Bewitchin' Treats
from the Kitchen
By Emily Bridges
The custom of donning make-up and goofy clothes on Halloween is a rite of passage for most children. Insert wide-eyed smiles and the joy of spending time alone with Mom in the normally age-restricted kitchen space to make calorie-dripping concoctions? Now that is the recipe for happy kids!
Horrors at home
Scarity, oops, I mean, "charity begins at home," so get the most out of their Halloween excitement by giving your little goblins treats a week before you start giving them to the neighborhood ghouls and boys.
Jack-O-Lantern Pancakes
Top with maple syrup. Make a whipped cream eyes, nose and mouth. Add a beard or ears for extra giggles!
Ingredients:
1 cup Boxed pancake batter
1/3 cup Whole milk
1/3 cup Canned pumpkin (not pie filling)
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Granulated sugar
2 Tbsp Oil
1 Egg
Cooking spray
Directions:
Preheat griddle. Spray griddle with cooking spray. Mix ingredients well. Drop mixture onto hot griddle. Make a small stem by adding a vertical line of batter at the top. These take approximately 1 minute longer than standard pancakes. Serve warm.
Jack-O-Pie
Ingredients:
Chocolate fudge sauce
1 9-inch Graham cracker piecrust
2 pints Orange sherbet
Wax paper
Directions:
Spread the chocolate fudge sauce over the pie crust. Smooth with the back of a spoon. Let it sit in the freezer to harden.
Use fudge sauce to draw triangle eyes and a spooky smile onto the wax paper. Make extra so that you will more if the first one breaks. Straighten the edges with a paper towel. Place on a flat surface in the freezer.
After the items in the freezer begin to harden, remove the sherbet from the freezer and let it begin to slightly thaw.
Once the chocolate has hardened and the sherbet has softened, spoon sherbet into the piecrust. Note: You will not use all of the sherbet. Smooth the top with a spoon. Carefully peel eyes and mouth from the wax paper. Add fudge eyes and smile.
Return to the freezer until time to serve. Alternatively, you can make spiders on the wax paper for a creepy treat.
Super Scary Spider Cake
This treat looks so real that you'll want to invite your friends for scaring, umm, sharing.
Ingredients:
Boxed white cake
Chocolate syrup
1 container prepared vanilla frosting
1 Bag of spider rings
Toothpick
Icing bag and decorating tips or zip-closed bag
Directions:
Make a white cake per box directions. When it's cool, ice with vanilla frosting. To make a web, place the chocolate syrup in an icing bag and attach a fine decorating tip to the bag. Alternatively, cut the bottom corner off of a zip-closed bag leaving only a tiny hole. Pipe the syrup onto the vanilla frosting in large circles starting at the outer edge around the entire cake, each one smaller than the last. In the end, you will have circles of graduated sizes from the middle to the outer edge of the cake.
Using a toothpick, make the web by placing your toothpick tip in middle and very gently pulling it to the edge. Do this every inch or so, all the way around the cake. Place the entire bag of plastic spider rings on the "web" for a very creepy-crawly effect.
Gross on the go
These are great for taking to class, daycare or to hand out to neighborhood kids. Make these at your Halloween party for a spooky good time!
Creepy Crispy Critter Rice Treats
Ingredients:
Halloween cat cookie cutter
1 cup Candy corn (red hots for older kids)
Child-safe scissors
Fruit tape, such as Fruit Roll-Ups
1 container Prepared chocolate frosting
3 Tbsp Butter
4 cups Mini-marshmallows
6 cups Crispy rice cereal
Directions:
Measure all ingredients and have them set aside in separate dishes for quick preparing as the mixture becomes more difficult to work with as it cools. Add butter to a saucepan heated over low heat. Stir until completely melted. Mix in marshmallows until melted. Stir continuously so that the marshmallows don't burn on the bottom. Remove from heat. Add crispy rice cereal, stirring vigorously. When mixed, add candies. Mix well.
Generously spray 9X13 baking dish with cooking spray. Place the mixture in the baking dish. Press evenly onto the bottom of the dish. (Use a piece of wax paper to prevent the cereal mix from sticking to your hands). Allow to cool until firm. Use a spatula to remove the entire treat from the dish. Cut with cat shaped cookie cutter. Ice with chocolate frosting. Use child-safe scissors to cut out not-so-scary features out of bright colored fruit roll-ups for your cats, such as eyes, pink ears, boots, a crown or a fancy collar.
Iced Gingerbread Jack- O- Lantern Cookies
Combine art and cooking for this fun, do-together treat.
Ingredients:
Jack-O-Lantern cookie cutter (with eyes cut out)
Prepared vanilla icing
Orange food tint (such as Wilton’s)
Roll candy, crushed (such as Lifesavers)
Zip-closed bags for each color candies
Rolling pin or mallet
Parchment paper
Wax paper
Recipe for Spooky Gingerbread
Ingredients:
1 cup Shortening, melted in a med. bowl
1 cup Packed brown sugar
1 cup Molasses
6 cups All-purpose flour
1 Tbsp Baking powder
1-1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp Ground ginger
1 Egg
1 tsp Ground cloves
1/2 cup Water
1 tsp Real vanilla extract
Directions:
Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients with the exception of sugar. When the shortening in the medium bowl has cooled somewhat, add the molasses, water, brown sugar, vanilla and egg. Mix until smooth.
