Follow our recipes to achieve some ghoulish delights for Halloween tonight,
My kids absolutely blooming love Halloween. Next year we'll be in Dublin for the holiday (where my Irish mate says they go trick or treat crazy) and they cannot wait. Come the end of October and they're climbing the walls after a long post-summer-holiday school term. We always get together with friends for a party and, aside from the freaky costumes (Sarah and Joel's zombie baby T-shirt's have been the best so far), the talking point is always the food. We've had eyeball cakes, ice frozen into rubber gloves and served up in punch, worm spaghetti and loads more.
This time of year is an opportunity to break out the food colouring, have a bit of fun, make a mess and, most importantly, make memories. So here's this year's ghoulish batch of edibles from the Smith-Jarvis household!
Chocolate Lime Graveyard
(serves 10 to 12)
Essentially a Key Lime Pie with a bit of sass. You can buy plastic spiders, rats and the like in most shops around now and they're a cheap and effective way to spook up your bake.
Ingredients
For the base:
400g crushed Hobnobs or digestive biscuits
220g melted unsalted butter
4tbsps cocoa powder
For the filling:
8 large egg yolks (freeze the whites for meringue)
2 tins condensed milk
Zest and juice of 8 large limes
Green food colouring paste
For the decoration
Nice or long rich tea biscuits
150g dark chocolate
100g made up thick royal icing
Method
Combine the biscuits, butter and cocoa. Press onto a lined tray 20cm by 30cm and build up the edges by about 2cm to make a ridge all the way around that will contain the filling – wearing plastic gloves will stop the mix sticking to you!
For the filling whisk together the condensed milk, lime zest and juice and egg yolks. Pour carefully into your base and bake at 150C for 30 minutes. Cool, then set in the fridge.
Break a quarter off the bottom of each biscuit and dip the front in melted chocolate. Allow to set. Write RIP on each one and set.
Press your 'graves' into the finished tart and decorate as you like.
Fruity Little Monsters
(makes as many as you like)
With all the sweeties going around, this is a great healthy option and looks so effective.
Ingredients
Green apples
1 lemon cut into pieces
1 punnet strawberries, hulled and sliced thinly lengthways
Roll out white icing
A small bowl of thick royal icing
Black food colouring
Method
Quarter the apple and remove the core. On the skin side cut out a mouth shape (see picture). Rub the cut side with lemon to stop browning.
Make circular eyes and sharp teeth with the roll out icing and stick to the apple with the royal icing – draw a pupil on each eye using black food colouring and a thin paintbrush. Place a strawberry slice in each as a tongue.
Eyeball meatballs
(serves 4)
A family favourite of ours.
Ingredients
500g minced beef
1 soft white roll blitzed into fine breadcrumbs
Milk
Salt and pepper
1tsp garlic powder
A handful strong cheddar, grated
Pinch cinnamon
Zest 1 lemon
For the filling:
1 ball mozzarella cut into 1cm cubes
Jar pitted black olives
For the sauce:
2 tins chopped tomatoes
4 cloves garlic, crushed
Sugar
Salt
Pepper
1 red chilli
1 sprig rosemary, chopped
1 sprig thyme chopped
Spaghetti to serve
Method
Soak the bread in a few tablespoons of milk, then add to the rest of the meatball ingredients with a few good pinches of seasoning. Roll into balls about size of walnuts. Place in the fridge 30 minutes. Push a hole in centre of each one and push in bit of mozzarella.
Place the meatballs in an ovenproof dish, mozzarella side up, and bake at 190C for 20 minutes.
While the meatballs are cooking make the sauce. Crush the tomatoes in their tins with the back of a fork until pulpy. Sizzle the garlic in a little oil until fragrant then add the tomatoes and the red chilli. Cook to reduce by a third. Season with a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper then add the herbs.
Put a pan of spaghetti (enough for four people) on to boil.
Once the meatballs are ready cut olives in half across their middles and push into the mozzarella core of the balls to look like eyes.
Dish up the pasta with the sauce and finish with your meatballs.
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