Friday, October 29, 2010

Halloween Treats

We had fun making Halloween food this year. Grant and I made these ghosts together. They are surprisingly easy.

Hosts of Ghosts
20 oreos
6 0z cream cheese, softened
12 oz white candy coating, chopped
2 tsp shortening

In a food processor, cover and process cookies until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Cut cream cheese into chunks; add to food processor. Cover and process until mixture forms a soft dough. Using 2 teaspoons of dough for each, form ghost shapes. Place on waxed paper-covered baking sheet. In a microwave, melt candy coating and shortening; stir until smooth. Slowly spoon over each ghost shape to cover. Use a toothpick to create eyes. store in the refrigerator. The original recipe was half of this, and I have a small food processor, so I actually made this in two batches.

Grant and I also made these as part of our Halloween dinner. Basically you just slice the top off an orange (you can also slice a small amount off the bottom so the orange will sit better), scoop the fruit out, chop it up and mix with a few chopped grapes and apples and put back in the oranges to serve. We used cloves and slivered almonds to help decorate the faces.

To finish out our Halloween dinner we made the very healthy mummies on a stick (hot dogs wrapped with crescent rolls) and spider web dip (hot chili mixed with cream cheese with a sour cream piped spider web). Yummy!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Pumpkin and Cream Cheese Whoopie Pies


These were really good. I liked the maple cream cheese filling for something a little different.

3 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
2 Tbsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 c. oil
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. white sugar
3 c. pumpkin puree
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
Filling:
1/2 c. butter
1 8-oz cream cheese
3 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. maple extract or 3 Tbsp. maple syrup

For cakes: Beat sugars, and oil. Add pumpkin. Mix in vanilla and eggs. Slowly add in flour and rest of dry ingredients until combined. Drop batter onto cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-14 minutes. Don't over bake. Let cool and then slap some frosting between two cookies and then try to just eat one. For the filling: Beat everything until well combined.