Butter Toffee Caramel Corn

Posted on October 24, 2008 by Michie

Halloween just isn’t quite complete without popcorn.  But I’m not really a fan of popcorn balls.  So, I make the traditional caramel corn, and call it good. And let me tell you, it is good.  Caramel corn is really easy to do, so don’t be intimidated at all.  This is a very simple recipe, and prep.

Butter Toffee Caramel Corn

2 cups brown sugar
1 cup butter
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon extract – vanilla, maple, almond — your choice
1/4 teaspoon cream of tarter
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
16 cups popcorn (popped!!)
salt to taste
3 cups nuts (mixed, cashews, pecans, or whatever you like)

Heat the oven to 300F.

Pop the popcorn.  I usually need to do two batches.  You can use microwave popcorn, but get unflavored, unbuttered and as “all natural” as you can.  Newmans Own is a good choice, as well as Orville Redenbacher’s “Natural”.

Line a baking sheet with parchment, and then pour the popcorn evenly over the sheet.  Sprinkle the nuts over the popcorn and set the baking sheet aside.

In a saucepan, mix the brown sugar, butter and corn syrup.  You can use light or dark corn syrup, but I prefer the light.  Heat to boiling, and then boil for 5 minutes.  Stir constantly.

Remove the pan from the heat and add in the cream of tarter and baking soda, stiring constantly.  This is going to foam up, just keep mixing it.  Stir in the flavoring.

Pour the mixture over the popcorn and mix well, coating each piece.  This gets messy!  If you have one of those gigantic mixing bowls that people like my Mother always seem to have, you can mix the popcorn in that, and then transfer it to the baking sheet.

Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow this to cool, and then break apart.  Once it is totally cool, store in a tightly sealed container or a ziplock bag.

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Old Fashioned Hot Buttered Rum

Posted on October 23, 2008 by Michie

Two recipes for this post, as they are sort of related.  First is the Old Fashioned Hot Buttered Rum — ice cream, apple cider, rum.. mmmmmm. Takes at least overnight for this recipe to come to fruition, but it is fantastic, in the end.

The second Hot Buttered Cider —  quick and nice to serve anytime in the Autumn/Winter months.

Old Fashioned Hot Buttered Rum

This is a fantastic way to end an afternoon of decorating the yard for Halloween or Christmas.  It just hits the spot perfectly. The original recipe does not contain apple cider (water instead), but it really adds a wonderful layer to the drink.

4 cups vanilla ice cream, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

4 cups Apple Cider
4 ounces Rum ** See note below
nutmeg for garnish

In a medium saucepan, combine the butter, brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg.  Cook over low heat, stirring, until the butter has melted. Remove from the heat, and allow to cool for about 10 minutes, without letting the butter set back up.

Combine the mixture with the softened ice cream in a large mixing bowl.  Use a hand mixer to mix, if you have one.  Otherwise stir and stir and stir until it’s smooth.  Freeze until totally frozen again.

To serve this heat the apple cider in a sauce pan.  Meanwhile, using 4 mugs or cups, add a scoop or two of the ice cream mixture to each mug.  Pour one ounce of rum over the ice cream, and then top with the hot apple cider.  Garnish with freshly ground nutmeg.

***To make this without the rum, use 1-2 teaspoons of rum flavoring added to the simmer, and do not add the rum when serving.

Hot Buttered Cider (Non Alcoholic)

1 orange, sliced and seeded, with skin still on
6 cups apple cider (apple juice)
4 cinnamon sticks
4 teaspoons butter

Place 1/2 of the orange slices, apple cider and cinnamon into a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil.  As soon as it has come to a boil, reduce the heat to low.  Simmer for about 5-8 minutes.  Remove cider from the heat, and discard the oranges.  Remove the cinnamon sticks, reserving for serving.

To serve, place 1 teaspoon of butter into a mug, garnish with the remaining orange slices, and a cinnamon stick.

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Halloween – Chocolate Mint Diseased Skeleton Bones (Cookies!!)

Posted on October 22, 2008 by Michie

This is really a basic “meringue cookie” recipe, but for Halloween.  The peppermint flavor was always a favorite with the kids around, and for me, especially, as peppermint cookies were always a little different.   With the addition of the mini chocolate chips, the bones take on a decidedly “diseased” look.

Enjoy!

This is the shape the "bones" should be

Chocolate Mint Diseased Skeleton Bones (Cookies!!)

(aka Chocolate Mint Meringues)

3 large eggs, whites only
1/4 teaspoon cream of tarter
1/8 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon peppermint flavoring
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Heat the oven to 200F and line two baking sheets with parchment or baking paper.

Beat the egg whites with cream of tarter and salt until quite fluffy.  Slowly add in the sugar, and the peppermint.

Place the mixture in a pastry bag, if you have one.  If you don’t have a pastry bag, place the mixture into a large (gallon sized) ziplock bag, and cut off the very tip.  Go small with the cut, and make it larger if needed.  Even a small cut can end up really large once you start piping.

Next, pipe out “bone shapes” onto the parchment paper.  Don’t make these too small — 2-3 inches.  The shapes can be whatever you think a bone would look like, but I usually do them in a shape of the capital letter ” I “, as above, or like a small moon. Leg bones and ribs, you know ;)

Put both baking sheets in the oven, and then bake for one hour.  Then turn off the oven and allow the cookies to set for another hour.  This should make about 5 dozen or so.

