Absinthe Cookies

a fine kettle of ish

Whether you're looking for a poisonous Halloween treat, or have just always wanted a cookie that would capture the essence of Bohemian turn-of-the-century Paris, you're in luck, because a fine kettle of ish has a recipe for absinthe cookies. 

These sound delicious, but the only kind of spirits we keep in the house are the kind in white sheets, so someone else will make to make them an let me know how they turn out.  [Via The Year of Halloween]

Pumpkin Pancakes With Chocolate Filling

I'm not sure how these pumpkin pancakes qualify as "healthy" when they have chocolate cream cheese filling, but I'm going to take NYMetroParents' word for it.  I certainly know I would've enjoyed eating them as a kid . . . or as an adult, for that matter.

A Plethora Of Pumpkin Recipes

Good Housekeeping has a host of delicious-looking pumpkin recipes, and, pleasantly, they're not just you're run-of-the-mill pumpkin pie recipes.

If you're looking to switch up your Halloween course list, or just looking for something to do with some late autumn gourds from your garden, try some pumpkin creme brulee or pumpkin shortcakes with fruit compote.  Yum!

Halloween Recipe Roundup

Allrecipes has a roundup of Halloween recipes, so if you're still looking for something to serve at a Halloween party this weekend, check it out!  Personally, I'm in search of a good punch recipe, so this looks promising . . .

Sopapilla Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

Willow Bird Baking

Willow Bird Baking has a recipe for these delicious-looking sopapilla pumpkin cheesecake bars.  I cannot believe how many tasty foods are crammed into that one desert.  In a word: yes.

Scream Cheese Brownies

The Girl Who Ate Everything

The simple addition of food coloring transforms these cream cheese brownies from your average baked good to tasty Halloween treat.  Genius!  [Via Best Friends For Frosting]

Grown Up Halloween Recipes

From Food & Wine

If you'd rather leave the goofy-looking Halloween foods to the kiddies, check out Food & Wine's collection of recipes, which balances classic creepy concoctions with more grown-up palate-pleasers.

On my to-eat list: butternut squash turnovers and chocolate tarts with candied grapefruit peel. 

There are plenty of cocktail and punch recipes, too, for those of you who want to make you Halloween just a little bit happier.  And for the pun-minded, there's a list of "devil" foods like deviled eggs and devil's food cake.

And once Halloween is over and you've gorged yourself on all the treats you can possible stand, Food & Wine even has a few suggestions for what to do with you leftover candy.  Although I have to admit, I'm pretty game, gastronomically speaking, but I'm not touching those candy corn cookies.

Cooking Light on Halloween

Cooking Light

Cooking Light has a slideshow of tasty-looking Halloween recipes for grown-ups, including cinnamon-cider candied apples (using Red Hots!), bittersweet chocolate skeleton cookies, and spicy cashew brittle. 

And if that doesn't whet your appetite, there are also slideshows on healthy Halloween food and making your own caramel apples.

Apple Mouths

From Family Fun Magazine

Although these cut-apple mouths look a little labor-intensive for me, they would make a great healthy alternative to sugary wax lips at a children's Halloween party.

I love the use of almonds for the teeth, and I bet if you used a really bright Red Delicious apple, you'd be able to achieve a very striking gothic effect.  But best of all, I think they'd be just as much fun to play with as they would be to eat. 

 Family Fun has many more healthy Halloween recipes here, including dried fruit eyeballs, pizza mummies, and a watermelon carved to look like a brain.  You can also browse their entire Halloween archive here.

Oh, and if almonds sound too healthsome for you, here's another version that uses peanut butter and mini marshmallows.  Yum!  [Via Best Friends For Frosting]

Halloween Wreath Cookie Recipe

One of my favorite Christmas cookies is a pretty green wreath made of cornflakes and marshmallows that uses red hots for holly berries.  I love these easy no-bake treats so much that I decided to retool them for my favorite holiday -- Halloween.  So here's a recipe for what I'm calling . . .

Halloween Wreath Cookies
Adapted from a recipe in Rose's Christmas Cookies by Rose Levy Beranbaum

You will need:
4 oz unsalted butter
3 cups marshmallows
orange food coloring (or red and yellow mixed)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups of cornflakes (I used Special K because it was on sale)
Halloween-themed sprinkles (I used ghosts and bats)
flat work surface covered in wax paper
nonstick cooking spray
large saucepan
wooden spoon
spatula

In your saucepan, melt butter over a low heat.  Add the marshmallows and stir them until they're completely melted and smooth (about 6 minutes).

