blog. They're all just my opinion freely given. However, if any company would like to compensate me for my endorsements, by all means, get in touch! Ha!) I was able to play around with things like "saturation" and show off the color. 

Check this out:

On the left, the original shot.
Looks like crap, right?
You can barely tell it's green.

But on the right, I darkened
things up and it showcased
the green which is the point!




This recipe comes from the 2010 Taste of Home Holiday Halloween magazine. 

You'll need:

4 cups milk
1 cup vanilla or white chips (I used Hershey's white baking chips)
12 drops green food coloring
8 drops yellow food coloring
4 bug gummies (note: they melt from the heat of the milk)
(optional) 1/4 cup mini marshmallows (my girls didn't want them so I left them out)

In a medium saucepan, combine milk and chips. Whisk over medium heat until chips are melted and mixture is warm, but NOT boiling. 

The chips are in there at the bottom, getting nice and melty  

Remove from heat and add food coloring, whisking until combined.

Drops of green and yellow coloring, before stirring

Pour into glasses and garnish with candies and marshmallows if using. 

Now THIS is a cool picture, amiright??? Really shows the bubbles and the green. 

I served this to my girls and we watched Monster Squad, a movie from my childhood. The drink was very good. :-)

 

October 23: Apple Brickle Dip

You know what's totes annoying? (No, not the word "totes." How dare you? That's a fun word and I like it a lot. Especially when followed by the word "magotes." (I refuse to spell it like the animal, btw.) However, according to this list, I need to stop using this phrase. Like, last year.)

I disagree. Thus, I repeat:  You know what's totes annoying?

When you start making a simple--and I mean simple--recipe (found in my Taste of Home magazine) and encounter difficulty. Also, when you open brand new packages of ingredients to find them spoiled. Also, waste.

That's what happened to me whilst making today's tasty after-school TGIF snack. (Omigosh. Remember TGIF on ABC circa 1988-1991 when I still watched it? Ah...memories.)

I digress. I was talking about my treat.

So there I was, making my half-batch of apple brickle. (Because, really, for an after-school snack for my kids, do I really need more than a cup yield? No, ma'am.)

I'd softened my 4 oz of cream cheese. I'd added 1/4 cup of brown sugar, 1/8 cup (aka 2 Tablespoons) of white sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract. I'd beaten it with my hand mixer so it was blended and fluffy.

       ---------->

           Ingredients as described                                                                        Beaten until it looks like this

All I had to do was add my 1/2 cup of brickle. (If you're sitting there thinking, "What the hell is brickle?" the answer is little toffee bits. Basically, the inside of a Heath bar, crunched up.)

Bits o brickle looks like this, though it doesn't contain the chocolate pieces in it. 

This photo shows the milk chocolate toffee bits.

I had my Hershey's bits o' brickle right there. A whole bag of them. I cut open the bag and...phew! I was met with an odor of rancid brickle. I don't know if you've ever smelled the sour stench of oil that has gone rancid, but that's exactly what it smelled like. (A quick check of the ingredient list shows two different types of oil in there--gross, by the way--thus, I'm assuming that was the issue there.) I checked the Best By date...ok, in fairness, that was an old bag (like, BB Oct 2012 old). So, okay, use stockpile in more timely fashion; lesson learned.

A minor setback to be sure, but not a catastrophe as my cupboard housed a bag of Hershey's milk chocolate toffee bits. (Basically, a crushed up Heath bar.) It housed two bags, in point of fact. I opened one, and...also rancid. So I opened the third WHICH WAS ALSO RANCID despite being dated this month.

ARGHHHHHH!

I had to throw them all out! How disgusting. And what a waste.

I happened to have a bag of snack sized Heath bars leftover from a recipe I made quite a while back  (their BB date was 06/2015). Strangely (and thankfully as I was out of options otherwise), they were still fresh. I don't know if it's because they're individually wrapped, or because they're somehow protected by the chocolatey exterior, or even just because they're whole as opposed to bits and so maybe easier to stay fresh. Who can say? But whatever it was, I opened several of those, stuck them in a baggie, and crushed them with my rolling pin. You can see in the previous photo the side by side comparison. The bowl on the left shows the bag of pre-crushed (rancid) milk chocolate and toffee bits; the right shows the baggie of mini Heath bars I crushed myself using the rolling pin next to the bag.

Then I stirred them into my cream cheese mixture.

 Post-addition, pre-stir

I popped that in the refrigerator until just before I was ready to serve it. (It's cheese, after all.)

I sliced apples into wedges to serve alongside the brickle as a dipper.

For the apples, I wanted to try something new. I bought two new (to me) varieties of apples when last I shopped: Sonya and Ambrosia.

