Platefuls of Halloween baked goods and buckets of Halloween candy aren’t the only things that you can keep around the kitchen as you get into the spirit of Halloween. Something like a Bloody Evidence Chef’s Knife is both a scary, funny and useful prop that you can add to the knife rack. The knife is a real chef’s knife with fired-on blood spatter that will not come off during washing or use, and is completely food safe. Imagine coming out of the kitchen with a big pie to slice up in one hand and this knife in the other! I would think that it would also make a fun gift for fans of the Showtime TV show, Dexter.
Oreo cookies are a great addition to cheesecake, whether you use them in the crust or chop them up and mix them into the batter. The crisp, chocolaty cookies are a nice textural contrast to the creamy cream cheese base of the cake, and the creme filling of the cookie blends in smoothly and sweetly to the rest of the dessert. I like them in any kind of cheesecake, but when I saw the Halloween Oreos – with their bright orange centers – on the shelves, I knew that they would make a fabulous Halloween-themed cheesecake.
I lined the muffin tin with paper liners and then placed a whole Oreo cookie into each cup to act as the crust of these cheesecakes. Not only does it make for a good, solid base, but you don’t need to spend time fussing with getting graham cracker crumbs into the muffin cups or prebaking crusts and waiting for them to cool. I also chopped up some Oreo cookies and stirred them into the cake batter. The cheesecake itself is very easy and mixes up in one bowl. Just pour it on top of the cookie bases and you’re ready to bake! Once all your ingredients are at room temperature, you can actually have these in the oven in less than 10 minutes.
I took these to a little party recently and they were a huge hit with both adults and kids alike. It was really fun to see faces light up when they bit into the cheesecake and realized that you could see the whole Oreo cookie, complete with bright orange filling, sitting at the base of the cake. The cupcakes travel very well as the cheesecake is relatively firm. Also, since the orange filling isn’t orange flavored, these taste just like cookies n’ cream.
Don’t forget, regular Oreos (or similar brands) of cookies will work well in this recipe, too, and you can always opt for a non-Halloween colored version in the off season.
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The shipping date for The Baking Bites Cookbook is approaching quickly. I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has preordered a copy. You won’t have to wait much longer until your book is in the mail and on its way! For everyone else, you can still place an order and the books will ship as they come in. The list price for the book is $19.95, but if you order it directly from this site, it’s only $16.95, including free US shipping. If you buy 2 or more copies, the price is just $15.95 per book. Did I mention that The Baking Bites Cookbook makes a great gift? International shipping is available, although there is a small surcharge for overseas shipments.
Anna, at Cookie Madness, tried out one of the recipes from the cookbook this week. You can see her photo of my White Chocolate Oatmeal Crunch Brownies at her site. They’re definitely a favorite of mine and it sounds like she really liked them, too. You can read a bit more about the book at my original post about it.
If you want a chance to win a copy of the cookbook, I’m giving one away with a great Mini Pumpkin Cheesecake pan this week! All you need to do is leave a comment on the pumpkin cheesecake post (not this post!) with your favorite flavor of cheesecake to enter! And you might want to check back in over the next couple of weeks, because there might be another cookbook or two up for grabs in the near future!
Most recipes that call for pumpkin recommend using canned pumpkin puree. There are a variety of reasons for this, including the facts that pumpkin puree is relatively inexpensive, easy to find, convenient to use and very consistent in color, flavor and texture. Having a standard ingredient to recommend helps cookbook authors and recipe writers to help you achieve the desired results with their recipes. You can find both regular and organic pumpkin puree pretty easily these days at both regular and specialty markets. That said, it is also very possible to make your own pumpkin puree and this is a great option or those of us who like to eat squash and pumpkin on a regular basis.
First, start out with a whole pumpkin. It’s best not to have one too large, or it will be difficult to work with. Peel it, slice it open and seed it. Bring some water to a boil on the stovetop. Cut up the pumpkin flesh into chunks and drop it into the boiling water. Cool the pumpkin pieces until they’re tender, exactly the same way you would with potatoes.
Drain and cool the pumpkin pieces, then put them in the food processor. This is the only part where making your own gets tricky. Pumpkin can be fairly fibrous, and canned pumpkin puree is very smooth, so make sure that you process your pumpkin as much as possible. Sometimes, I add back a little bit of water to the puree so that I can process it more easily. I aim to get the consistency close to that of the canned puree (fairly thick, but not dry) so that I know it will work out in the recipes that call for it.
When I make it, I use pumpkin puree within a day or two of making it, storing it in the refrigerator in the meantime.
You can get creative with recipes for Christmas and decorations for Fourth of July, but no holiday is quite as fun as Halloween when it comes to looks. You can have all manner of decorations, from simple carved pumpkins to full-sized haunted house displays, and can take your holiday treats from snack sized candy bars to more elaborate, homemade treats, like Vampire Cupcakes. The food, like the decorations, should be fun and there is no real limit to how creative you can be. It’s a great time to experiment. After all, in the even that a treat doesn’t turn out looking the way you hoped, you can always say that it was just supposed to be an extra-scary zombie version of the cookie, cake or cupcake, right?
Here are some great, fun ideas for Halloween recipes. Don’t wait until the night before the holiday – some of these are too good to give away to trick-or-treaters!
- Vampire Cupcakes and Vampire Cookies are two of my absolute favorite Halloween recipes, both “bleed” fruity red fillings when you bite into them. They’re also perfect for non-Halloween occasions, like a Twilight movie viewing party.
- Speaking of vampire treats, a big batch of raspberry jam-filled Vampire Pancakes is a great way to get Halloween off on the right foot.
- Slime Filled Cupcakes from the Black Lagoon are another creepy cupcake, filled with oozing, bright green lime curd!
- Dirt Cupcakes are yet another cupcake – but these aren’t filled with ooey gooey slime or blood like the above cupcakes are. Instead, they’re covered with chocolate cake crumbs (and gummy worms!) that give them their dirt-like appearance.
- Franken Berry Cereal Bars and Spooky Peanut Butter Puff Truffles are fantastic for making with kids because both are easy and start with boxed cereal. Kids can pretty much do everything themselves, with just a little adult supervision.
- The recipes for both Halloween M&M Cookies and Leftover Halloween Candy Bundt Cake incorporate regular Halloween candy. The cookies get a festive look from dark, creepily-colored seasonal M&Ms, while the cake is best made the day after Halloween when you have a bag of leftover mini chocolates that needs to be used up.
- The cookies pictured at the top are part of a batch of Skeleton Gingerbread cookies, decorated to look like carved pumpkins. Mummy Cookies with White Chocolate Wrapping are a good alternative if you prefer to start out with a chocolate, rather than spice, base.
- Candy apples are another classic recipe. Make sure to start out with some good apples, and either dip them into melted caramels or make a batch of Salted Maple Caramel Apples for a variation with a little extra fall flavor.
- Not everything needs to be themed. Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes and Pumpkin Brownies with Pecans are both good choices, getting pumpkin in to make them Halloween-appropriate, but perfectly appropriate for other fall and winter occasions, too.
- If you see a bag of Halloween Oreos, you might want to pick it up to try out some black and orange Halloween Oreo Cheesecakes
