Pickled Shrunken Heads

This idea was just way to clever to not make myself. Of course I found it on Pinterest, but it was just a photo from Kim Hellemans, no link to a blog or anything. Here is the link to her photo however. I absolutely had to make these cute little shrunken heads. Imagine them along side my Amputated Appetizer cheese platter or to turn your plain old hamburgers into a Halloween themed meal by topping them with a skeleton pickle. They are just too much fun. :)

These shrunken heads are made from two kinds of pickle recipes so you can choose which one you like. The cucumbers are the classic dill pickle from my Dill pickle blog from last year. I did revise the recipe just a little, so see the recipe below for the changes. The radishes are pickled with a sweet but spicy pickling brine with an added Serrano pepper for added spice. Feel free to omit the peppers if you just want them sweet. Both are delicious! Enjoy!

Pickled Shrunken Heads

Radish Heads
12 Radishes (makes 1 pint sized jar)
1 Serrano pepper
sweet and spicy pickling recipe

Cut radishes lengthwise or crosswise. Use BBQ skewers to poke faces into the radishes. Now slice the radishes thinly into pickles that have fun faces on them. Place sliced radishes into sterilized jars. Slice Serrano pepper and add to each jar of radishes. Prepare quick pickling recipe and pour liquid into radishes/peppers and let them sit for about 5 minutes. Place lids and rings and let cool on the counter top. Once cooled store in the refrigerator. These pickles are not canned and will not keep without refrigeration so make sure to store them in the refrigerator. Enjoy!

 














Cucumber Heads
(makes 2 pint sized jars)

• 1 large English cucumber
• 4 Tbsp dried minced onion
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced
• 2 tsp pickling spice
• 3 heads of fresh dill
• 3 cups water
• 1 cups vinegar
• 3 Tbsp canning salt (do not use regular salt, used canning salt)

In a large pot, add onion, garlic, pickling spice, dill heads, water, vinegar and canning salt. Bring to a boil to dissolve salt and let cool.

As pickling brine is cooling prep cucumbers. 

Cut cucumber into 4 3-inch long sections and stand up the 3-inch sections on the cutting board so that the seeds are facing you. Use chopsticks and BBQ skewers to poke faces into the cucumbers. Then slice down the sides of the cucumber to narrow out to create the hollowed out cheeks. Now you are ready to slice them into pickle slices. Cut about 1/4" slices and place into sterilized jars along with some fresh dill springs. Once pickling brine is cooled, add mixture to the cucumbers and place lids and rings. Place in the refrigerator and the pickles will be ready to eat in three days. Turn the jars upside down to mix each day and return to the fridge. Like the radish recipe above these pickles are not canned and must be stored in the refrigerator. Enjoy!

Doesn't this head look like Michael Meyers Mask from the movie, Halloween?

More Halloween inspired recipes.
Amputated Appetizer
Ghoulish Goat Cheese Torte
Roasted Fingers and Toes

Black Velvet Creme Cakes

I really wanted to call these little beauties, Black Velvet Ding Dongs. But since that name was taken...Creme Cakes they became. My goal was to Halloween-ify the Creme Cake.  I'd hoped to enrobe the whole cake with three different colored chocolate coatings with each cake filled with a contrasting colored frosting center. Imagine...a lime green Ding Dong..oops, Creme Cake, with brilliant purple filling next to the deep Black Velvet Chocolate Cake. An orange Creme Cake with bright green filling and a white Creme Cake with blood red filling...you get the picture. At least that's what I was going for originally, but Candy Melts had other plans for me. 

Candy Melts were very tricky to use and created tears of frustration. However, I must say it was user error. My first mistake was thinking I could enrobe the Creme Cakes with them. You can't. The white chocolate in melting chocolate is too thick, even with addition of shortening or oil. It will not pour out into a beautiful curtain of colored white chocolate like regular chocolate does. (At least I couldn't get it to that consistency) And, if you try to heat it higher to get it more liquid, it will do the opposite and seize up on you and turn into a globby thick mess. It took me three tries to figure this out and after the third failed attempt at melting these buggers, I realized I needed help!

I hit up the Internet. I read all kinds of to do's and what not to do's but the single most important advice I read, and what worked for me (by accident) was...MELTING CAN NOT BE RUSHED. Take your time and it wouldn't hurt to buy an extra bag as your practice round.

Here are some things I learned when melting white chocolate:

-New melting chocolate melts better than older candy melts. Yes, this is absolutely true.  I had some left over from last Halloween and they did not melt very well at all. I ended up tossing the whole lot out.

-Use rectangular flat trays for melting white chocolate. Melting candy melts in rectangular plastic trays helped melt them more evenly. I used my three breading trays, I got from Pampered Chef.  I'd been heating them up in the microwave, in bowls, and heating was uneven. I got hot spots which seized up the chocolate.

