Iced Chocolate Halloween Shaped Biscuits
The first selection of baking ideas are some fun chocolate biscuits. These are great to make with all the family, very simple yet effective. We made these thinking that they would be good for trick or treaters and did we get any? No. All the more for us then, what a shame. These biscuits are smooth, chocolaty and light you could definitely having multiple of these. I have never been a fan of wrong dough mixture I think it's the thought of eating raw egg that messes with my mind. However, I was feeling spontaneous and tried some and oh my I have been converted to cookie dough mixture. Yum. Ben and Jerry's Cookie Dough Ice Cream is one of my favourites so I suppose it isn't that much of a surprise but it was an exciting revelation for me. All the family can get involved making these and they are great fun to decorate. They are so quick and easy to make, perfect for a Halloween party when you're rushing making 10,000 different dishes at once. You can really let your imagination go wild. I used ghost, bat and pumpkin cutters and decorated the biscuits using a mixture of chocolate, fondant and glacier icing. This is just a rough guide to give you a bit of inspiration but you could really go to town on the decoration if you wished to but these are just some simple yet very effective ideas for you all. I baked these this evening with Mum and now the house smells like a chocolate factory - bliss.
Ingredients - makes 20
125g unsalted butter
90g icing sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp milk
175g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
small handful of white chocolate chips
Decoration:
orange fondant icing
icing sugar
black food colouring pen
Method
1) Pre-heat your oven to 180°C/ 160°Fan and grease and line two baking trays ready to bake your biscuits of chocolaty heaven
2) Cream your butter and sugar together until smooth, pale and creamy
3) Mix in your egg yolk, milk and vanilla extract to the mixture
4) Sift in your flour and cocoa powder into the mixture and mix together
5) Once mixed here comes the fun part where you can get your hands in and get messy. Gradually squidge (I love that word) your mixture together to form a dough
6) Lightly dust your work surface and rolling pin with flour and roll out your dough, I made mine to about the thickness of a £1 coin but I've never been one for precisely measuring dough thickness
7) Using your cookie cutters cut out your biscuits. You can use ever shapes you wish, you could make them all the same shape or use a variety the world's your oyster
8) Transfer the biscuits to your baking tray and bake for 10 minutes they really don't take long. For the bat cookies I lightly pressed two white chocolate chips to make eyes
9) Once baked remove the trays from the oven and leave the biscuits to firm on the trays for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire wrack to cool completely before icing
10) To finish the bats, I used a black icing pen to make two small dots at the centre of the chocolate chips to finish the eyes. You could make some quirky expressions doing this such as cross-eyed bats
11) For the ghosts I used a white glacier icing which I thought looked quite effective against the chocolate cookie. To make the icing it's a bit of trial and error. Sift around 100g of icing sugar into a bowl and add approximately a tablespoon of water and mix together with a wooden spoon. I know this isn't precise but you want to mix until you form a runny consistency that will allow you to spread the icing and get a smooth finish without leaking off the biscuit. To firm the icing simply add more icing sugar and to make it runnier add more water. Spread the icing onto the biscuits using a knife
12) For the pumpkins, dust your workspace and rolling pin with icing sugar and roll out a handful of orange fondant icing. Using the same pumpkin cutter, cut out pumpkin shapes. To stick the fondant icing to the biscuits I just added a small amount of the left over glacier icing and sandwiched the fondant icing on top
Oozing Caramel Monster Cupcakes
The next Halloween baking selection I have lined up for you all are a group of characterful cupcakes. One of the main flavours I think of when it comes to Autumn is caramel. In fact I think of caramel all year round yet particularly during the Autumn/Winter months. These light and buttery caramel flavoured cupcakes have fun monster neon caramel buttercream faces painted on top, not forgetting the secret surprise of a salted caramel filling that will ooze out as you work your way through these tasty cupcakes. Monsters and oozing centres seem to go together quite well I thought. These cupcakes are really quick and easy to make. They are a great family bake to do as the whole family can get creative decorating the cupcakes with different monster faces. You can get really creative with these making every monster slightly different. I had great fun making these with my Mum we got really into it. I think these would be perfect for a Halloween party and it will definitely bring out the inner child within you all.
