Halloween Treats

Do you know what's awesome? Halloween. Even in the snow, even when you don't have time to make those cookies you've been planning all month until you're actually in NY, even when those "one size fits all" orange knit tights don't quite fit, even when you have to bully a boyfriend and subsequently his brother into dressing up and donning some makeup, even when people keep guessing that you're a pumpkin- but especially when Halloween involves 1 scary movie per day (!!), Asian Buddy Holly, midnight showings of Frankenstein & Bride of Frankenstein and these sandwich cookies which are frankly too sweet. Great with black coffee though!

To everyone who has already celebrated Halloween or will be handing out treats (or tricks) tonight, have a happy Halloween!

Salt-N-Pepper Sandwich Cookies

Adapted from Baked Explorations

For the Cookies

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon fleur de sel, plus more for decorating

2 teaspoons white pepper (I used 1 tsp)

1/4 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder (like Valrhona)

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter,cut into 1 inch cubes, cool but not cold.

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 3/4 cups confectioner's sugar

3 large egg yolks

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

3 ounces good quality dark chocolate (60 to 72%), melted

For the Vanilla Filling

5 ounces vegetable shortening, at room temperature

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small

 chunks, at room temperature

3 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon light rum

Make the Cookies

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, salt, fleur de sel, white pepper, and cocoa powder. Set aside.

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the bowl, and add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating until each isincorporated. Add the vanilla and melted chocolate and beat until uniform in color. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and beat again for 10 seconds.

Add half of the dry ingredients and beat for 15 seconds. Again, scrape down the bowl, add the remaining dry ingredients and beat until just incorporated.

Loosely shape the dough into two balls, wrap them tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours (due to unforeseen circumstances, mines was in the fridge for 3 days...)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Unwrap one ball of dough and divide it into two equal portions. Place the first portion on a lightly flour-dusted work surface and return the other to the refrigerator.

Use your hands to knead the dough until pliable and form into a small disc. Roll the dough into a 1/4 inch-thick round. It will be slightly sticky, so you may have to flip and lightly flour it a few times while you work. Use a 2-inchround cookie cutter to create your sandwich tops and bottoms, and transfer them to the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch of space around each cookie. Continue the process with the remaining dough. Extra doughscraps can be refrigerated and rerolled, if desired.

Sprinkle the tops of the cookies with a little fleur de sel, then bake them for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through the baking time. The tops of the cookies should look a bit dry and possibly cracked. Place the baking sheets on wire racks to cool for 5 minutes. Use a spatula to transfer the cook­ies to the racks to cool completely before filling them.

Make the Vanilla Filling

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the shortening and butter until lump free and smooth. Add the sugar in three parts, mixing each part until just combined. Add the salt, vanilla, and rum and beat again for 10 seconds. The filling should be thick but spreadable (like the inside of an Oreo). If it is too thick, add a drop or two of water as needed. Keep adding water to reach the desired consistency, but do not add too muchwater or the filling will be too thin.

Alternatively if the mixture is too thin, add a few tablespoons of confection­ers' sugar.

Assemble the Salt-N-Pepper Sandwich Cookies

Use a pastry bag or a small spoon to apply about 2 tablespoons of filling to the flat side of a cookie. Place another cookie, flat side down, on top. Press down slightly so that the filling spreads to the edges of the cookie. Repeatuntil all the sandwich cookies are made. Let them set up for about 15 minutes before serving. Store the cookies at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Malted Milk Sandwich Cookies
Adapted from Baked Explorations
I didn't have any malted milk powder so I just left it out and while I'm sure it would make for a delicious cookie, my batch did not suffer without it. 


For the cookies:
4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup malt powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 


For the vanilla filling:
5 ounces vegetable shortening, at room temperature
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small chunks, at room temperature
3 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon light rum


To make the cookies
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, malt, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. 


In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated. Add the sour cream and vanilla and beat until just incorporated. Add half of the dry ingredients all at once and beat for 15 seconds. Again, scrape down the bowl, then add the remaining dry ingredients and beat until just incorporated. The mixture should come together almost in a ball. 

Loosely shape the dough into two balls, wrap them tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. 


Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.


Divide each dough ball in half, to make four portions. Place one portion on a lightly flour-dusted work surface and return the other three to the refrigerator. 


