Alison Head of Projects
Dust off your capes and adjust your witchy hats… Halloween is nearly here and it’s time to prepare a spooktacular feast. Whether you’re throwing an eerie party for all your friends or simply want a spine-chilling bite after a night of trick or treat, we’ve put together a spectacular selection of cool Halloween recipes that will frighten and delight!
1. Hot Dog Mummies
Image sourced from: pillsbury.com
Your little witches and warlocks will love these hot dog mummies! They are so easy to make – just don’t forget to add two mustard or ketchup ‘eyes’ to complete the ‘mummy’ effect!
Feeds 12 ghouls…
Ingredients:1 (11 ounce) can of Pillsbury refrigerated breadsticks (12 breadsticks)
12 large hot dogs
Cooking spray
Mustard or ketchup for the ‘eyes’
Directions:
Heat the oven to 375°F
Unroll dough and separate it at the perforations into 12 breadsticks.
Using a knife or kitchen scissors, cut each breadstick lengthwise and crosswise into 4 pieces, making a total of 48 pieces of dough.
Here’s where the kids can help and the fun really starts… Help your little ones to wrap 4 pieces of dough around each hot dog to resemble ‘bandages’. Help tiny hands to stretch the dough slightly to completely cover hot dog – add in some screams as they pull on the dough for even more fun.
When the kids get to about 1/2 inch from one end of each hot dog, help them to separate the ‘bandages’ so the hot dog shows through for the face.
Place the wrapped hot dogs on a large baking sheet and spray each piece of dough lightly with cooking spray.
Baking time should be between 13 to 17 minutes, or until dough is light golden brown and hot dogs are hot.
When the ‘mummies’ have cooled slightly, splodge two eyes on with either mustard or ketchup on the ‘face’.
Eat’s screamingly good tip No.1: let the kids add some ketchup blood effect splatter on the baked hot dog mummies for an even scarier treat!
Eat’s screamingly good tip No.2: You can also push a flat wooden stick with rounded ends into each hot dog before wrapping it in the dough to create Hot Dog Mummies on sticks.
2. Spooky Witches Fingers
Image sourced from: allrecipes.co.uk
Kids and adults alike will love these ghastly witchy fingers and because you can make so many in one go, they make a great choice when it comes to choosing a cool Halloween recipe that will catch everyone’s imagination!
Makes 30 witchy delights…
Ingredients:225g (8 oz) butter, softened
125g (4 1/2 oz) icing sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
350g (12 oz) of plain flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
100g (4 oz) whole almonds
1 tube of red decorating icing
Method:
Combine the butter, sugar, egg, almond extract and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Beat together – this is easier to do with an electric mixer rather than a hand-held whisk, but you may want to let the kids have a go first before you ensure everything is fully combined.
Next, add the flour, baking powder and salt, but do this gradually whilst continually beating your mixture.
Chill the beaten mixture for 20 to 30 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 160 C / Gas mark 3.
Lightly grease your baking trays – you may need between two and four trays depending on their size.
Remove your dough from the fridge but do so in small amounts so it doesn’t get warm.
Scoop one heaped teaspoon at a time onto a piece of greaseproof paper and use the paper to roll the dough into thin, finger-shaped biscuits.
Press one almond into one end of each biscuit to give the appearance of a long fingernail.
Squeeze each biscuit near the tip and again near each centre to give the impression of knuckles. You can also cut into the dough with a sharp knife at the same points to help give a more finger-like appearance.
Arrange the shaped biscuits on the baking trays.
Bake in the preheated oven until the biscuits are slightly golden in colour, 20 to 25 minutes.
Carefully remove the almond from the end of each biscuit and squeeze a small amount of red icing into the cavity. Let the children help you replace the almond and do it in such a way that the icing oozes out around the tip of the biscuit.
Eat’s screamingly good tip: have some fun by letting out a blood-curling scream every time you replace an almond ‘nail’ and the icing oozes out!