Ingredients - makes 11
150g unsalted butter
150g light muscovado sugar
3 eggs
150g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp caramel extract
3 heaped tsp salted caramel sauce
Icing:
100g unsalted butter
180g icing sugar
1/2 tsp caramel extract
Food colouring of your choice, I used yellow, green, orange and pink
Handful of white chocolate chips
Black icing pen
Method
1) Pre-heat your oven to 180°C/ 160°Fan and fill a 12 hole muffin tin with 12 cupcake cases
2) Cream your butter and sugar together in a large bowl using a wooden spoon or whisk until light, creamy and fluffy
3) Beat your eggs together in a separate bowl using a fork and gradually beat in the eggs don't worry if your mixture curdles this will be resolved when you add the flour
4) Stir in your caramel extract
5) Sift the flour and baking powder into the cupcake batter and stir using a wooden spoon until smooth
6) Fill each cupcake case to around 3/4 of the way full and bake in the oven for 20 minutes until golden brown. A skewer should come out clean when inserted into the centre of the cupcakes
7) Leave your cupcakes in the muffin tins for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire wrack to cool
8) Whilst cooling you can prepare your buttercream, beat the butter and icing sugar together in a large bowl until smooth and creamy. Beat in the vanilla extract
9) You can use as many different icing colours as you like, divide your mixture evenly into enough bowls so you have one for each different colour that you use
10) Add a drop of food colouring for each bowl enough to get your desired colour. I went for neon monsters so I needed a couple of drops but be careful as food colouring can go from pretty pastel colours to fluorescent in one drop. Beat in the food colouring so that it is evenly mixed into the icing
11) Make a whole into the centre of each cupcake using a doughnut filler and insert your caramel sauce for a gorgeous oozing caramel centre using a piping bag
12) Now it's the fun part of icing your monster faces by piping your different coloured icing using a star shaped piping nozzle. Use white chocolate chips for eyes and a black icing pen for features
Crispy Chocolate Bat Cakes
These little spooky treats are great fun to make. No matter how old you are I will guarantee you will enjoy making these. Making these brings back many a happy memory making rice crispy cakes with my Mum when I was little. They are so simple yet very effective. The whole family can get involved. In fact I made these with my Mum and I'm now 19 so no excuses people I want the whole family to help with these and trust me you will find it very rewarding. The perfect treat to make on Halloween for trick or treaters, or for a Halloween party. There is something very satisfying about breaking up chocolate bars and then melting butter, marshmallows and chocolate together. Then stirring in rice crispy's is also very rewarding but I'm not really sure why. Everyone can also help with the decorating and especially the eating. They are chocolaty and gooey what's not to love? Theres no need to even turn the oven on. So no excuses not to give these ago they are so quick and easy, very little skill is involved.
Ingredients - makes 35
150g milk chocolate
50g unsalted butter
340g mini marshmallows
240g rice krispies
100g dark chocolate
50g white chocolate chips
black icing pen
Method
1) Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper, a good tip is to extend the paper beyond the tray leaving you with handles to lift out the crispy cake mixture
2) In a bowl melt your milk chocolate over a saucepan of hot water on a low temperature
3) In a large saucepan melt your butter followed by the marshmallows until melted stirring constantly
4) Stir in your melted chocolate into the melted butter and marshmallows and stir until combined. Add the rice crispy's and mix together
5) Pour the mixture into the lined tin and press down firmly
6) Allow the mixture to cool until firm for 5 - 10 minutes at room temperature
7) Using a bat shaped cutter, cut out your crispy cakes. Don't waste any mixture you can make use of every last piece of puffed rice by pressing trimmings together
8) Once completely cool and firm you can decorate your cakes. In a bowl over a saucepan of water on a gentle heat melt your dark chocolate
9) Spread the dark chocolate over the top of your bat cakes
10) Top each cake with two white chocolate buttons for eyes. Using your black icing pen, draw two small dots in the centre of each eye
Chocolate Toffee Apple Biscuit Boulders
I like to think of these biscuits as a fun camp fire treat, incorporating three top and very important Autumnal flavours: chocolate, caramel and apple - it's a classic. I'll be the first one to admit that these look very homemade but they sure do taste delicious. I'm a home baker and I always think home food tastes better then shop brought food as you put all of your time and love into it. I named these biscuits boulder biscuits as they are round domed little creatures which don't tend to flatten or spread. I quite like these as most biscuits are small and dinky so it's quite nice to have a substantial cookie for when it's cold and wintery. These apple flavoured biscuits contain a hidden gem in the centre of a Rolo chocolate, oozing with chocolate and caramel it is simply a magical combination. The smell you get when you lift the lid of the biscuit tin is just heavenly. These are a really fun family bake to do where everyone can get stuck in. A little bit of taste testing along the way is also essential in my eyes. My Mum took some of these into her work and they went down a real trick and were gone in a flash.
