Halloween treats
We had great fun at The Cooking Shed this weekend with lots of adults and children creating delicious 'treats' (no tricks!), apple bobbing, and making memories together. We thought we'd share our recipes and ideas incase you'd like to re-create them yourselves at home. We'd love it if you would share pics of your finished treats on our Facebook page when you're done :)
Spider bread
Once you've cooked your bread, try carefully cutting around and removing its back, hollow out, and fill with hummus to then tear off and dip the legs in to :)
Ingredients:
Ingredients:
4g instant yeast
1 teaspoon honey
70ml warm water
1 dessert spoon of olive oil
150g strong white bread flour
Half a teaspoon salt
dried herbs (we like oregano, but use whichever you prefer)
- makes one large spider -
Method:
Add the yeast, honey and olive oil to the warm water and give a good mix
In a mixing bowl, add the flour and salt then make a well in middle, and pour in the water and yeast mix
Give it all a good mix with just one hand - leaving your other hand clean and free to hold the bowl and add in a little more sprinkling of flour if you feel it’s needed (this is a fairly wet mix, but it shouldn’t be so wet that it can’t be handled)
Remove the mix from the bowl on to a well floured work surface and knead for 5-10 minutes
Line a baking tray with baking paper, then on it shape your dough in to a spider.
Dip a finger in some cool water and very gently rub a little over your spiders back then sprinkle on your herbs so that they stick.
Cover your spider with a bowl or cling film then leave to rise for around half an hour
Pre-heat the oven to 230 degrees (or as high as it will go)
Remove the cling film, and bake your spider in the oven for 10 minutes (adults do this bit)
Turn down the oven to 200 degrees and cook for a further 10 minutes (or until cooked through and sounds hollow when tapped underneath)
Remove from the oven (adults do this bit), leave to one side for 5 minutes and then remove from the baking tray and place on a wire rack to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.
If you’d like to turn your spider in to a dipping bowl for Halloween, simply cut a circle out of his back, remove the outer and inner dough and fill with your choice of dip.
Ghostly marshmallows
These are great fun and simple to do. If you're also making the chocolate apples, you could dip the top of the marshmallows in to some melted chocolate to create hair, and spray with edible green spray to make a Frankenstein (with two little pretzels through the sides of the marshmallow for bolts!)
Ingredients:
Large marshmallows (2 per stick)
Black or halloween themed straws
Liquorice edible black pen (you can buy these online for around £3) PLEASE ENSURE...that you make it very clear to children that these are 'special pens' and that they shouldn't ever eat or use the pens that they might normally use to write or draw with!
Method:
1. Push two marshmallows on to the top of a straw
2. Draw on some ghostly faces with your liquorice pen
3. Eat and enjoy!
Chocolate apples
You can add halloween themed sprinkles, small jellies, or mini marshmallows to your chocolate apples for an even tastier treat! PLEASE ENSURE you melt the chocolate away from children, as the stream created when melted can be very dangerous. It's best for an adult to do this ahead of sitting down to make together then you can transfer the melted chocolate to a cooler bowl so that little ones won't hurt themselves.
Ingredients:
250g cooking chocolate (you can use dark, milk, or white - whichever you prefer)
1 dessert spoon sunflower oil
6 small apples (washed and dried)
Rigid lolly sticks (we use these ones)
Method:
1. Pour boiling water in to a saucepan so that it sits around 2 inches deep
2. Sit a heat-proof bowl in to the saucepan so that it has a snug fit but isn't touching the water - there should be no gaps as you don't want the steam you're going to create to escape
3. Break the chocolate in to small pieces, place in the bowl on the saucepan and melt on a low heat - staring occasionally to help the chocolate to melt
4. Once all of the chocolate has melted, turn off the heat, and stir in the sunflower oil until it is completely absorbed, and using an oven proof glove very carefully remove the bowl from the saucepan (be extremely careful as hot steam will release as soon as you lift the bowl from the saucepan)
5. Remove any storks from the apples, then where the stork was, push in a lolly stick
6. holding the lolly stick, dip the apple in to the chocolate and turn the apple until it completely coated in the chocolate - lift the apple from the chocolate and let any excess drip off in to the bowl, before turning it up the other way, and sprinkling your sprinkles/chosen toppings on to the chocolate.
7. Place the apple on to a tray lined with baking paper so that the apple sits on the tray and the lolly stick is facing up
8. Once all of the apples are coated, place the baking tray of finished apples in to a fridge and leave to set for 30 minutes
9. Remove from the fridge, peel from the baking paper and enjoy!
Happy halloween! Check out our current adult and child cookery classes