-Heat the chocolate for only the recommended time at half power. One minute for the initial heating, and two more 30 second intervals. That it! Stir well and let it sit between all heatings. If you absolutely need to add more time, add it in 10 second intervals and stir well and let sit before adding any more time.

-Stirring is critical. Stir well after the first one minute heating. Stir well between the next two 30 second intervals. Stir a lot. Don't worry about rushing it back into the microwave thinking it is cooling down and will harden up again. No, the truth is, once these begin to melt, they stay melted for a long while. In fact, this leads me to my next lesson learned. 

-Let the chocolate sit. After the third seize up of my chocolate and trying to save it with adding shortening, I hopped on the Internet and did my investigating. I left the thick mess sitting there on the counter. After 10 minutes of education, I went back over to the chocolate mess I'd abandoned...and what do you know? The chocolate had in fact thinned out. Letting the chocolate sit and continue to melt and cool, did the trick. See...MELTING CANNOT BE RUSHED.

Anyway, like all mistakes, you learn something from them and then usually it leads you into new beautiful territory called, Plan B.  

Plan B was to use the candy melts I had left without having to run up to Michael's again. In this case, I had Black and white remaining. Instead of coating each of these cakes, I decided to coat the bottom and top of them, and it was just enough. The candy coating really gives you the texture reminiscent of those foil wrapped desserts we grew up with. All in all, the effort was so worth it because I learned a lot and most importantly they turned out beautiful and delicious!

Black Velvet Creme Cakes
Makes 30 creme cakes

1 box of Devil's Food cake mix
1 T unsweetened cocoa powder
gel food coloring in (black and colors of your choice)
1 container of prepared Vanilla frosting
1 bag each of Candy Melts in Black and White
Halloween Sprinkles (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Add 1/2 t black gel food coloring and 1 T of unsweetened cocoa powder. Stir well. Generously spray cupcake pan with non-stick cooking spray. Using a medium cookie scoop, fill cupcake pan with one scoopful (about 2 T) of cake mix. Cupcake batter will only fill the bottom 1/4 of the pan. You want the cakes to be small. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks.

 While the cupcakes are cooling, prepare your different colored creme fillings. Add gel food coloring until desired color is reached. Put frosting into piping bags with a piping tip. I only had a star tip and it worked just fine.

 On the underside of the cupcake, pipe a small amount of frosting into the middle of the cupcake. Take care not to pipe to quickly or your frosting will blow out the other side of the cupcake. Set aside while you prepare your candy melting chocolate.

Melt white chocolate according to package instructions and be mindful of the lessons learned listed above. Using a knife, remove excess piped frosting from the bottom of the cupcake before you dip them into chocolate. You'll want to seal the bottom of the cakes first so you don't lose your creme filling. Dip carefully and then place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet to allow for chocolate to set.


Prepare your black candy melting chocolate. Dip the tops of each cake, slightly twisting them as you remove them from the chocolate. You will need to use the back of a spoon to smooth over some spots.

Sprinkle with Halloween sprinkles (optional) and allow for chocolate to set. (I added the sprinkles after the chocolate had set, by using my hair dryer to slightly melt the tops of the cupcakes and then sprinkled them on.) Pour yourself a tall glass of milk and Enjoy!

Other Halloween Desserts to try:
Candy Corn Sugar Cookies                             Candy Corn Peppermint Patties

Amputated Appetizer- Three Cheeses in Prosciutto

After starting off my 'Summer of Halloween' blogs with a way cool candy recipe, now we're really off and running with Halloween spirit with this gruesome appetizer. This is an idea from my friend, Zach. Last Halloween, he made this way-cool appetizer shaped like a hand. The hand was made of goat cheese wrapped in prosciutto and he served it on a cutting board with a knife through it. It was pure genius! I loved it! In fact, I loved it so much, I've been waiting all year to make it! And that time has come...

I've adapted Zach's recipe just slightly however, instead of using all goat cheese to shape the arm, I added a mozzarella roll to make the arm portion. I like the idea of the mozzarella roll because it gives the impression of the bone sticking out. Plus it adds another tasty cheese to the platter. Serve it on a cutting board along side some eyeballs (olives) and you'll have instant creepiness... you'll get a ton of 'oohs' and 'icks' but after they taste it...you'll get nothing but 'Mmms'! 

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Thanks for the great idea Zach!

Amputated Appetizer: Three Cheeses wrapped in Prosciutto
Serves a crowd

2- 4oz packages goat cheese (I used one herbed and one plain)
2-8 oz packages cream cheese
1 package prosciutto
1 mozzarella, basil and prosciutto roll

Bring cream cheese and goat cheese to room temperature and mix well. Return to refrigerator to cool down and firm up about 45 minutes.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or wax paper. Use small and large cookie scoops to scoop out the cheese mixture onto the parchment. Use the large scoop for the palm of the hand and the small scoop for the fingers. Don't worry about it looking like a hand at this stage, it will look like a very lumpy, stumpy blob. See?