In an effort to keep them from browning after I sliced them into wedges, I soaked them for five minutes in a bath of salt water (4 cups of water and 1 teaspoon of salt), rinsed them off (to remove any residual salt), and patted them dry. Boomski. No browning.

On the right, Ambrosia apples. My family found them sweet with a flesh texture reminiscent of a Red Delicious apple (which, I'm not gonna lie, I dislike as I find it mealy). On the left, Sonya apples. 3 out of 4 of us preferred the firmer, crisper, slightly less sweet (than the Ambrosia anyway) taste and mouth-feel of this type.

Despite a somewhat rocky start, this snack ended up being a winner. The dip (which we used like a spread instead) was tasty with its perfect blend of sweetness from the sugar, crunch from the candies, and creaminess from the cream cheese and vanilla; plus, we discovered two new apple varieties which were fun to taste-test.

In my book, that's totes a good thing.

Totes magotes. 

October 22: Unbirthday Caramel Apple Cupcakes

A very merry unbirthday to you, dear readers! (Unless October 22 is your actual birthday, in which case, happy birthday!) Please don't tell me you don't know about unbirthdays. Take a moment and this video shall elucidate. I'll wait.

Welcome back! Now, where was I? Oh yes. Merry unbirthday to YOU.

Today also happened to be my daughter's unbirthday. We celebrate unbirthdays up in here. At random (and with our family it tends mostly to be in the summer since that's our birthday dry season, if you will), one of our family of four will walk through the front door and the unbirthday song will be playing. SURPRISE! There will also be some small gifts (rarely major--usually things from 5 Below or some such, though the very first unbirthday ever, which I threw for my husband about 4 years ago, featured a Cuisineart Grind and Brew coffee pot as the gift.) and some dessert and balloons--always balloons--and, many times, tea. In fact, most of our unbirthday parties are tea parties as per the original concept in Alice in Wonderland. Only on occasion is that not the case. Today was one of those days. Not that it matters; I'm just saying.

Anyway, the song was played, balloons were present (the kittens LOVED the strings), and gifts were opened. And there was dessert. Cupcakes, actually. Caramel apple cupcakes, to be precise. Ah the sweet taste of celebration! (By the bye, celebrating for seemingly no reason is very appealing. You really should try it.)

Whether you feel like buying or skipping the balloons and gifts is up to you. However, these cupcakes are not to be missed.

I first found the inspiration for them from the 2013 Taste of Home Halloween magazine. However, I modified the recipe a fair amount. Such is baking.

Here's how I did mine.

I started off with a boxed cake mix. I like the Caramel Apple kind Pillsbury puts out seasonally, but this would also be tasty with a spice cake or another variety of apple cake. Follow package directions for working with the batter. (Feel free to sub in applesauce for the oil if you prefer cooking light. When I made these in the past, that's what I did. However, despite writing myself a note in the margin, I didn't make that substitution this time because I didn't read my own notes!!! HELLLLLLLLO.) I also like to add in a couple teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice to the batter to spice things up a bit more. That's optional, of course.

When the batter is ready, peel, core, and chop 2 medium tart apples.

A rough chop like this is fine. 

Then fold those into your batter.

If you want jumbo cupcakes, line a jumbo muffin pan with 12 paper liners. Despite being the queen of kitchen gadgets and doo-dads, I only recently acquired a jumbo muffin pan and, alas, it's only a sixer. So I made six jumbos and nine regular sized cupcakes. I used my handy OXO scoop--the large one this time; the one I use when I scoop ice cream--to get a reasonably uniform fill. For the jumbos, it was about two large scoops of batter; for the regulars, it was one scoop.

Filled and ready for baking. 

PS- Those stupid "jumbo" liners were totally NOT as jumbo as the pan holes. Hence why they're filled to the tippy top. That bugs me.

Pop those bad boys in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes, or until the tops are set and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out free of crumbs. (My jumbos needed two extra minutes once I removed the regulars.)

Nice and golden and domed. Beautiful.

Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. If you're in a rush, pop them in the fridge to speed the process along, but DO NOT ice a cupcake before it's cool. That will yield a melty mess. I speak from experience.

Now it's time to decorate them. Because my older daughter doesn't prefer vanilla frosting, I left some of the cupcakes naked. (I've done these cupcakes in the past and used melted Kraft caramels and no icing, which was more in keeping with the inspiration recipe.) For the rest today, I used a store-bought vanilla frosting (which is far inferior to homemade frosting) which I scooped into a freezer baggie and piped onto the tops of the cupcakes in a spiral fashion using a piping tip. I didn't want to use too much icing on each one, but did want to sort of mimic the creaminess of ice cream on top. Then I dotted my frosting with chopped pecans (toasted always tastes better, but I didn't do it this time) and drizzled caramel on top of that.