3. Scary Halloween Jelly
Image sourced from: BBC Good Food
Want a really gruesome but yummy centrepiece for your Halloween table? Try this Halloween jelly with sweet, yet healthy eyeballs and fingers that you’ll want to bite!
Makes one horrifying gruesome bowl…
Ingredients:2 x 135g packs of strawberry or raspberry jelly
425g can of lychees in syrup (or you can use fresh, peeled lychees if you prefer)
12-14 small seedless green grapes
12-14 dark coloured jellybeans
80g white marzipan
6-8 blanched almonds
Red piping gel or red icing in a tube
Method:
Dissolve your jelly according to the packet instructions, all together in the bowl.
If you are using canned lychees, drain them and add the reserved the juice to the dissolved jelly.
Pour about a quarter of your jelly into your chosen clear glass dish and place in the fridge to set.
To make your eyeballs, take a grape and gently push a jellybean into the centre, using the hole where the stalk has been. Then, gently push the grape into a lychee. Repeat with the remaining grapes and lychees until you have made all the eyeballs.
For the spooky fingers, divide the marzipan into six and shape into the size and shape of fingers. Let the kids’ in on the fun by showing them how to pipe a little red gel at one end and attaching an almond on the other ends to make a ‘nail’. Take over and use a small knife to mark three or four lines halfway down the finger for the knuckles.
When the first part of the jelly is set, arrange the eyeballs you made earlier over the jelly, Place the spooky fingers against the side of the bowl and pour over the remaining jelly and place in the fridge to set.
Serve and enjoy!
Eat’s screamingly good tip: you can use other flavoured jelly or why not combine a green and red jelly for a frightening fusion of colour?
4. Black and Orange Pasta
Image sourced from: Pop Sugar
Halloween isn’t just for kids! We’ve found a totally cool Halloween recipe just for grown-ups. Using the Halloween colours orange and black, this squid-ink-dyed spaghetti contrasts stunningly with the bright-orange butternut squash for a frightful main dish that looks and tastes amazing.
Serves 6 grown-up spooks…
Ingredients:
2 lbs. butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 3/4-inch chunks
2 orange bell peppers, cut into 1-inch pieces
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb. black linguine or spaghetti (squid or cuttlefish ink pasta)
1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives, chopped
You will need an 11-inch 4-sided sheet pan.
Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F and ensure your cooling rack is in the middle.
Toss the squash and bell peppers with garlic, thyme, red pepper flakes, oil, and 1/2 tsp each of salt and pepper in your pan. Roast the vegetables, stirring once, until they are just tender and browned in spots for 25 to 35 minutes.
While vegetables finish roasting, cook your linguine in a pasta pot of generously salted boiling water until ‘al dente’. Reserve about 1/2 cup of the cooking water, then drain pasta and return to pot.
Remove sheet pan from oven and pour reserved water over vegetables, stirring to loosen from pan.
Stir in olives, then add vegetable mixture to pasta in pot and toss to combine.
Eat’s screamingly good tip: Serve on white plates for added contrast with a drizzle of truffle oil for a devilishly decadent touch.
5. Jack 0’Lantern Cocktail
Image sourced from: indulgy.com
After a night of trick or treating with the children, return home to a hauntingly good tipple – and as well as tasting utterly delicious, our cocktail pick will impress any grown-up ghoulish guests too.
Ingredients for each devilishly delightful cocktail:
1-ounce Hennessy VSOP Cognac
1 1/2 ounces orange juice
1/2-ounce ginger ale
1/2-ounce Grand Marnier orange liqueur
Preparation:
Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker.
Strain into a glass, (over ice).
Float an orange wheel with a lime twist poked into the top.
Eat’s screamingly good tip: decorate each cocktail with an orange wheel. Cut an orange into 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick slices and cut a slit on each, going from the middle through to the peel so that it easily slides onto the rim of a glass. You can also simply sit your sliced orange on top of each cocktail if the diameter of your glass is the same as the diameter of each cut slice.
We hope our top pick of cool Halloween recipes have inspired you! Have a ghoulishly great Halloween and come back soon for even more great recipes from Eat Marketing.