Slowly add small amounts of the dry mixture to the shortening mixture. If the dough becomes too stiff, mix with your hands. When the consistency is smooth, divide it in half and place each piece on plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
During this time, place your roll candy in zip-closed bags, one bag for each color, and crush with a rolling pin. After the chilling time has elapsed, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Remove 1 bundle of dough from the refrigerator and roll on a lightly floured surface. You may also use wax paper if the dough sticks. Use jack-o-lantern cookie cutters. You may need to widen the jack-o-lantern eye holes or smile to allow room for candies. Generously sprinkle crushed candies in the eyes and mouth of the jack-o-lantern, removing any stray pieces that fall onto the dough.
Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until the dough is soft, but not browned. The candies should be melted. Cool cookies on the pan on top of wire racks for 3 to 4 minutes to allow the candy to harden. Carefully remove from baking sheet and cool completely on a wire rack.
Tint frosting orange.
When cool, let the children apply their own orange frosting with Popsicle sticks or spoons. Use the edge of a paper towel to clean stray frosting from the window eyes.
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Scarity, oops, I mean, "charity begins at home," so get the most out of their Halloween excitement by giving your little goblins treats a week before you start giving them to the neighborhood ghouls and boys.
Top with maple syrup. Make a whipped cream eyes, nose and mouth. Add a beard or ears for extra giggles!
1 cup Boxed pancake batter
1/3 cup Whole milk
1/3 cup Canned pumpkin (not pie filling)
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Granulated sugar
2 Tbsp Oil
1 Egg
Cooking spray
Preheat griddle. Spray griddle with cooking spray. Mix ingredients well. Drop mixture onto hot griddle. Make a small stem by adding a vertical line of batter at the top. These take approximately 1 minute longer than standard pancakes. Serve warm.
Chocolate fudge sauce
1 9-inch Graham cracker piecrust
2 pints Orange sherbet
Wax paper
Spread the chocolate fudge sauce over the pie crust. Smooth with the back of a spoon. Let it sit in the freezer to harden. Use fudge sauce to draw triangle eyes and a spooky smile onto the wax paper. Make extra so that you will more if the first one breaks. Straighten the edges with a paper towel. Place on a flat surface in the freezer.
This treat looks so real that you'll want to invite your friends for scaring, umm, sharing.
Ingredients:Boxed white cake
Chocolate syrup
1 container prepared vanilla frosting
1 Bag of spider rings
Toothpick
Icing bag and decorating tips or zip-closed bag
Make a white cake per box directions. When it's cool, ice with vanilla frosting. To make a web, place the chocolate syrup in an icing bag and attach a fine decorating tip to the bag. Alternatively, cut the bottom corner off of a zip-closed bag leaving only a tiny hole. Pipe the syrup onto the vanilla frosting in large circles starting at the outer edge around the entire cake, each one smaller than the last. In the end, you will have circles of graduated sizes from the middle to the outer edge of the cake.
These are great for taking to class, daycare or to hand out to neighborhood kids. Make these at your Halloween party for a spooky good time!
Halloween cat cookie cutter
1 cup Candy corn (red hots for older kids)
Child-safe scissors
Fruit tape, such as Fruit Roll-Ups
1 container Prepared chocolate frosting
3 Tbsp Butter
4 cups Mini-marshmallows
6 cups Crispy rice cereal
Measure all ingredients and have them set aside in separate dishes for quick preparing as the mixture becomes more difficult to work with as it cools. Add butter to a saucepan heated over low heat. Stir until completely melted. Mix in marshmallows until melted. Stir continuously so that the marshmallows don't burn on the bottom. Remove from heat. Add crispy rice cereal, stirring vigorously. When mixed, add candies. Mix well.
Combine art and cooking for this fun, do-together treat.
Jack-O-Lantern cookie cutter (with eyes cut out)
Prepared vanilla icing
Orange food tint (such as Wilton’s)
Roll candy, crushed (such as Lifesavers)
Zip-closed bags for each color candies
Rolling pin or mallet
Parchment paper
Wax paper
1 cup Shortening, melted in a med. bowl
1 cup Packed brown sugar
1 cup Molasses
6 cups All-purpose flour
1 Tbsp Baking powder
1-1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp Ground ginger
1 Egg
1 tsp Ground cloves
1/2 cup Water
1 tsp Real vanilla extract
Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients with the exception of sugar. When the shortening in the medium bowl has cooled somewhat, add the molasses, water, brown sugar, vanilla and egg. Mix until smooth.
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Beootiful Brownie Bats
Ingredients:
Box of brownie mix
Bat cookie cutter
Chocolate sprinkles
Colored sprinkles or candy pearls for eyes.
Decorating Gel Tubes, (available in the cake section of the supermarket), optional
Directions:
Prepare brownies per box instructions. Pour into baking dish, top with sprinkles or candy pearls. Let cool then cut with cookie cutters. Decorate with gel tubes. Some silly ideas are: Make bow ties or hair bows, a red tongue, Technicolor wings, or a bat t-shirt that says, "I'm batty over you."
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About the author: Though her profession is nursing, her passion is mothering. Emily Bridges is a freelance writer and mom of three from Virginia.
