Dessert, Candy Worms and Chaos: Making Graveyard Pudding with My Grandsons. Plus a FREE Halloween story for everyone! by Ang Pompano

ANG POMPANO: I don’t know about where you live, but here in Connecticut, Halloween has become a major holiday. Some folks go all out, decorating almost as much as they do for Christmas but with orange and purple lights and those nine-foot-tall skeletons towering over the lawn!

Ironically, traditional trick-or-treating has mostly given way to parties. But that’s fine by me. It just gives my grandsons and me an excuse to get into a little culinary mischief making party treats. In that spirit, today’s “recipe” is really more of a fun spooky project: the classic Graveyard Pudding. The boys helped me whip up a batch, and I have to admit, it was equal parts dessert and chaos—but that was all part of the fun!

So here’s how we built our Graveyard Pudding Cups, complete with tombstones, candy worms, and crumbling “dirt,” using nothing more than some pudding, some cookies, and a bit of Halloween candy.

And as a special Halloween treat, everyone who visits the blog today can download a free copy of my kid-friendly spooky story, “Liver Man.”

Ingredients

1 package Oreo cookies
1 pack of chocolate pudding (instant or regular)
Milano cookies or any cookie shaped like a tombstone
Black icing writer
Candy pumpkins
Gummy worms
Marshmallows (for creepy peepers)
Four 9 oz. clear cups

Instructions

Make the tombstones: 

Use the black icing writer to write “RIP” on each cookie.

Create the creepy eyes: 

Dot “eyeballs” on the marshmallows with the icing writer.

Prepare the pudding: 

Make one pack of pudding according to the package directions. (We used regular pudding since the boys don’t eat artificial sweeteners. I chose instant so they could do every step themselves—no mixer or stove needed!)

Make the dirt: 

Crush the Oreos into fine crumbs. Sure, you could use a food processor. But where’s the fun in that? I gave the boys rolling pins and eight cookies each in a plastic bag and said, “Crush ’em!” They had a grand time.

Assemble the cups and decorate:

Sprinkle a layer of cookie crumbs into the bottom of each clear cup.

Add a few gummy worms along the sides so they’re visible.

Spoon in a layer of pudding.

Repeat the layers, ending with a generous topping of cookie “dirt.”

Press in your tombstone cookie, a candy pumpkin, a few gummy worms, and the creepy marshmallow eyes. and you’re done—spooky, sweet, and ready to serve!

Our finished Graveyard Pudding Cups—proof that a little chocolate “dirt” goes a long way toward Halloween fun!

Whether you’re hosting a Halloween party, hanging out with the family, or sneaking a few extra gummy worms when no one’s looking, I hope these Graveyard Pudding Cups bring as many laughs to your kitchen as they did to ours.

Have a spooky, fun, and safe Halloween—and don’t forget to grab your free copy of “Liver Man” before you head out!—Ang

To download your free copy of my kid-friendly Halloween Story "Liver Man" click HERE.

Ang Pompano is a mystery author, editor, publisher and blogger. He writes the Blue Palmetto Detective Agency, and the Reluctant Food Columnist series, both published by Level Best Books. In addition to his writing, Ang is a co-founder of Crime Spell Books and serves as co-editor of the Best New England Crime Stories anthology. He blogs about food on Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, Annette, an artist, and their two rescue dogs.

When It’s Time for Leaving by Ang Pompano

Buy Link

Al DeLucia walked away from the police—and his past. But when his long-lost father leaves him a detective agency in Savannah, Al finds himself trapped between family secrets and a murder on the agency’s dock. Partnered with Maxine Brophy, a fierce detective who doesn’t trust him, Al is pulled into a deadly search through Savannah and the Okefenokee Swamp—where the truth about the case, and his father, may cost him everything.

Blood Ties and Deadly Lies by Ang Pompano

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Al DeLucia returns to Sachem Creek expecting a kayak race and a chance to confront his childhood bully, Abe Cromwell. Instead, he finds a dead lawyer, a web of deceit, and Abe claiming they’re brothers by DNA. Reluctantly joined by Maxine Brophy, his formidable partner and girlfriend, Al dives into a murder investigation that exposes land swindles, hidden maps, and buried family secrets. In a town where the past won’t stay buried, Al must face truths that could upend everything.

Snakeberry: Best New England Crime Stories 2025

Edited by Susan Oleksiw, Christine Bagley, Ang Pompano, and Leslie Wheeler.

