Halloween Cancy Chocolate Bar

To prepare for Halloween, prepare to have leftover candy from your kids that you are not going to know what to do with! Besides donating to Unicef (which is a great cause) you should make this candy chocolate bar! Aside from having all the ingredients at your whim for this…the Halloween candy…you only need to other things.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Halloween candy!!
We used:
Whoppers
Candy corn
Tootsie rolls
Reese’s peanut butter cups
Ghost sprinkles
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate
¼ cup coconut milk

Line a baking sheet with wax or parchment paper.

Chop up your candy into the size you want.

In a double boiler, heat about an inch of water on the bottom, and in the top melt your chocolate, constantly stirring, slowly adding a little bit of coconut milk at a time while stirring so that it is completely absorbed.

Pour chocolate onto baking sheet, sprinkle with candy, stick in freezer, and eat when ready!

This is particularly great with ice cream!!

 

 

Squid Ink Couscous

Nothing says adult spooky like cooking with squid ink! This dish will impress all of your fancy grown up friends out there, and is great for Halloween dinner parties. We have made for you squid ink couscous, topped with Andouille sausage, oven roasted acorn squash, and dehydrated kale! Enjoy!

Ingredients: serves 4

3 cups pearl couscous
4 teaspoons squid ink
½ yellow onion
2 cloves garlic
1 acorn squash
4 pre-cooked Andouille sausages
2 large leaves kale
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 Tablespoon canola oil
1 teaspoon garlic salt
kosher salt

I always like starting by preparing the items that top the dish, so that I can have that out of the way and cooked.

Preheat oven to 400. Cut acorn squash in half, then into 1 inch thick slices. Using a knife, remove skin, cube, toss in oil, place on baking sheet, then sprinkle with garlic salt. Cook squash for about 30 minutes, rotating half way through.

Reduce heat to 275. Tear kale up into small pieces, discarding the stem, and placing on a baking sheet.   Cook kale for 15 minutes.

Since the sausage is already cooked, simply cut on a diagonal and cook at medium high until you get a slight sear. This will also bring out the spiciness of the meat.

Set all of this aside so we can now make our couscous. Melt butter in a large non stick sauce pan on medium high heat. While that is melting mince up garlic and onion. Cook onion and garlic in butter until onion softens and becomes semi translucent. Add 4 ½ cups of water to onion and garlic and bring to a boil. Add squid ink and make sure that it completely dissolves before adding the couscous. Bring the water back to a boil, lower to a simmer, cover and let simmer for 10 minutes.

Once the couscous is done, fluff it with a fork. Serve in a dish, pinch salt to your taste, top with squash, then sausage, then add the kale at the very end.

Boo!!!

 

Devil Eggs

We are always a fan of the classic deviled egg; it is a great go to appetizer, and in this case an awesome thing to dress up!

Enjoy our Devil Eggs!

Ingredients: makes 2 dozen –make sure you have a ziplock  bag      

A dozen eggs
½ cup roasted red peppers
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
¼ cup canola oil
1 fresh red pepper
Cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons kosher salt

Place all 12 eggs in warm water and set to high heat. Once the water comes to a boil, let boil for 12 minutes. Remove from water, and set eggs in an ice bath.

Once all eggs are cool, peel, and slice in half. Remove yolk and set aside.

Now we can make the filling, in a blender combine oil, salt, mustard, yolk, and roasted red pepper and blend until smooth. If you want it smoother add more oil.

To pipe the filling, place into a ziplock bag and cut the corner off fill in a circular motion.

To finish them off, cut pepper into thin slices, and then into little triangles to create the horns, and then sprinkle with cayenne pepper.

Let chill in refrigerator and then serve!

Happy Halloween 2015

Happy Halloween! We have a week of awesome Halloween recipes. Some are playful, some are a bit more on the grownup side, but they are all delicious!

Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal Cookies

October is our favorite month, not just because it is my (Francesca’s) birthday month, but it is when the holiday season starts, when food starts to become more comforting, and when you can start wearing more than just shorts.

In honor of everyone’s obsession with pumpkin spice everything, we have made a simple twist on a homemade classic in the form of pumpkin spic oatmeal cookies. Enjoy!