Roll out the dough so that it is ¼ inch thick. The dough will be sticky, so you may have to flip and lightly flour it a few times while you work. Use a 2-inch round cookie cutter to create the sandwich tops and bottoms, and transfer them to the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch of space around each cookie. Extra dough scraps can be refrigerated and rerolled once more, if desired.


Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes (mine took 7 min), or until they are just slightly browned.


Place the baking sheets on wire racks to cool for 5 minutes. Use a spatula to transfer the cookies to the racks to cool completely. While the cookies cool, prepare the filling. 

To make the vanilla filling

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the shortening and butter until lump free and smooth. Add the sugar in three parts, mixing each part until just combined. Add the salt, vanilla, and rum and beat again for 10 seconds. The filling should be thick but spreadable (like the inside of an Oreo). If it is too thick, add a drop or two of water as needed. Keep adding water to reach desired consistency, but do not add too much water or the filling will be too thin.

Alternatively if the mixture is too thin, add a few tablespoons of confectioners’ sugar.  

To assemble the malted milk sandwich cookies

Use a pastry bag or a small spoon to apply about 2 tablespoons of filling to the flat side of a cookie. Place another cookie, flat side down, on top. Press down slightly so that the filling spreads to the edges of the cookie. Repeat until all the sandwich cookies are made. Let them set up for about 15 minutes before serving. Store the cookies at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Sweet and Spicy Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

I have one last Halloween idea to share. If you are like my boss who doesn't let his kids carve their pumpkins until the day before Halloween (supposedly to avoid bugs and mold), you can still plan to make these roasted pumpkin seeds. I'm fairly certain I've done roasted pumpkin seeds before but I don't think they were very good (or I would have remembered...). This recipe is the tops. I roasted the seeds out of two pumpkins and ate half of them on Sunday. My jaw still hurts from that endeavor.

The hardest part of roasting pumpkin seeds is cleaning the seeds off of pumpkin gunk. When carving my pumpkins I usually have a garbage bowl and a colander over a bowl for the seeds. I find it easiest to clean the seeds in the sink under running water.

I opted to dry the seeds off a little before mixing them in a mixture of egg white, sugar, sea salt and cayenne pepper. The second time around I baked them for almost twice as long as the recipe suggested and ended up with really crunchy and caramelized pumpkin seeds. Majorly recommended. 

Besides just eating these by the handful, I've also thrown these into a lunch salad and on top of a Sweet Potato Soup with Goat Cheese.

But my favorite way to eat these is on top of an ice cream Sunday. If you dig the salty/sweet line, this is your Sunday: Vanilla Ice Cream + warm Bittersweet Chocolate Fudge Sauce + Marshmallow Fluff + chopped Walnuts + Sweet & Salty Roasted Pumpkin Seeds. It's the bomb diggity. 

Sweet & Spicy Pumpkin Seeds

Adapted from 101 Cookbooks

• 1 cup pumpkin seeds, cleaned
• 1 egg white
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, ground
• 1/2 tsp sea salt

Preheat oven to 375

Place your pumpkin seeds in a bowl and add just enough egg white to coat. In a small bowl combine the sugar, cayenne pepper and salt. Add the sugar mixture to the pumpkin seeds and toss to combine. Place the seeds in a single layer on a cookie sheet fitted with a silpat or parchment paper. Bake for 12-20 minutes until golden. To really get a nice color, you may want to bump your oven temp to 425 for the last 5 minutes. When you pull them out of the oven, sprinkle everything with some more sugar and cayenne pepper. 

Stores well in an airtight container for a few days. 

A different kind of Jack O' Lantern

Tree Silhouette 

This year felt right for trying something different on my pumpkins. I really liked the natural and whimsical look of the arrangement on my porch and wanted the carvings to reinforce that feeling. I also figured that since I had spent quite a penny on these gourds, I should try to get them to last past Halloween.

I settled on doing some kind of polka dot design using whatever tools I could find which happened to be a pick from my father's "Bat Cave"...

...and my smallest biscuit cutter! I just used a hammer to whack the cutter through the flesh of the carved out pumpkin and recuperated it on the other side. I wouldn't necessarily recommend using your favorite biscuit cutter for this unless you have a rubber mallet because my cutter got a little bent out of shape. But then it is very cheap.

To keep the pretty stem intact, I hollowed this pumpkin out through a hole on the bottom. This also allowed me to illuminate the pumpkin with Christmas lights strung through the bottom hole. I would also recommend thinning out your pumpkin if the flesh is too thick. My pumpkins were really thick and it just made the whole thing more of a pain. 

