It's almost time for those Halloween treats and the gathering of souls who will devour them.
So, for those who respect the culinary talents of Hannibal Lecter, we submit the following.
GHOSTLY CUPCAKES
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
In a mixing bowl, beat the egg with granulated sugar. You'll get a pale yellow foam and the texture of the egg will be thicker. Add the cinnamon extract.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, 3/4 teaspoon of salt and baking powder. Sift all the dry ingredients.
Cream 8 tablespoons of butter with the brown sugar (whisk using a stand-mixer to get as much air as possible into the butter). Add the egg mixture and the dry ingredients. Mix well. Add the buttermilk, pumpkin purée and the mini chocolate chips.
Place about 2-3 tablespoons of the pumpkin cake batter into 3 12-hole mini muffin pans. Plastic wrap the trays and place in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes (or until you're ready to bake).
Remove the plastic wrap, then bake the cupcakes for 5 minutes at 375°F, then lower the temperature to 350°F and bake for another 20 minutes.
Remove from the oven.
Let cool completely.
To make vanilla butter-cream frosting, combine the remaining butter, remaining salt, powdered sugar, milk and vanilla extract. Put the frosting into a piping bag fitted with a round tip. Pipe immediately onto the cupcakes, starting with a circle around the cupcake and finishing with a mound of frosting on top.
Decorate the frosting with sprinkles, forming ghost faces.
MUMMY HOT DOGS
1 (8 ounce) can Pillsbury® refrigerated crescent dinner rolls or Pillsbury® Crescent Recipe Creations™ refrigerated flaky dough sheet
10 large hot dogs
Cooking spray
Mustard
Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Crescent Rolls: Unroll dough; separate at perforations creating 4 rectangles; press perforations to seal. Recipe Creations: Unroll dough; cut into 4 rectangles.
With knife cut each rectangle lengthwise into 10 pieces, making a total of 40 pieces of dough.
Wrap 4 pieces of dough around each hot dog, stretching dough slightly to completely cover hot dog.
About 1/2 inch from one end of each hot dog, separate "bandages" so hot dog shows through for "face."
On ungreased cookie sheet, place wrapped hot dogs, spray dough lightly with cooking spray.
Bake 13 to 17 minutes or until dough is light golden brown and hot dogs are hot. With mustard, create the eyes and anything else you want.
What collection of recipes for Halloween would be complete without some CRUNCHY COCKROACHES?
Ingredients:
1/3 C. cream cheese, softened
1/4 C. walnuts, chopped semi-fine
20-30 dates, pitted
In a small bowl, combine cream cheese and nuts til well mixed.
Carefully fill each date with cream cheese/nut mixture (you may have to split the dates a little.
For that realism effect, add several plastic roaches and a sign
reading: "Fresh-caught Cockroaches."
We'll have more Halloween food ideas in the weeks to come.