Ingredients: makes about 2-3 dozen

½ cup butter (softened)
¾ cup packed brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar plus 5 Tablespoons
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground clove
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup pumpkin purée
3 cups rolled oats
2 Tablespoons unsweetened dark cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl beat together ½ cup butter and sugar until nice and creamy. Add in your eggs one at a time, with vanilla, and then beat well.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, clove, and salt. Mix together well.

In small batches, pour the dry mix into the sugar and butter mix.

One cup at a time, mix in rolled oats using a flat spatula of a large spoon.

On an ungreased and unlined baking sheet, form cookies. Make them by using a heaping tablespoon.

Bake for 15 minutes, turning half way through to achieve an even bake.

Now to make the chocolate drizzle: while the cookies are cooling, heat remaining 5 Tablespoons of sugar on medium low heat until completely melted, once melted add chocolate and completely mix together. You are going to want to make this pretty quickly because sugar can burn very quickly, and it gets very bitter. Trust us we have burnt sugar more times than we like to admit.

Now immediately drizzle the chocolate over the cookies and enjoy!!!

 

Halloween Dinner Party

Last Friday we had an Edgar Allan Poe dinner party with a few close friends and family, and it was a blast! Because my birthday is October 21^st, birthday things tend to have a bit of a macabre twist to it. Edgar Allan Poe was a great writer and poet who is one of the pioneers of the detective novel and is loved by science fiction enthusiasts as well. His writing invokes a dark cloudy dream which could turn to a nightmare or wake you up to solve a murder.

With that being the theme we had to make food to fit the part!

We served:

The Devil’s Eggs

Crisp Tip Tarts

Baked Brie aka Gobbly Gook

Carrot Curry Soup

Black Rice aka squid ink paella

Carne Asada

Roasted Fall Vegetables

And more delicious little sides!

My three favorite things that we photographed for you and have the recipe for are a dessert we call Pink Fluff, and two appetizers; Crisp Tip Tarts, The Devil’s Eggs!

Enjoy and make these easy and quick treats for your Halloween Dinner!

 

 

Ingredients: makes 12 serves 6 if everyone eats 2

*get a sandwich bag if you want to pipe the filling nicely!

**Spanish paprika and normal paprika are a bit different, Spanish paprika is really smoky and has great deep flavor.

***A few of the ingredients were bought at Surfas in Culver City, for example the premade stuff, and the amazing strawberry fizz chocolate candy we bought! Either go there or go online to www.culinarydistrict.com. This place is amazing and great for any lover of cooking.

6 eggs
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons Siracha
Pinch of salt
Spanish smoked paprika for taste
Red food coloring

To make the perfect hard boiled egg for this, fill a pot with water to cover the eggs 1-2 inches, and then pour in the 1 tablespoon of vinegar (this keeps the whites from running if the eggs crack). Place all the eggs in and turn the heat on high. When the water starts boiling, let it boil one minute, then remove from heat, cover, and let sit for 12 minutes.

To get the beautiful marbling effect on the eggs, once the eggs cool a bit, crack them all around by rolling them on a hard surface. Don’t be afraid to get them in deep, because you want that color to seep in. Next fill a large bowl with water and about 10 drops of food coloring, and let the cracked eggs sit for about 1 hour if you really want some good coloring. (Our eggs are a little pink because I added some drops of blue!)

Peel the eggs and cut in half lengthwise, placing the yolks in a medium size bowl. Combine the rest of all the ingredients, and mash together until smooth. You can add more Siracha if you want more of a kick.

Put filling in a sandwich bag and cut the tip off, using this to pip the filling into the half egg. Sprinkle the paprika for decoration and for taste.

Ingredients: Makes 12

12 prebaked savory tart shells
4 eggs
¼ cup goat cheese
2 teaspoons thyme
12 pieces of asparagus
1 teaspoon salt plus a pinch
1 Tablespoon olive oil
½ lemon

Start by preheating oven to 350 degrees and heating a skillet.

Chop the tips off of the asparagus. Heat oil in your skillet, and place asparagus tips in. Squeeze half the lemon on and add a tiny pinch of salt. Let cook until the tips start to brown a bit and crisp up, about 5 minutes. Remove from skillet and put on a paper towel to absorb oil.