Notes:

  • We’ve always called these “diseased” looking cookies.  For the less “diseased” look, leave out the chocolate chips ;)
  • You can safely leave out the chocolate chips and cocoa
  • If you can let these dry in the oven overnight (no heat!!), they are even better.
  • Use whatever flavoring you like — Peppermint, Spearmint, Wintergreen (my fav), almond, vanilla, rum.. up to you and whatever you prefer.
  • You can, of course, make these as traditional meringue cookies, just pipe, or spoon these onto the parchment and proceed as instructed.
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Halloween – Slushy Orange Punch

Posted on October 21, 2008 by Michie

This is a great punch — it works well for kids parties, as well as other occasions.  We’ve used this at New Years, and Halloween and the kids all loved it.  It looks really festive, and suits the Halloween holiday.

For Halloween, we served this in a Witches cauldron, which was sitting in a large platter that had dry ice.  Serve with gelatin Pixies, for some more fun, if you can find them.

Enjoy!

Slushy Orange Punch

1 6oz package Orange Jello
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups boiling water
30 ounce can Pineapple Juice
46 ounce can Apricot Juice
16 ounces orange juice
1/2 cup lemon juice
4 liters Ginger Ale, or Sprite/7-Up

In a large container, dissolve the Jello and sugar in the boiling water, and stir well, until everything is dissolved.  Stir in the juices and mix well. Put in the freezer – I use two of the gallon ziplock bags.

About 2 hours before serving, remove the mixture from the freezer to soften, but not melt totally.  Smash it around in the bags, and then place the contents of one bag in a punch bowl or a similarly large bowl.  If it is not smashed up enough and soft, use a potato masher.  Pour in 1-2 litres of the soda and stir to mix.

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Halloween Recipes – Creamy Pumpkin Dip with Cookies

Posted on October 20, 2008 by Michie

This is a very simple and easy to do recipe that’s great to do with the kids, and for kids parties (as well as adults Halloween parties).  We made this recipe a couple of years ago for the school party, but instead of serving it in the pumpkin, we made “cookies sandwiches”, spreading the dip on one cookie, and sandwiching it with another.

Creamy Pumpkin Dip with Cookies

16 ounces cream cheese, softened
3 3/4 cups pumpkin (or a 30ounce can)
4 cups powdered sugar (10x, or icing sugar)
2-4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (to taste)
1 small sugar pumpkin
Small fun candies – candy worms, candy spiders, candy corn, etc.
Shortbread, Oatmeal, GingerSnaps or any other hard cookie.

If you have a hand mixer, this will go a bit easier.

Mix together the cream cheese and pumpkin, until combined.  Add in the sugar and spices and mix well.  Refrigerate overnight to allow the flavors to meld.

Meanwhile, carve out a pumpkin, removing seeds and strings.  Fill with the pumpkin mixture.  Put this on a plate or a halloween serving plate, and decorate with the small candies.  Looks fun  having the worms “crawling” out of the dip.

Serve with the cookies to dip with.

Note:

If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice, use cinnamon, ginger, allspice – 2-4 teaspoons in total.

Variation

Pumpkin Cookie Dip

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
14 ounces marshmallow creme
15 ounces solid-pack pumpkin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated orange peel

In large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and marshmallow creme until smooth. Stir in pumpkin, cinnamon and orange peel. Serve as a dip with gingersnaps.  Keep refrigerated.

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Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Posted on October 15, 2008 by Michie

The BEST thing about carving pumpkins for Halloween, or making fresh pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, is the pumpkin seeds.  I have always loved these, and can’t wait to roast them.

I have two different ways I roast pumpkin seeds.  The first is a brine method, which needs at least 24 hours, and the second is a quick version — less than an hour from carving pumpkins to eating roasted seeds.

The reason I prefer the brine method is simple — the seeds last longer and taste amazing.

A brine is just a mix of water and and a lot of salt.  You can use brines for everything from meats to vegetables.  Traditionally, a brine was used as a preservative, as it inhibits the growth of bacteria.  But a brine can also enhance flavors, and help meats stay juicy and tender.  I’ll be using a brine again soon,  when I prepare my Thanksgiving turkey, so I will talk more about brining then.

For this application, though, my intentions are to have a crunchy pumpkin seed, that is full flavored, with the salty goodness only a brine can bring to my pumpkin seed party.  ;)

If you have time, do try the brine method.  If not, the second option works well, too.

Enjoy!

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

First things first — prep the seeds:

Rinse the pumpkin seeds under cold water, removing the pulp and pulpy strings.

Option 1 – The long method. Using a heavy brine to salt the seeds

Create a brine, using 1 cup salt to 3 cups water (or more as needed with a ratio of 1 cup salt to 3 cups water) See note below) and add the pumpkin seeds.  Mix well, and then allow this to sit overnight.

The next day, heat the oven to 325F.  Drain the pumpkin seeds.

Place the pumpkin seeds in a single layer on a greased baking sheet (or a parchment lined baking sheet).  Bake for 30-45 minutes. Stir every 10 minutes.

*Note: This may take a bit longer than 35 minutes, depending on the size of the seeds.  Add time as needed, until the seeds are done, up to about 20 minutes.

Option 2 – The quick method

Heat your oven to 325F.

Place the pumpkin seeds on a heavily oiled baking sheet.  Stir to coat the seeds.  Salt the seeds liberally, and then bake for around 25-30 minutes.  Stir every 10 minutes. *See note

Remove the seeds from the oven and allow to cool. Store in an air tight container.

Notes:

  • The times are not really exact, because the size of the seeds, as well as the density and moisture content of the seeds are all unknown variables.  You might have huge seeds, or tiny ones.  Just watch, stir, and see how it goes.  Don’t be stuck to the timer, but rather be aware of how the seeds are baking.
  • Brining – The ratio is 1 to 3.  The more seeds you’ll have, the more you will need.
  • 1 cup salt to 3 cups water
  • 2 cups salt to 6 cups water
  • 3 cups salt to 9 cups water
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