Halloween Candy Bark #Recipe from @pegcochran

It's Halloween!  The night when spirits roam the earth.  And when little ghosts and goblins go trick or treating.  This is a recipe you might try with some of the candy your children collect!

The choice of toppings is up to you--most Halloween barks have candy corn on them, but personally, I am not a fan.  They are too sweet and we don't need to have a bag of those hanging around the house!


I think something salty helps temper the sweetness of the chocolate and the candy so I added peanuts and pretzels.


There are tons of variations on Halloween bark, but this was one of the easiest methods I found.

Ingredients:
18 ounces of chocolate morsels or chips
Toppings of your choice.  Some ideas:

Pretzels (I used these)
Peanuts (I used these)
M & Ms (I used these)
Chopped up Oreo cookies
Reese's Pieces
Other candy bars chopped into small pieces.

The directions call for preheating your oven to 150 degrees.  Lo and behold, mine does not go any lower than 170 degrees.  It worked just fine!

Line your baking sheet with parchment paper.  No size was specified in the recipes I found so I used a standard cookie sheet.

Spread chocolate morsels evenly over the baking sheet.  Place in oven.

Prepare and/or chop your ingredients.

Bake until chocolate chips are beginning to melt.  Remove from oven and spread evenly.

Quickly top melted chocolate with candies/goodies of your choice.  Press candy into the chocolate.  (I found using a spatula made a mess and ended up pressing everything down with my fingertips.)

Place in freezer for super quick hardening for impatient trick or treaters (or husbands) or put in refrigerator until chocolate hardens and is set.  Break into pieces (size of pieces is up to you)  and add creepy fake spiders for a true Halloween effect!

I hope you enjoy a fun and safe Halloween!  For more about me and my books (Berried Secrets out now), visit my web site or Facebook page.

Remembrance Cookies

by Sheila Connolly

Tomorrow night, October 31st, is Samhain (pronounced “sow-in”), also called All Hallows Eve or All Saints’ Eve, and what we know as Halloween. I’ve probably described it here before (since it comes around every year!). If you’re of a superstitious turn of mind, it’s the night where the barrier between the living and the souls of the dead is at its thinnest, so if you fear spirits, you might want to stay out of your local cemeteries. (Or go out with a crowd of people and beg for candy!) But this may not help, if the dead want to return to their former homes. To welcome them, light a few candles to guide their way, and put out some food and drink for them.

The celebration of the event goes back to medieval times and possibly earlier, and—no surprise—apples have played a part. But I’m not going to talk about apples! I’m talking about Irish cookies.

Rosemary for remembrance

A lot of the traditional Irish Samhain recipes are pretty much like ordinary year-round recipes. I debated about offering you Fairy Spice Cakes, but I don’t think October 31st is a night for fairies, but rather for darker creatures. But I did find a rather unusual cookie recipe that most people label Remembrance Cookies. I’ve read that you should eat the cookies while telling stories about your ancestors (the Irish are great story-tellers, and they have very long memories where people are concerned), and if there are any cookies left, add them to a bonfire outside.


Remembrance Cookies

1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter, softened (particularly appropriate for County Cork, where there are over 4,000 herd of dairy cows)
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1-1/2 Tblsp chopped rosemary (for remembrance, of course)

In a large bowl, beat the sugar, butter, egg, vanilla, almond extract and rosemary until creamy. (BTW, I used my own home-grown rosemary.)

Includes butter from Co. Cork cows

Chopped rosemary

In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and cream of tartar. Fold the flour mixture into the sugar mixture, then beat until the dough comes together. Refrigerate for three hours. You can keep the dough in the refrigerator for longer, but in that case let it warm up a little before you try to roll it out.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
Divide the dough into halves. On a floured surface, roll out one half to just under a quarter-inch thickness.

If you have them, use gingerbread women or men to cut out shapes (these are the ones that you’ll use to celebrate your dead), and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet (or you could use parchment paper). Do the same with the second portion.

Bake in the preheated oven for 5 to 7 minutes (don’t let them burn!). Remove from the baking sheet and let cool.

I will confess I was a bit skeptical about how well rosemary would work in a sweet cookie, and one with almond extract, no less, but the combination was surprisingly pleasant.



My Irish family: the four Lawless sisters, their
only brother (Patrick), and my grandparents,
Margaret Lawless and John Connolly

Pour yourself a bit of Irish whiskey and share the old family stories around a nice fire.

And in the spirit of the day, a sneak preview of the next County Cork Mystery, A Turn for the Bad, coming February 2016.

Available for preorder at Amazon and Barnes and Noble

There will be smugglers! And a daring rescue! And whiskey!

www.sheilaconnolly.com

 

Scary Good Cornmeal Muffins for Halloween Zombies #recipe @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: I'm excited about this time of year because it brings my favorite Halloween event in Key West: the zombie bike ride. Last year, John and I and a friend rode in this with 10,000 other zombies--what a blast! I loved it so much that you'll find it's the scene of the murder in KILLER TAKEOUT.

But even the scariest goblins and witches and zombies need something that isn't too sweet before they head out to gather their treats or do their tricks. These muffins are sweet enough to appeal to all ages and go perfectly with a pot of chili or soup.
 

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups cornmeal
Three-quarter cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons featherweight sodium baking powder
1 teaspoon ENER baking soda substitute ( One half teaspoon if you are using regular baking soda)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Two eggs
2/3 cup milk
2/3 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup maple syrup
3 tablespoons melted unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 400. Grease the paper cupcake liners with a little spray on olive oil. (I didn't do this the first time and they stuck to the bottom.)