Enjoy! And no worries if you don't have time for an unbirthday party today. Just do it tomorrow! (Unless October 23 is your actual birthday, in which case, happy birthday!)

October 21: Mummy Cookies

I've been fascinated with mummies since I learned about the ancient Egyptian preservation and burial process in school. (I found a video which explains the process here.) In middle or high school, I read Anne Rice's The Mummy which I remember enjoying immensely except that she ended it "to be continued..." and there was never a continuation. That was (and continues to be) a bummer. I think in part because of that book, one of the things I was most gung-ho to do when I visited London was visit the British Museum's Egyptian wing. Alas, that, too, ended up a bummer because the bulk of the exhibits I was interested in seeing were closed when I was there. (Also? Lots of people who visit the British Museum don't wear deodorant. Unfortunately, they have that in common with some people at my gym...Yuck.)

I can't say I've ever given any thought to mummies as they relate to baked goods (in general, preserved baked goods are not a good thing. You don't have to take my word for it, though. Mr. Peterman told Elaine Benes...), but there's a first time for everything, right? So today I have another simple store-bought cookie all dressed up for Halloween. This year, we've got Nutter Butters going as giant toes, and now the Milanos are going as mummies! Hurrah for treats that aren't even tricky.

This is so simple that all I saw was a picture of these somewhere--either in a magazine or on Pinterest, I can't remember--and I was able to figure them out for myself.

Here's what you need:

* a bag of Milano cookies (I used the double chocolate variety)
* a bag of white candy melts
* small round candies for eyes
* a quart-sized freezer baggie

Here's what you probably don't need:

* These directions. Ha!

But just in case, here goes.

Melt the candies in a microwave safe bowl according to package directions. Meanwhile, line a pan with a piece of parchment or waxed paper and set aside.

Once candy is melty, hold a cookie and dip it into the goo. Cover about 2/3 of the cookie. Oh, but be careful and work quickly because the chocolate inside the cookies will melt, thus making the brown color bleed a bit, when it hits the white candy. At first, that freaked me out because I was thinking, "Oh no! These have to be white!" Then I realized, "Wait, mummies totally discolor. Pure white is unrealistic." What ended up working for me is using a spatula and/or my clean finger and painting/smoothing the white melt on both sides of the cookie.

Place covered cookie onto prepared sheet. Repeat with the rest of the cookies.

There will be white candy melt remaining. Put it back into the microwave to loosen it up again and then carefully spoon it into one corner of your freezer bag. (Be careful-- it's hot.) Use scissors to snip the tip of the bag just so it leaves a teensy opening. Squeeze gently over cookies moving quickly in a side-to-side or long snake motion to mimic the mummy "wrapping." While still wet, press two candies in place to serve as eyes.

Work as quickly as you can because the melted candy in your bag can firm up if you pause too long in your action.

As soon as they're set, they're ready to eat. Usually, that's not too long after you wash the bowl you used for your dipping. If you want to speed the process along, feel free to pop them in the fridge.

But don't expect them to last as long as real mummies-- these little guys were gobbled up faster than you can say "King Tut."

October 20: Whimsy Pumpkin Painting

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I attended a fundraiser tonight. But instead of a boring dinner with speeches, it was held at one of those paint-and-drink (wine) places. Have you gone to one of them yet? They seem to be all over and they are tons of fun.

The way it works is this: the venue provides paints, canvases, and all the supplies you need to paint a picture; then an instructor provides step-by-step instructions as she models the painting for the crowd. All the while, you drink wine and eat snacks as you paint.

The thing I love about it most is that even if you think you have no artistic talent (or very limited talents) you discover that you're not half bad. Plus, even though everyone in attendance is working toward the same end product, the paintings come out so differently. It's fascinating to see.

See?

 This is the instructor painting

 

 Here's another interpretation.

 

And another.

And the one at the top of the post is yet another. 

As you can see, they're all quite different even though we all had the same instruction. That's the fun of it.

I've been to my local Uncorked Artist at least 11 times in the past three years, and recreated two more paintings at home on my own by looking at the picture online and copying it. My husband and I went and did a couples painting once, too, wherein we each created two halves of a side-by-side picture (it was snowmen in the moonlight. It's so cute we hang it up each year around the holidays.) My husband--who says of himself "I'm a stick-figure guy!"--only needed that one time to get hooked. He's been six times now! I took my older daughter two years ago for one of the all-ages events and we each painted a spider in a web. She asks to go back all the time but, for kids, it's kind of expensive (most paintings are $35 per person, though some kid-friendly ones are $25.)

The point is, I like to go and tonight I went and painted a pumpkin which is delightfully festive for the season. Also, I brought some gruesome green toes and pumpkin cookies and Oreo fudge and they were delicious. The end.