While I started out thinking I was carving polka dots, I ended up with something almost celestial- which I love. I did three bands of Milk Way-looking carvings around this pumpkin, using three different sized tools- the pick and 2 different biscuit cutters. 

The only thing I would do differently next time would be to get some Christmas lights with white wiring so they would be better concealed inside the pumpkin. Otherwise, I'm pretty pleased with the way this turned out! 

Spooky Owls

I have a thing for owls and the word has gotten out. Last year while Christmas shopping, a reoccuring conversation went something like this:

Me: Aaaw look at the owl [insert any object]!! It's so cute!

Someone else: And you said you don't have a thing about owls?

Me: Nope, I DO NOT have a thing about owls.

Later

Someone else: Look Claire, an owl [insert any object]!

Me: If I had a thing for owls, I would find that very cute.

I wasn't really surprised when I ended up with quite a few owl related items this past Christmas. Everything from a set of owl mugs, to an owl coin purse, owl necklace and a set of owl nesting dolls. A few owl figurines have also shown up in my life and in thinking about what to do for Halloween on a budget I started thinking about my little parliament of owls (and no, I won't admit to having a collection). Not all owls are cute- some are downright sinister:

Pretty spooky, right? but it gets better at dusk:

I mostly used stuff from around the house including the large basket, two apothecary jars, some green Christmas lights and an ostrich egg.

I knew I wanted to create creepy nests in the apothecary jars and once I found the extra large basket I figured I could make an extra large nest to hold everything. I would have used branches and twigs out of my backyard but it had been raining for about a week so I bought a grapevine wreath ( $4.99) and some Spanish moss ($6.99) at Michael's. I tore the wreath apart and wedged pieces of it into the apothecary jars to form a nest which I accented with raffia, torn bits of muslin, feathers and Spanish moss. I also got that paper mache skull at Michaels for $1.99 and loved how it looked so I added that to the jar before assembling the nest.

The tall apothecary jar got a similar treatment and then I started adding some bugs and skeleton hands. I got a pack of snakes from Target for $1.99 and the skeleton hands at Micheal's for $1.99. 

This big guy is a leftover from Halloweens past. His brother is currently residing in the candy jar at my office.
I coiled the green christmas lights around the bases of the apothecary jars and topped it all off with more Spanish moss. I also added some more pieces of the grapevine wreath around the inside of the basket to reinforce the idea of a large nest.

What really brought the whole thing together was this guy. He's so sinister and yet kinda reminds me of my cat....

It's the "wide" haunches.

My Monster Plant

 I have a monster and it lives on my front porch. 

Try not to upset it or it might bite

Haunted Hedge from Target

One last Halloween thought!

Senior year in college I lived in an apartment complex of nothing but students. Halloween evening I'm getting my costume together for the night and making a quick and hearty dinner for my friends to grab on the way out: Blood & Guts Potatoes. As we're getting ready to leave we get a knock on the door. Expecting more friends Kris and I run to open it, to find a 15 year old kid and his fat friend. "Trick or... treat?" they say with more threat than charisma in their voices. "hmmm... I actually don't have any candy... " I replied honestly. "Your neighbors gave us something" he replied showing me a can of garbanzo beans. Just then Kris rounded the corner with the pan of Blood & Gut Potatoes. "Here, you can have one of these." Kris shrugged. The kid took one, bit into it and declared it gross. His fat friend took his turn and liked it. He ate two.

This year I revived the Blood & Gut potaotes because they are real easy and real tasty. It's only a few ingredients but they really come together. I feel like this is really good kid food.

Happy Halloween!

Blood & Guts Potatoes
Adapted from Nigella Lawson

• 4 baking potatoes
• 3 balls of mozarella, diced
• 2 tbls ketchup, plus more to decorate

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Prick the potatoes all around and put them into the oven, straight onto the rack for 1-1.5 hours, depnding on their size. Once they are cooked through, let them cool until you can handle them. Slice each one in half and carefully scoop out the flesh without piercing the skins.

In a large bowl mix the potato flesh, diced mozzarella and 2 tablespoons of ketchup. Evenly distribute the mixture among the potato skins and top with some more ketchup. Put them back into the oven for about 15 minutes, until the tops are toasted and the potatoes are heated through.

Halloween Round-Up

I sure do love Halloween. This year I had a Haunted Dinner for some friends and also helped organize a Halloween Party which was sorta busted by the cops twice. Now that's the sign of a good party if you ask me.




