Homemade Halloween Treats!
There’s a chill in the air these days. To be sure, the season is changing and it’s getting colder at night. However, the chill I’m talking about is one born by ghosts, ghouls and witches! Indeed, Halloween is just around the corner and, well, don’t you think it’s time for some fun, easy-to-make, Halloween treat recipes? I think so, so let’s go!
Ice Cream Sandwich Bats, Ghosts and Pumpkins
This recipe is a lot of fun and VERY easy to pull off, even by just your kids with a little assistance. All you need is some wonderful, Alden’s Old School Organic Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwiches, some candy eyeballs , white icing gel and a Halloween-themed cookie cutter set. Enjoy!
Ingredients & Supplies:
Alden’s Old School Organic Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwiches - find these online here (also shows local stores carrying this great brand)
Candy eyeballs - here’s a link to get this from Target
Halloween-themed cookie cutter set - here’s a link to get this from Target
White icing gel - here’s a link to get this from Target
Bowl of cold water
Sharp knife
Directions:
To keep things from melting while you’re working, make sure the ice cream sandwiches have been in the freezer for at least a few hours. If they are too soft, they will not cut evenly with the cookie cutter.
Place a frozen ice cream sandwich on a cutting board. Dip the cookie cutter lightly into the bowl of water.
Shake off any excess water.
Place the bat cookie cutter on top of the ice cream sandwich and press down firmly till you feel the cookie cutter reach the cutting board.
Use a knife to cut away the excess ice cream sandwich from the cookie cutter.
Pick up the cookie cutter with both hands and use both thumbs to push it thru the cutter. Be sure to do this gently so the sandwich part does not break.
Cover with foil and re-freeze.
Repeat steps 1-5 until you have the desired amount of bat ice cream sandwiches.
Before serving, dab a small amount of the icing gel on the back of two candy eyes and place on each bat.
Squeeze 2 small lines of the white gel to resemble fangs.
Enjoy
Halloween Sugar Cookies
Image Courtesy: My Baking Addiction
Here is what you need to make 25 VERY large and thick cookies (or 40-60 smaller cookies). The beauty of these great cookies is that they use three ingredients made locally (& or packaged) here in the northwest! Bob’s Red Mill, Gluten-free, All-purpose Baking Flour, C&H Sugar and Tillamook Sea Salted Extra Creamy Butter.
Ingredients:
5.5 cups of Bob’s Red Mill, Gluten-free, All-purpose Baking Flour
3 cups of C&H sugar
4 eggs
1 lbs (4 sticks) of Tillamook Sea Salt butter at room temp
2 Tbsp flavoring… I have used lemon, vanilla or almond
Directions:
Combine butter and sugar and mix until creamy.
Add flavor & eggs and beat until fluffy
Add flour on a low speed, slowly
Put dough in refrigerator for a couple hours.
I cut cookies very thick (a little less than 1/2 in) This makes super thick soft cookies… mmmm.
As for baking, it depends on how thick and big your cookies are.
For these large thick cookies, I cooked at 375 for 10-14 minutes. (or until just set, do not wait for them to start browning)
For smaller cookies, I have cooked the at 350 for 8-13 minutes. Sorry that there isn’t more specifics, but no cookie is alike : )
As for the frosting…. here is a basic royal frosting recipe from Food Network.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/royal-icing-recipe/index.html
Decorating:
Once you have your cookies and your base of white frosting made, it’s time to decorate. Here you can let your creativity go wild! And while there is no one way to decorate these cookies, I recommend the following items to get rolling. Get your kids involved (if you have any), it’ll be a blast!
Candy Eyeballs: Candy eyeballs, made of pure sugar, are an ideal cookie topper and stick well into the frosting. Here’s a link to get them from Target.
Food Coloring: You can take portions of the white frosting that you’ve either made or purchased and color them with food coloring to create some amazing, Halloween designs. Here’s a link to get food coloring from Target.