 Combine all the dry ingredients well in one bowl. Beat the eggs into the yogurt and milk. Add the maple syrup and the kosher salt and mix. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with a few strokes. Fold in the butter. Try not to over stir or the muffins will be tough.  

Distribute the batter between the 12 cups. Bake for about 16 minutes until a toothpick poked into a muffin comes out clean. 

Let them rest for three minutes and then remove from the pan and serve quickly with more butter, and honey if desired. 

Serve with chili or other hearty soup and send your trick-or-treaters on their way.

PS I think these would also be very good for breakfast with a cup of blueberries folded into them. It might extend the baking time a minute or two. 

Note: By using the non-sodium baking powder and baking soda, you omit about 1500 mg of sodium in these muffins!

KILLER TAKEOUT is coming next April, but available for pre-order today!

And you can follow Lucy on Facebook,

Twitter,

Pinterest,

and Instagram! 

 

Wickedly Decadent Chocolate Dump Cake for #Halloween from author @DarylWoodGerber

I just learned it's 
National Chocolate Day! 

But it's also my day for a Halloween post, and I had something all planned. So guess what? 

You get two recipes for the price of one! 
Two Halloween treats. One that's plenty of chocolate!

Let's party! 

From Daryl aka Avery:

First of all, do you have a few Halloween-themed mysteries to read this coming week? 

If not, try Stirring the Plot. 
[Yes,  I know Fudging the Books is my latest, but it's Halloween!]

Or try Krista Davis's The Ghost and Mrs. Mewer! 
Try our friend Janet Bolin's Night of the Living Thread or 
Kylie Logan's The Legend of Sleepy Harlow!

And now for today's menu:

Wickedly Decadent Chocolate Dump Cake

and

Brie Pumpkin Appetizer! Fun for all ages.

I love Halloween. It's a time to enjoy seeing all the kiddies in their costumes, or dress up yourself - do you dress up? I used to love to do so. Maybe that's why I was an actress before I became a writer. Which of my costumes do you like best? I was definitely into "glamor." That's my little sister in the witch hat. [Witch hats play prominently in STIRRING THE PLOT.]

It's also time to watch scary movies (not me - I'm not a scary movie girl), and time to eat! Salty or sweet. Which do you prefer? [Here are some recipes from Stirring the Plot. Click the titles for the links, shared previously on Mystery Lovers Kitchen.]

Sunflower Seed Brittle

HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE USING SKULL MOLD

Or do you just like to party???

Witchy woman cocktail

I also love seeing the decorations in my neighborhood and in my local stores.  They are getting spookier by the year, I think, but I don't  mind. They're fun!

What do you do for Halloween? Do you party? Do you trick or treat? Do you wait for trick or treaters with a bowl full of goodies? Whatever you do, enjoy the "creativity". The kids sure do!

To make the Wickedly Decadent Chocolate Dump Cake...it was an accident! I was browsing through my cabinet when I found some cocoa nibs. I wasn't quite sure what to do with them. I bought them when I learned my husband needed to eat sugar-free and thought, aha!  But they aren't quite chocolate. 

What are they? Cacao nibs are cocoa beans that are roasted and separated from their hulls and then they are broken into smaller pieces. You can find them at health food stores and can eat them as a snack or add to baked goods.

They would go great in granola. But they're nuttier in texture than chocolate. So I decided to add them as a "nut" texture to this dump cake. Added to the mix, they made the texture of the cake wickedly fun! They also added a good visual oomph to the frosting, too!

WICKEDLY DECADENT CHOCOLATE DUMP CAKE

Ingredients:

1 pkg. chocolate cake mix  (*regular or gluten-free – I used Pamela’s gluten-free brand)

1 pkg. chocolate instant pudding

4 eggs

¾ cup safflower oil

¾ cup milk

½ cup cacao nibs

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Dump all the ingredients except the cacao nibs into a bowl. Mix. Now gently mix in the cacao nibs. How easy is that?

Pour into greased bundt pan.  Cook 45-55 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. The top should spring back if pressed lightly with your finger.

Cool 20-30 minutes in the pan, then slip a knife around the outside edge and around the edge of the center tube.  Turn the cake over and let cool completely.

Drizzle with chocolate glaze icing and top with more cacao nibs,  if desired. Serve with whipped cream if desired.

And, now, here's the recipe for a Brie "pumpkin" appetizer. So easy and so yummy. 

The kids had a great time helping me "carve." 

I found this recipe in the Betty Crocker Halloween Cookbook. Whenever I research cookbooks for the next in the series, I scan bookstores and Amazon and other book sites looking for fun covers and  then I browse the pages, and often I buy the book. This is in my collection - great for kids! By the way, I keep a list of the cookbooks in all my Cookbook Nook books on my website, under "more about the Cookbook Nook World" so you can reference them. Here's that link: cookbook list.

Boo!!  

I have to share a tidbit... When I went looking for the link for the Betty Crocker Halooween Cookbook on Amazon, guess which book was recommend right below it?  Mine!  

Pumpkin Brie

This couldn't be simpler!  

Ingredients:

8 ounce round of Brie

1/4 cup apricot jam or marmalade

Crackers and apples for display

Directions:

Remove a round of Brie from the refrigerator. Let it come to room temperature. Using a warm knife, "carve" your pumpkin face, removing a portion of cheese about 1/2" deep for the mouth, nose, and eyes.  Using a teaspoon, fill the cheese cavity with apricot jam or marmalade. Serve with "orange" crackers and apple slices. A tasty treat for all ages!

Savor the mystery!

Daryl Wood Gerber aka Avery Aames

Tasty ~ Zesty ~ Dangerous!

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FUDGING THE BOOKS, the 4th Cookbook Nook Mystery, is HERE!  Click to order.

New in February

FOR CHEDDAR OR WORSE

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