Buy Link

 Every year the Best New England Crime Stories anthology brings welcome surprises and satisfactions from the best mystery authors in New England, and this year is no different. Snakeberry—Welcome to crime in 2025.

Mincemeat Tarts

by Sheila Connolly

Mincemeat pie has long been associated with Christmas—think Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, where a mince pie awaits at the end of the final meal. (BTW, Tori Avey, who write about food and culture for PBS, called Dickens “a true Victorian foodie, a man who took serious pleasure in eating and drinking.”

Long, long ago, when I first heard the term “mincemeat,” all I could think of was the “meat” part. I was pretty sure I didn’t want meat in my dessert. Luckily nobody offered me any mincemeat.

But then one summer many years ago I had a job in a department store in London (Simpson’s Piccadilly—I had a great time!), where if we worked the late opening days, we were entitled to “tea” in the basement cafeteria, around five. Tea might include tea, of course (black or white), plus kippers and buns and—mincemeat tarts. I quickly became a convert.

This past week I was strolling through my supermarket and was halted by a display of teeny, tiny boxes of mincemeat, in a package smaller than a kid’s juice box. Surely you jest! That little box will make a whole pie? But the maker was serious: it’s dried mincemeat, that you have to restore by adding water and boiling for a minute. This I had to see to believe, so I brought one box home as an experiment.

Okay, it looks like dog food,
but it does get better!

But I don’t like the stuff well enough to eat a whole pie’s worth, so I decided to recreate the tiny tarts instead. If you want to dress them up for the holiday, use a decorative cutter instead of a plain round one for the top crust.

Mincemeat Tarts

Crust:

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 Tblsp grated fresh grated 

     orange peel

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted 

     butter, cut into 1/2” cubes

1 large egg yolk

2 Tblsp orange juice (more if needed)

Filling:

3/4 cup purchased mincemeat

3 Tblsp minced crystallized ginger

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Glaze: 1 egg, beaten

Mix together the flour, 6 Tblsp powdered sugar, 2-1/2 tsp orange peel and salt in a food processor. Add the butter and process in spurts until the mixture resembles coarse meal. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolk and 2 Tblsp orange juice.  Add the liquid to the processor and blend until moist clumps form (add more juice by teaspoons-ful if needed). Gather the dough into a ball and flatten. Chill for 30 minutes. (By the way, this made a very nice crust: it’s light and flavorful, and also easy to roll and handle.)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Generously butter or grease 18 1-3/4 inch mini muffin pans. Mix together the mincemeat, ginger, cinnamon, and the rest of the powdered sugar and orange peel. (A note on muffin tins. I have lots, many of them vintage. I tried my two smallest ones, and while the baby size made nice two-bite tartlets, it was easier to shape and remove them from the slightly larger tin.)

Roll out the dough on a floured surface to make a 17” round. 

I had to include this--it was a gift from my sister-
in-law and it's just gorgeous!

Using a 2-1/2” round cookie cutter, cut out 18 dough rounds. Press a round onto the bottom and up the sides of each muffin cup. (A note on forming the bottoms: try not to tear the sides while pressing them into the molds, because then the filling leaks out and the whole thing sticks to the pan. I found the rounded top of a champagne cork worked quite well. If you don't have one, go out and buy a bottle of champagne--now!)

Fill the lined muffin cups with 1 heaping teaspoon filling (do not overfill). Now, you can go one of two ways with this next step: (a) seal the top with a smaller circle, or (b) say the heck with it and use whatever little decorative shape you want. (The second is easier!) For (a), using a slightly smaller (1-3/4”) cookie cutter, cut out 18 more rounds (reroll the dough if you need to). Brush the edges of the smaller rounds with some of the egg glaze. Place one of the smaller rounds atop the filling in each cup, glazed side down, and press the edges to seal. Cut a small X in each top crust. For (b) just have fun!

Glazed and ready to bake

Brush the pies with the remaining egg glaze. Bake until the top crusts are golden, about 20 minutes. With a small knife, cut around each tart to loosen, then turn out onto a rack to cool. Don’t try to remove them while they’re hot, because then they’ll crumble.

And have a lovely holiday!  

Here are a couple of pictures of Dublin just before Christmas:

I do wish I'd bought the sign in the middle:
Life is What you Bake it

In case you can't guess, An Early Wake, the third book in the County Cork Mysteries, will be out in February.

You can pre-order it at Amazon or Barnes and Noble

And you can get a taste of Ireland for free with my e-story, Under the Hill (Amazon and Barnes and Noble)