Ah, that lovely season when the dead rise again! You
probably know of my fondness for graveyards, not to mention my obsession with
my dear departed ancestors (“You have how many names in your family tree?”
Actually, as of this week it’s 13,165, not including the Irish side.)
But sometimes it’s hard to find appropriate recipes for
Halloween. In the past I’ve offered you black pasta (hand-imported from Italy!)
and black garlic, and even spider cookies crawling out of a pumpkin one year.
This year I realized I had overlooked one very obvious choice: the bog dead!
A few years ago my daughter gave me a set of skull baking
molds (she knows me well). But I seldom feel the urge to make skull muffins or
cupcakes. What else could I do . . . And then
I had this idea for skulls emerging from a pool of peat (aka a bog). Don’t
worry: the skulls are shortbread, and the peat is dark chocolate cheesecake.
(If you’re faint of
heart, you could make pumpkin cookies instead and scatter them over the nice
field of cheesecake earth.)
The Skulls:
I used the basic shortbread recipe from my post last week and
pressed the dough into the molds, filling them only part way (you could also use sugar-cookie dough). Then I baked
them. It’s all right if they brown a little—a skull marinating in peat for a
few centuries should be a bit discolored.
The Crust:
This will not show, but you will need it if you plan to eat
this concoction (silly question) This recipe fits a 9-inch pan,
but I doubled it for a 9x13” pan (I wanted to fit more skulls in).
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray your pan with cooking
spray.
9 oz. chocolate wafer cookies (crunchy ones, not chewy ones)
2 Tblsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick butter, melted
In a food processor, grind the cookies to fine crumbs, then
blend in the sugar and salt. Add the melted butter and blend. Press into the
bottom of the prepared pan. Bake until set (about 10 minutes), then cool.
The Cheesecake:
I searched through recipes and picked the deepest, darkest
one I could find.
12 oz. (2 bags) bittersweet chocolate (if bars, chop)
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
4 8-oz. packages cream cheese, at room temperature
4 eggs
Melt the chocolate (microwave works well, or in a double
boiler—slowly!), stirring steadily until the chocolate is melted. Let cool to
lukewarm.
In a medium bowl, whisk the sugar and cocoa powder together
(no lumps!). In a stand mixer, beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy
(about 2 minutes), then add the sugar/cocoa powder mixture. Beat well, scraping
down the bowl. Blend in the eggs, one at a time. Finally mix in the lukewarm
chocolate and stir.
Let me tell you, this
stuff is delicious! I was tempted to eat it straight from the bowl.
Building your Bog:
Take your pan with the cookie layer and arrange the skulls
on that—you can use as many as you want, and distribute them in whatever
pattern pleases you—all lined up or randomly.
Pour in the filling carefully around the skulls. Actually, I
had to use a pastry bag—the batter was a bit too thick to pour. But this is
supposed to be peat, so it doesn’t have to be tidy. The layer doesn’t have to
be too deep—you want the skulls to look like they’re emerging from the murk,
ever so slowly. If you’re feeling creative, you can sprinkle some left-over
crumbs around the skull to make the bog look more authentic.
 |
This is a very large peat bog in Shannonbridge,
Ireland. It provides fuel for a nearby electric
generating station. I had to stop and check it out. |
Bake until the center is just set (that is, still a little
wiggly), rotating the pan in the oven once during cooking. The exact timing
will depend on how large your pan is and how deep the cheesecake layer is.
Start checking after 30-40 minutes. It’s
not the end of the world if it’s baked a bit too long—the cheesecake
will be more brownie-like in texture rather than creamy, but it will still
taste good.
If you’re really into it, go wild with more
decorations—maybe black sprinkles or some hints of green (bogs are growing
things, you know). I did draw the line at adding a few (clean) chicken wing
bones for effect, though. Maybe it would look good if you served it in the light of flickering candles.
Refrigerate your bog cheesecake overnight before you try to cut it (if you can wait that long!).
Savor it after the manic sugar-fueled trick-or-treaters have
retreated for the night.
Oh, and a giveaway bonus: a pumpkin that will last more than a couple of weeks (It's cloth.)
And if you've never read Buried in a Bog (the first book of my County Cork Mystery Series), I'll throw that in too.
Here's a picture of the bog it's based on:
 |
My great-great-grandfather's bog down the hill
from Knockskagh in West Cork. The peat is
under the brown grass. |
Just leave a spooky comment and I'll draw one name for the pumpkin (hmm, I could draw a name out of a pumpkin . . .)
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