Ingredients - makes 25
175g unsalted butter
140g golden caster sugar
2 egg yolks
50g ground almonds
125g Rolo chocolates
85g dried apple chunks
225g self-raising flour
3 tbsp milk
Method
1) Pre-heat your oven to 190°C/170°Fan/ Gas mark 5. You also need to grease and line your baking trays, I used three in total
2) Cream your butter and sugar together using an electric hand whisk until pale, light and fluffy
3) Add your egg yolks, ground almonds, dried apple chunks, flour, milk and chocolate and mix together to form a dough. You will probably find it easier to use your hands for this and enjoy getting messy
4) Roll the mixture into large walnut sized balls and place on your baking tray. Gently flatten the surface using a fork. I find these biscuits work best with one Rolo per biscuit which you should conceal in the centre of your dough ball for a gorgeous caramel centre once baked.
5) Bake in the oven for 12 - 15 minuted until golden brown. Aim to try and remove the biscuits before any caramel leakage occurs, you want to savour that gooey centre
6) Leave to cool on the tray before transferring to a wire wrack to finish cooling. A top tip would be that if you find your biscuits stuck to your tray, return the biscuits to the oven for 2 -3 minutes to heat the caramel before removing and quickly transferring to the wrack before the caramel sets
Chocolate and Lime Whoopie pies
The final recipe is a special one for you all my spooky lovelies. We have a hybrid. Introducing the whoopie pie to you all. It is a cross between a cake and a biscuit taking the best of both worlds to create a magical and indulgent creation. Whoopie pies are new to me I have never tried or baked one before but I have definitely been converted. They are delicious and really easy to make. For Halloween I have created rich and chocolaty whoopie pies packed full of light and refreshing lime buttercream. I thought the pale green colour gave these a spooky edge perfect for Halloween parties. The batter of a whoopie pie is what I would describe as a thick cake batter. You then pipe these babies onto a baking sheet. They don't take long to bake and when they emerge they appear like biscuits yet they have a cake like texture to them. They look heavy yet they are so light you could easily justify treating yourself to multiple pies. If you are a fellow chocolate lover you will love these as they are rich and chocolaty yet the lime icing is so light and refreshing stopping these from being silly sweet. There are so many different chocolate variations you could do: strawberry, orange, raspberry, coconut, coffee, peanut butter or 'cookies and cream' the list of possibilities is endless depending on what your tipple is. I just love the name whoopie pie theres just something fun about saying it.
Ingredients - makes 15
175g plain flour
100g cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
125g unsalted butter
200g caster sugar
1 egg
225ml buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g unsalted butter
225g icing sugar
zest of 3 limes
green food colouring
Method
1) Pre-heat your oven to 180°C/ 160°Fan and line three bang trays with baking paper. You then need to draw circles on your baking paper which have a 2 inch diameter leaving about 3 cm between each circle, these will be the templates for your whoopee pies. Once drawn, grease your sheets of baking paper
2) Sift your flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into a bowl
3) In another large bowl, cream together your butter and sugar until pale, light and fluffy
4) Beat in your egg followed by your buttermilk and vanilla extract
5) Slowly fold in half of your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients using a metal spoon. Repeat with the remaining half of the dry ingredients
6) Use a pipping bag pipe circles onto your baking paper
7) Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Once baked leave on the baking tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire wrack to cool
8) Whilst the cakes cool you can make your buttercream filling. Beat together your butter and icing sugar until soft
9) Add in your lime zest and a small drop of food colouring for a pretty pale green colour
10) Once the cakes are cooled, spread buttercream onto the bottom of half of your biscuits using a knife. Sandwich each of the iced biscuits together with a non-iced biscuit to create your whoopee pies and enjoy!
Thank you for reading this blog post my lovelies, I hope you enjoyed reading it I certainly had fun creating it. Let me know in the comments if you tried any of the recipes. I hope it's given you a little bit of inspiration. I have had a magical Halloween from carving the pumpkin, decorating the house, baking and much more I feel like the inner child in me has really gone to town today. On a final note,
Happy Halloween!
XXX
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