Now this is where a little patience will need to kick in. Using a small spatula, begin molding your hand and fingers. This will take a while but don't worry if it doesn't look proportional, once you put the prosciutto on, then you'll be able to mold it a lot easier, since it will be covered with it's skin, so to speak. 

 

 

Begin layering prosciutto, wrapping the slices around the fingers. You may need to refrigerate it to firm it up if it becomes too soft.

Some of the prosciutto will extend where the wrist will be. This is okay. You will use the overlapping prosciutto to attach the mozzarella roll.

Sorry this is a blurry picture but I wanted to get this shot to show how to attach the arm to the hand. :)

Apply a little pressure as you stick the mozzarella roll into the goat cheese portion of the hand.

Roll the prosciutto back over the mozzarella roll. Add a few more slices of prosciutto until you get the desired effect.  I chose to leave some of the mozzarella roll uncovered so it would look like bone sticking out. Pretty creepy huh?

Now you are ready to mold the hand and fingers and fine tune your appendage. I squeezed the wrist area a bit and thinned out the fingers. Later, I ended up moving the thumb down a bit more as well but it's not captured in this picture. 

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until it's firm enough to move to a platter or cutting board. Happy 'early' Halloween! Enjoy!

Other Halloween-inspired recipes to try:
Candy Corn Peppermint Patties
Ghoulish Goat Cheese Torte
Zombie Hummus

Candy Corn Peppermint Patties

For my kids, like most, Halloween is all about the candy. Sure, they get excited to carve pumpkins and decorate the house. Yes, they're happy to get their costumes each year and their excitement causes them to wear their costumes every day leading up to Halloween. But the costumes are just a means to the end. Candy is the prize waiting for them at the end of the night. The award given after hours of relentless panhandling masked by the words, "Trick or Treat!" 

So what better way to kick off my "Summer of Halloween" than with these beautiful Candy Corn Peppermint Patties. I realize it is the beginning of summer, but I love Halloween and I figure, it's never too early to start planning for Halloween. :) So you'll see these and many more Halloween themed blogs this summer. Now on to the candy...

These were a breeze to make because I had help. My girlfriend, Neidin came over one afternoon and we made these beauties. With our kiddos having fun in the pool just outside the kitchen window, we were having our own fun...making candy!
We were like little kids ourselves as we rolled out each layer of brilliant orange and yellow peppermint dough. Oooing and aahing at the striking colors that reminded us of play dough. Smiling as we smelled the peppermint that permeated the kitchen and our hands. Waiting anxiously through the refrigeration periods..."Is it done yet?" Cutting out the cute pumpkin shapes...More refrigeration...*sigh.* Impatience building. 
Happily moving on to plan B after a minor chocolate debacle. Good thing we had a plan B. "Yay!" And then, the moment of truth...breaking open the pumpkin shaped patty to see the colorful candy corn center! I'm pretty sure there was a collective squeal of delight. They were so stunningly beautiful and not to mention delicious! The perfect end to a perfect day! Thanks Neidin.

Candy Corn Peppermint Patties (recipe from HGTV) 
Makes ~20, 1-inch patties

3 3/4 cups powdered sugar
2 1/4 Tbsp light corn syrup
2 1/4 Tbsp water
1 tsp pure peppermint extract
1 1/2 Tbsp vegetable shortening
pinch of salt
yellow and orange food coloring (I used Wilton)
1 Tbsp butter
15 oz. melting chocolate

Add powdered sugar, corn syrup, water, peppermint extract, shortening and a pinch of salt in a stand mixer and mix until just combined. Knead on a work surface dusted with powdered sugar until smooth.

 

Divide dough into thirds. Add the yellow food coloring to one of the balls of dough and orange to the other, leaving the last one white.

Roll out each dough between two pieces of parchment paper. Make sure they are even thickness and similar in shape. Stack the layers on parchment paper, starting with yellow, orange and then finally white. Cover top with another piece of parchment and refrigerate for 10 minutes.

 

Using a 1" cookie cutter, cut out mints and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet. I used a pumpkin shaped cutter, but a round cookie cutter will give you the most of patties if you cut them out very close together. I ended up with 17 pumpkin shaped patties.  Place cut patties back into the refrigerator to chill.

Melt chocolate according to package directions and then begin to dip each patty into the chocolate and place on a wax paper lined cookie sheet. Refrigerate until chocolate is set.  store in cool place, layered between wax paper. Enjoy!

 

Other Halloween-themed foods to try:

Ghoulish Goat Cheese Torte

Candy Corn Sugar Cookies
Roasted Fingers and Toes