Melted Witches

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon water
• 4 drops yellow food coloring
• 1 1/2 cups flaked coconut
• 2 cups chocolate chips
• 6 Tablespoons shortening, divided
• 36 cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies (Oreos would be good)
• 36 Bugles
• 4 cups vanilla or white chips
• 36 pretzel sticks

Directions:

In a large resealable plastic bag, combine water and food coloring; Seal bag and shake to combine. Add coconut. Seal bag and shake to tint coconut; set aside. In a microwave, melt chocolate chips and 2 Tablespoons shortening; stir until smooth.

FOR WITCH’S HATS:
Place about 1/3 cup chocolate mixture in a resealable plastic bag; cut a small hole in a corner of bag. Pipe a small amount of chocolate on a cookie. Dip a Bugle in some of the remaining chocolate; allow excess to drip off. Position over chocolate on cookie, forming a witch’s hat. Set on waxed paper to dry. Repeat with remaining chocolate, Bugles and cookies.

FOR THE PUDDLES:
Melt vanilla chips and the remaining shortening; stir until smooth. Place mixture in a large heavy-duty resealable plastic bag; cut a small hole in a corner of bag. Pipe mixture into the shape of a puddle onto waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Immediately place a witch’s hat on the puddle. Place a pretzel stick alongside the hat; sprinkle reserved tinted coconut at the end of the pretzel stick. Repeat with remaining puddles, hats and brooms. Chill for 15 minutes or until set. Store in an airtight container.

Makes 3 dozen


Teacake spiders

Ingredients:

• Teacakes
• Biscuits (same number as teacakes)
• Bootlace sweets
• Writing icing (various colours)

Directions:

Use a tube of black writing icing to draw a web on a plate. Draw four straight lines, radiating out like a spoke and six rings, evenly spaced. Leave to set for 15 minutes.

Open a pack of 10 chocolate teacakes and a pack of bootlace sweets (any flavour/colour will do).

Place 10 chocolate digestive biscuits (or any similar biscuit of your choice) on a surface and squirt a small blog of icing sugar onto the middle of each biscuit.

Drape 4 bootlates on each so that they hang over the edges to make 8 legs.
Then stock a teacake on top to make a body. Using red, yellow and green writing icing, make a zigzag mouth and 2 eyes. Put a small blob of black icing in the middle of each eye. Leave for around 15 minutes to set. Serve on webbed plate.


Rotten apples

Ingredients:

• Apples
• Lemon juice
• Jelly worm sweets

Directions:

Use an apple corer to cut a whole right through the apple (best to make to holes, one on each side and join them in the middle).

Coat the inside of the holes with lemon juice to prevent the insides of the apples from going brown.

Poke the jelly worms through the holes and position them to look as horrifying as possible!


Mummies on a stick

A very quick and easy idea.

Ingredients:

• 1 packet of refigerated breadsticks (or ready rolled pastry)



• Hot dogs (as many as you like)
• Sticks or skewers (one for each hot dog)

Directions:

Seperate the dough, and if necessary, cut into long thin strips.
Insert the stick into the hot dog, then starting at the stick end, wrap one strip of pastry around each hot dog.
Be sure to leave a bit uncovered at the top for the face.

Place mummies on grease proof paper on a baking tray and cook at around 190 degrees centigrade for about 20 minutes (follow the instructions on the hot dog packaging if they differ).
Add dots of mustard for the eyes and serve.


Easy Peasy Toffee Apples

Ever wondered how to make them? Well they’re easier than you think.
Plus, they are a Halloween classic!

Ingredients:

• 225g demerara sugar
• 110 ml water
• 0.5 tsp vinegar
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 25g Butter
• A dash of cinamon
• 6 apples
• Sticks or skewers (one for each apple)

Directions:

Dissolve the sugar in the water over a moderate heat. When dissolved, stir in the vinegar, syrup and butter.
Bring to a boil and cook without stirring until it reaches hard-crack stage or hardens into a ball when dropped in a jug of cold water. This should take around 10 minutes boiling time.

While the syrup is cooking, pierce each apple with a wooden stick. Once the toffee is ready, dip each apple into the hot toffee, turning it around in the syrup so that each one is fully coated.

Leave to harden on a lightly oiled tray before serving. If you’re planning to keep them for a day or two, wrap the apples in cellophane.

Most of the time, any sweets/candy will do, but it’s always a special bonus to recieve some special spooky treats.
Halloweenerrific has put together a list of what we think are the top targets for trick or treaters:

5. French Monster Munch

When it comes to spooky crisps, you’re hard pressed to find anything more scary than a packet of Monster Munch. You know, the usual  ones, that are all chunky and come in a variety of different flavours.

However, a friend of mine recently returned from France, and brought back some French Monster Munch. They’re not chunky, and they aren’t shaped like strange monsters, BUT they do look very much like smiling phantoms, which is much cooler in my opinion.
Best of all, they taste great. We had the ham and cheese flavour, which was delicious. And with crisps tasting that good, they had soon vanished, similar to the ghosts which they resemble – although with a bit more noise – crunch crunch crunch.

Shame you have to go all the way to France to get them.


4. Candy Skulls

Like white chocolate? Like a bit of pink goo in the middle of your white chocolate? Like your chocolate to look like a skull? Then these sweets are for you!
The perfect follow-on from some salty spooky crisps, these chocolate delights are sure to go down a treat.
As all good trick or treaters will know, chocolate always comes with its risks (the melt factor). But as long as you can prevent your sweaty hands from cradling your treasures too tight, they should last you until you get home. Also look good in a bowl at parties.

Tasty, and a lot easier to eat than the real thing.


3. Vampire Fangs

There’s only one thing cooler than Halloween sweets, and that’s Halloween sweets that can double-up as actual Halloween props! These Vampire fangs are the perfect example: Get some, put them in your mouth, scare someone, and then enjoy the taste as you chew them up (the sweets, not the person).

There are lots of different styles to get – from jelly sweets in crazy colours, to foam ones which actually look like a set of the fakies that you might buy from a costume shop. Best of all, they all taste great. A must have for any treat bucket.


2. Terror Eyes.

As I just mentioned, sweets that double-up as props are the best. And Terror Eyes have been the Halloween gum of choice for all seasoned ‘weeners’ for decades now.
Engineered to be anatomically correct (probably) these eye-balls taste great. There’s nothing better than tucking one away, sneezing in front of a friend, then letting it plop out onto the floor – only to then pick it up and proceed to chew it! (ensuring that the floor is clean of course!)
Okay, maybe that’s taking things a bit far, but when it comes to halloween gum, they are truly number one.


1. Horror Mix

Yep, it had to happen, Horror Mix was destined for the top. Okay, you can’t really use these little jelly sweets as props, but there are so many cool shapes and flavours, you can’t deny that they are the king of Halloween goodies.
Spiders, snakes, bats… They’re all in there, and best of all, when you buy a packet, you get LOTS of them.
The only thing they are lacking is the fizz factor (Haribo should come up with a hybrid Halloween/Sour mix). Apart from that they are flawless.
Best of all, they are free from artificial colours, and they also have a strap-line saying that it’s cool for grown-ups to eat them too!

We’re all winners!