I've been meaning to dress up like Norma Desmond from Sunset Blvd. for years and the Haunted Dinner was the perfect opportunity. I didn't want to buy much to pull off the look and so I went with the outfit she's wearing in the first scene in which she appears. She wrongly assumes that Joe Gillis is here to bury her dead monkey. She thinks the monkey should be buried in a pink lined-coffin. It's creepy right from the start! Here's Norma:

And here's what I came up with:

I think it worked out really well and I would definitely dress up like this again. I wore a long black silk skirt and a black wrap sweater. I piled on all the gold bracelets I could find and wouldn't ya know that I already had a turban. All I had to buy was a piece of animal print fabric ($1.50 at Joanne's) and some nifty sunglasses ($4.99 at Five Below).

For the Haunted Dinner I wanted to make a really over-the-top indulgent desert- something with candy. I went for what Betty Crocker called a Trick or Treat Cheesecake. I'm not really into cheesecake but this felt right and lemme tell you that it also tasted right!

It's essentially a regular cheesecake with a chocolate wafer crust, but you dump in about 20 fun size candy bars and they settle at the bottom of the crust, making this a really decadent desert. I went with Butterfingers, Snickers & 100 Grand bars. It was awesome.

I'm not sure I had ever used a Betty Crocker recipe before, mostly because it's not really my style, but this one had a great tip: When you preheat your oven place a cookie sheet half filled with water on the lower rack. I really didn't understand it at first and thought that maybe I'd be submerging the cheesecake into the water later, but what it did was provide a great place for cheesecake drippings to fall with making a mess or burning. It might also have helped keep the oven moist so the top of the cheesecake wouldn't crack.

Perfect!

Trick or Treat Cheesecake

Adapted from Betty Crocker

• 1 1/2 cups crushed chocolate wafer cookies (about 25 cookies)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
• 2 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
• 1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)
• 3 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 20 bars (fun-size) candy, unwrapped, cut into quarters (about 2 cups)

Heat oven to 300°F. Spray 9-inch springform pan with cooking spray. Place deep cookie sheet half full of hot water on lower oven rack.

In medium bowl, mix cookie crumbs, sugar and butter. Press into the pan. In large bowl, beat cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk with electric mixer until smooth. Beat in eggs, one at a time, just until combined. Stir in vanilla and candy. Pour into crust.

Bake 40 to 50 minutes or until edge of cheesecake is set at least 2 inches from edge. The center should still jiggle slightly! Turn oven off; open door at least 4 inches. Let cheesecake remain in oven 30 minutes. To loosen cheescake, run a knife or metal spatula around the edge of pan. Cool in pan on cooling rack 30 minutes. Refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight.

You really only need a small slice. I promise.

Halloween Inspiration

The boxes are out and the decorations are going up. I'm feeling especially crafty this year so here is where I've been turning to recently for some more inspiration on decor for the season:

Halloween Hang-Ups / Spooky Silhouette Designs / Tombstone Yard Decorations / Bats Mobile Turnip Jack O Lanterns / Felt Pumpkin People

Halloween Dolls from American Harvest / Candy Wreath / Scary Message Lanterns / Shivering Bats Shade / Paper Mache Jack O Lantern

And how about a recipe to get you even more inspired? I made this yesterday morning for a sick boy. He was just lucky that I had some stale bread. And some Pumpkin Butter.

Pumpkin Butter Stuffed French Toast

For 2 people

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• Milk
• Pumpkin Pie Spice- or apple pie spice or just a dash of nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger
• Stale wholewheat Portuguese Bun Bread- or whatever you have that you can slice
• Pumpkin Butter- got mine from Trader Joe's
• Butter
• Maple Syrup

Make your batter by combining the eggs with a couple glugs of milk in a shallow bowl. Add in the spices and whisk well. Slice your bread thick- about an inch. Cut a pocket into the middle of the bread. Squeeze the bread to open the pocket and fill with a couple tablespoons of Pumpkin Butter. Careful though- not too much! My butter was quite savory. Heat a couple tablespoons butter in a skillet. Place your bread in the egg mixture. let set for 10 seconds and flip to let stand for another 10 seconds. Once the butter has stopped foaming, add the eggy toast. Let sit for a few minutes. Once it is golden brown, flip the toast and continue cooking until golden brown. Serve with maple syrup.

Might want to consider the Grade B type of Maple Syrupr. Do you know the difference? I didn't- until now!