Remove the pan from heat and whisk in food coloring and vanilla.  Add more food coloring than seems necessary; you really want the color to be deep and bright so that it doesn't wind up getting diluted when you add the cornflakes.

Stir in the cornflakes, making sure they are well coated in the orange marshmallow goop.  (At this point, Berenbaum recommends keeping the mixture warm by placing your saucepan in a larger saucepan of hot water.  I've never found I needed to do so, but it might be helpful if you're meticulous or are working with young children.)

Spray your fingers with non-stick spray and pick up a handful of the cornflake-marshmallow mixture.  Plop this down on the wax paper and mould it into a donut shape using your hands.  (Berenbaum recommends using two greased spoons, but my hands always get covered in marshmallow anyway, so I don't see any point in making even more dishes.) 

Sprinkle each wreath with a smattering of sprinkles while it's still sticky.  (You may want to pat them into place so they stay put.)  Continue working until you've used all the cornflake mixture.

Let the wreaths cool and solidify, then store in an airtight container.  I find it helps to use a greased spatula to slide the wreaths off the wax paper, as they can be a bit fragile and hard to handle even once they've firmed up.

Since this recipe is essentially the same as a Rice Krispie Treat, you can also pack the cornflake-marshmallow mixture into a baking pan and cut it into bars, which would be a great, easier-to-transport alternative for a seasonal bake sale.  Either way, it makes a tasty treat that's always been a hit at my holiday parties.

Candy Corn Brownies

Who wants some candy corn brownies?

I've never been a huge fan of candy corn (although I inevitably get a hankering around the time the season starts), mainly because there's not enough chocolate involved, but these scrumptious-sounding candy corn-topped mini brownies solve that problem quick-smart.  Plus, it's a great way to get rid of leftover candy corn once November rolls around.

Homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte Recipe

 

The pumpkin spice latte is back at Starbucks, yet another sure sign that Halloween is on its way, but if you don't feel like shelling out four bucks for a coffee, try making one at home with this recipe from Daily Nibbles. 

I made one for breakfast yesterday (pictured above, along with a slice of this weekend's banana-pumpkin bread), and I have to say: Yum!

Banana-Pumpkin Bread

Inspired by a surplus of overripe bananas, I wanted to put a Halloweeny twist on some banana bread.  A quick Google search yielded this recipe for scary-good babana-pumpkin bread, so I mixed up the batter and threw in some pecans for good measure.

Because I'd used several more bananas than the recipe called for (which I balanced out with a bit of extra oatmeal), I had some batter left over when I'd filled my bread pan. Since there wasn't quite enough for a second loaf, I threw in some chocolate chips and made a batch of muffins, too.  I baked to muffins for about half the time recommended in the bread recipe.

Both the bread and the muffins came out tasting great -- chewy and moist and very flavorful -- although I have to say the muffins have been rather more popular.  Because, let's be honest, there's almost no baked good that isn't improved by the addition of a little chocolate.

And if you're wondering where the little fence around the muffin pictured above came from, check back on Tuesday for a tutorial on DIY graveyard cupcake wraps.

Martha Stewart Halloween 2011

I never thought I'd say it, but Martha Stewart is wonderful!  I resisted the Martha phenomenon for so long because I don't buy into the cookie-cutter brand of creativity that is dominates craft and housekeeping magazines.

But the Martha Stewart Halloween special issue, with those ridiculous moth wing eyelashes, enticed me in, and I was not disappointed!  The 2011 Halloween issue is marvellous, full of imaginative DIY decorations and costumes, and tasty-looking food.  The art design is very inventive.

Sure, it promotes a senseless model of consumption just for the sake of decoration, and gives us all unreasonable expectations about how polished our lives should be.  But used correctly, it can be a great source of inspiration.  And it's so pretty!

And best of all, Saint Martha has lots of Halloween projects online, including: indoor decorations, costume ideas and activities (both billed as for children, although I beg to differ), pumpkin carving suggestions, and recipes. I'm sure I'll be featuring more of these in the future, and maybe even testing some, but we have to start somewhere.