Halloween is just around the corner and it’s time to get ready for the scariest night of the year. Below are a few snack ideas for you and the little ghouls. Enjoy and add all the arsenic you want to any of the recipes.
Spider Pizza
1 prebaked pizza crust or prepackaged pizza dough
1/2 jar of pizza sauce 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese Pizza toppings (anchovies, mushrooms, peppers, pepperoni, ham, etc)
1/2 cup ricotta cheese or cream cheese two spoonfuls of milk green and red food coloring a plastic spider
Lay the pizza dough onto a round tray (or a cookie sheet) is a round shape
Spread pizza sauce and toppings over dough, sprinkle cheese on top.
Follow the directions for baking the pizza in the oven. In the meantime, mix together the ricotta, milk and 8 drops of green food coloring and 2 of red food coloring ad put mixture into a squeeze bottle.
When the pizza is done, draw a spiderweb on top with the squeeze bottle, and put on the plastic spider. Cut the pizza into slices, and make sure a grownup gets the piece with the spider on top.
Pumpkin Spread
1 cup of dried apricots
1 can pumpkin pie filling 2/3 cups pumpkin pie filling
2 teaspoons lemon juice 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Soak the apricots overnight in warm water. In the morning, grind them into a paste and mix together with the other ingredients in a pan. Boil and stir often, then reduce heat and simmer
for 20 minutes.
Cool. You can put this into jars and eat it on toast like a juicy jelly.
Devil-cake Spiders
8 devil’s food cupcakes (see below) chocolate frosting 32 licorice whips 16 red cinnamon candies For the Cupcakes
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
2 cups sugar sugar 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup hot brewed coffee 1/2 cup sour cream 1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
For the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 8 muffin cups with liners. Melt the chocolate in a heavy saucepan. Remove the pan from the heat. Sift the sugar, flour, baking soda, and salt together into a large bowl. In a medium bowl, whisk together the hot coffee, sour cream, and vegetable oil. Whisk in the eggs, then stir in the chocolate. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until everything is mixed up and gooey. Fill the cupcake liners about two-thirds full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool.Frost the cupcakes with the frosting. Stick 8 lengths of licorice into both sides of the cupcakes, for legs. Stick 2 red candies between the spider’s front legs for creepy eyes.
Pumpkin Spice Muffies
2/3 cup nonfat dry milk 6 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
sugar substitute to equal 12 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 cup grated carrots or zucchini 4 tablespoons raisins
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine sifted dry ingredients in large mixing bowl and combine wet ingredients in a
separate bowl. Mix just until everything is incorporated – batter should be lumpy.
Overmixing can cause muffins to be too tough.
Bake 350 degrees for 20 minutes and serve warm.
Pumpkin Pie Spice
1/4 cup ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg 1 teaspoon ground allspice 1 teaspoon ground cloves
just blend all ingredients
Spicey Pumpkin Bread
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree 4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil 2/3 cup water
3 cups white sugar 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour three 7×3 inch loaf pans.
In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon,
nutmeg, cloves and ginger.
Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended.
Pour into the prepared pans.
Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Pumpkin Seeds Roasted
Don’t waste the seeds after cooking your pie or making jack-o-lanterns. Instead, roast and salt the seeds for a delicious and nutritious snack. Let the children slosh through the fibers in pursuit of the slippery seeds, it is so much fun… for them.
1 quart water
2 Tablespoons salt
2 cups pumpkin seeds
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil or melted, unsalted butter
Preheat oven to 250°F. Pick through seeds and remove any cut seeds. Remove as much of the stringy fibers as possible. Bring the water and salt to a boil. Add the seeds and boil for 10 minutes. Drain, spread on kitchen towel or paper towel and pat dry. Place the seeds in a bowl and toss with oil or melted butter.
Spread evenly on a large cookie sheet or roasting pan. Place pan in a preheated oven and roast the seeds for 30 to 40 minutes. Stir about every 10 minutes, until crisp and golden brown. Cool the seeds, then shell and eat or pack in air-tight containers or zip closure bags and refrigerate until ready to eat.
Tasty, healthy maggot cake
You need:
One carrot cake (recipe below)
One batch of cream cheese icing (recipe below)
Green food colouring
Two handfuls of Gummy snakes
Cake
1 cup all purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
2 cups grated peeled carrots 1/2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts
1 tablespoon ground ginger Icing
5 ounces cream cheese (such as Philadelphia), room temperature
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature 1 cups powdered sugar
For cake: Preheat oven to 350°F. Buttera 9-inch-round cake pans. Flour it, too. Whisk flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in medium bowl to blend. Whisk sugar and oil in large bowl until well blended. Whisk in eggs. Add flour mixture and stir until blended. Stir in carrots, walnuts and ginger.
Bake cakes until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 30-40 minutes. Cool cakes in pans 15 minutes. Turn out onto plate.
To make the icing, Beat cream cheese and butter in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar and beat until well blended. Beat in drops of green food colouring until icing is a satisfyingly gooey colour of green. Chill icing until just firm enough to spread, 30 minutes.
Spread with icing.
Decorate with gummy snakes and other bugshaped or other candies. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Chill in the fridge. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes before serving-)
Eat hearty and play safe