In a medium bowl, mix together the eggs, goat cheese, thyme, and salt. Mix together until the goat cheese is evenly dispersed in small pieces.

Spoon mix into shells, top with tips, and bake for 10 minutes. Make sure the egg is cooked all the way.

Ingredients: makes 12

12 chocolate cups
Box of candy strawberry fizz
4 cups frozen strawberries
½ cup sugar
1 oz vanilla pudding mix
8 oz cool whip

This recipe is super easy and looks amazing. To make strawberry mousse, puree strawberries and sugar until completely smooth. Add pudding mix and keep mixing. Remove from mixer and fold in cool whip. Cover in bowl and let set for 15 minutes.

Spoon mousse in chocolate cup and top with the candy fizz! The mix of smooth mousse, biting chocolate, and a pop of the candy fizz is spooktacular!

Happy Halloween!

 

 

 

 

Happy Halloween

On the final night of Halloween Michael and I have made for you a devilishly delicious spiced black velvet cake oozing with a red strawberry cream cheese frosting. Make this if you dare, for you are doomed to eat the whole thing at once!!!

Ingredients:

Cake:
Vegetable oil for the pans
2 oz Black food coloring
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon fine salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 oz black gel food coloring
1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting:
1 oz red food coloring
1 cup macerated strawberries
4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter
8 oz cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla extract

To start make your cream cheese frosting, because you want it to harden a bit in the refrigerator. We made two frostings, one to hold the cake together, and the other to create the eerie drips. In a large bowl whip together 2 cups of powdered sugar, ½ a cup of room temperature butter, 8 oz of cream cheese, 1 oz red food coloring, and 1 tsp vanilla extract. Now macerate your strawberries and add them to the frosting, this will make it soupy, and this will be the frosting you use to make the drips.

In another bowl, beat the rest of your butter and powdered sugar together, adding about a cup of the soupy frosting mix, to make a thick frosting you can use to hold the layers of cake together. Refrigerate and use after you bake the cakes.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, spice, and cocoa powder. In another large bowl, whisk together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla.

Using a hand mixer, mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined and a smooth batter is formed.

Divide the cake batter evenly among the prepared cake pans. Place the pans in the oven evenly spaced apart. Bake, rotating the pans halfway through the cooking, until the cake pulls away from the side of the pans, and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean, about 30 minutes.

Remove the cakes from the oven and run a knife around the edges to loosen them from the sides of the pans. One at a time, invert the cakes onto a plate and then re-invert them onto a cooling rack, rounded-sides up. Let cool completely, if you don’t, even your stiff frosting will be runny.

To assemble the cake, us the cake layers as is, cake layers are rounded and usually you cut them to perfection, but we left them as is to create this morbid beast of a looking cake. So place the first layer on your plate or cake stand, cover the first cake layer with the stiff frosting, then dollop a large spoonful of soupy frosting and spread around letting some drip down the sides. Place the second cake layer on top, smooshing it down a bit to stay, and repeat. Once you have the final layer, really lay on top that soupy frosting to get that gory effect. This cake without fail will be the spookiest thing in the room with the harsh black cake up against the oozing red frosting!

Happy Halloween!!!

Spooktastic Spiced Rum Jello Shot

This is a really quick and easy one that we are posting to celebrate the 4^th day until Halloween. We are showing you this incredibly simple recipe because we think it is great to have an option besides a cocktail in a glass, serve a cocktail in a shot, in the form of jello! This is a Halloween and fall inspired twist on the age old college jello shot, but much more refined.

Ingredients:
1 oz gelatin
2 cups boiling apple cider
6 oz cold water
10 oz spiced rum
Black sprinkles

This recipe is so simple it’s silly. Basically start by boiling two cups of apple cider, once boiled pour into a heat proof bowl and then whisk in the gelatin, until completely dissolved. Next pour the cold water and spiced rum.  To set it, pour the mix into a square baking pan that’s no larger than 9”x9”, and refrigerate for up to three hours to completely set.

Once set, to remove from the pan, fill a sink with warm water, and dip the bottom of the pan in the water (being sure to not get any water on your actual mold) for 2-3 seconds. The mold will release from the side of the pan. Flip the jello onto a cutting board and cut into equal sized pieces, and dip the top into your black sprinkles.

The sprinkles will cause a black run a bit, but this is great because it adds to the spooky effect of your alcoholic treat!!

Trick With Some Treat Macaron

These French macarons are a delightful way display the traditional Halloween colors orange and black! They are so cute, so scrumptious, and such perfect Halloween treats. All you need to do is follow the instructions, really pay attention, because trust us, it took a couple tries, but once we got used to it, these are a breeze! In this recipe we made two different flavors, both using our Food Nasty preserves. So if you want that recipe check back at our Summer Fruit Fall Jam post. The black is a cherry almond flavor, and the orange is nectarine brandy, and boy oh boy they are good. You can either divide everything in half, or just follow the recipe and add one flavor, your choice.

*When we say sift, we mean really sift through mesh.
*Be sure to reduce the heat the second you put everything in the oven.

Ingredients:

Cookie:
Black and orange gel food coloring
1 cup confectioners' sugar
 3/4 cup almond flour
 2 large egg whites, room temperature
 Pinch of cream of tartar
 1/4 cup superfine sugar

Filling: Swiss Meringue Buttercream
6 large egg whites
 1 1/2 cups sugar
 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 ¼ lb butter
1/3 cup jam or flavoring

Start by pulsing confectioners’ sugar and almond flour together, and then sift through mesh twice to get all the imperfections out.

Next preheat oven to 375 while you get the cookie mix ready. With an electric whisker, whisk egg whites  and food coloring until foamy, now add you cream of tartar, and continue to whisk. While you are whisking on a low speed, add superfine sugar, go back up to a high speed and continue whisking until you form firm peaks. Now sift flour mix over the eggs white and fold in until fully dissolved.

Next line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and make ¾ inch rounds with a pencil. We used a wine cork because it is the perfect size. Now transfer you batter to a pastry bag, or even a sandwich bag, and cut a small hole in the corner, and fill your circles.

Tap the bottom of the sheet to release air bubbles, and let sit for 10 minutes. One sheet at a time, place baking trays in oven, and immediately decrease heat to 325 and bake for 10 minutes, turning the sheet tray around half way through.

One they bake, let them completely cool and lift off parchment, if need be you can peel any sticking parchment paper off.

Now time to assemble the filling. Beat egg whites and sugar in a heatproof bowl sitting over simmering water until sugar dissolves. Once sugar dissolves remove from heat and beat until thick, add vanilla and butter, and your flavoring. Fill a pastry bag and pipe away! Fill your cookies with about a ½ tablespoon of filling, sandwich and eat!

Classic Caramel Apples

Apples have always had a wonderful place in every fall lovers heart. We bob for apples, we make apple pie, we harvest apples, Hell, we even give them to teachers at the beginning of the year. There is absolutely no better way to bring that tradition full circle than covering them in caramel!

These caramel apples are classics, very straight forward, simple, and wonderful!!! Celebrate 6 days of Halloween left, and bite into some caramel apples!

*Be sure to pay attention to the color of your sugar while it caramelizes, too soon it will be albino, too late it will burn.

Ingredients: makes 6

Sticks or whatevs to insert into the apples
 Nonstick cooking spray
 2 cups sugar
 1/2 cup heavy cream
 6 Granny Smith or Red Delicious apples
 1 cup coarsely chopped hazelnuts (optional)

Line a baking sheet with waxed paper and coat with cooking spray, this will prevent the caramel from adhering to everything.

 In a medium saucepan, bring sugar and 1/2 cup water to a boil over high, then reduce to medium-high and simmer, undisturbed, until caramel is golden brown, 8 minutes. Remove from heat and carefully stir in cream (mixture will sputter). And we say sputter we mean it, I practically seared flesh off. Transfer to a small bowl and let cool 5 minutes.

Now make a small slit in top of each apple, and insert your stick 1 inch deep into each slit.

For the finale….dip apples into caramel, swirling to coat. Sprinkle with nuts (if using) and transfer to sheet. If the caramel seems thin, just let it cool, and double dip (we allow it), or allow it to sit in the freezer for a few min to harden the caramel.

Serve up! Yummy!!!