Halloween Treats Part 1- Candy Sushi

Yes, Halloween is over, but luckily my Halloween treats are perfect for all year round.

Candy sushi is a staple at all of my parties and while it's the easiest treat to make, I always get a lot of compliments. I made these along with Ghostbusters cupcakes and cake pops (both of which I'll be posting soon).

Nothing gets me compliments like candy sushi does, some people love it on sight, others have been weary, but in the end they all rave about it. It tastes a bit like Fruit Loops.


I don't have a definite link to attribute this recipe to, I've found it on a few different sites.

You really only need about half a batch of rice krispie treats, but I always just make a full batch and feed the rest to my family.

Candy Sushi
half a batch of rice krispie treats (I use this recipe)
10 fruit roll-ups, whatever color you want
20 sour gummi worms

Unroll all the fruit rollups, but leave them on the plastic sheets (it makes rolling them much easier).

Pull off about a fourth of the rice krispie treats and microwave for a few seconds until warm and pliable.

Take a small amount of the rise krispies and flatten it in the middle of the fruit rollup, you want to cover about 2/3 of the fruit rollup. Then place 1 or 2 gummi worms on top of the rice krispies.

Roll the whole thing up like a piece of sushi, making sure to completely close it. If it isn't completely circular, once the edges are sealed roll it over our counter till it's cylindrical. Repeat with the rest of your supplies. (If the first few are a little messy, don't worry, you just need practice.)

If you're going to serve the candy sushi now, pull the plastic off and slice it into about 4-5 pieces.
If you're making it ahead of time, put all the sushi rolls into a ziploc bag and then cut them right before you plan to serve them (you don't want them to get stale). They'll keep for a day or two. I usually roll them the night before a party.

To complete the "sushi" look, set a small bowl of soy sauce (chocolate syrup) and wasabi (green frosting) next to the sushi. Don't forget chopsticks.

Na'an

Of all the recipes I've shared, na'an is actually the one I make the most.

I find myself making batch after batch of this simple, Indian flatbread. It's easy, requires very few ingredients and I never seem to get sick of it.

I decided to finally try bigger more complicated breads, but first I thought I should revisit my first experience cooking with yeast.

As I mentioned before in my pretzel post, yeast is easy, treat it with care and it will go all the work for you.

This recipe for na'an should yield 4 pieces, but my pictures only show 3. Why?

Well, when I make na'an no matter what, I always end up devouring the first piece straight out of the oven, slathered with butter and kosher salt, while the rest bake. I just can't help it.

I always plan to make hummus, but the na'an never survives that long.

I used to make double batches of the stuff, in an effort to keep it around longer, but I know I make regular batches frequently instead. I like the ritual of baking bread every few days.

(I pretty much bake whenever I notice that the house is cold.)

Na'an

2 cups of flour

2/3 cup of plain yogurt (regular or fat-free, either works), room temperature

2 tablespoons melted butter or oil

1 tsp salt

1 clove of garlic, minced (optional)

1 tsp red chili flakes (optional)

(Note: by "optional" I mean, "super delicious, you should add them")

Mix everything together in a bowl.

Knead for 10 minutes, until smooth ands elastic.

Let rest in an oiled bowl, covered for 60-90 minutes.

Separate into 4 balls and let rest for another 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

On a floured surface, roll each ball into an 16-18 inch oval (basically as thin as you can get it works).

Bake one at a time on a baking sheet for 8-10 minutes, until they bubble up and brown a bit.

Serve with hummus, use as the base of a pizza, or eat warm standing in your kitchen (my standard method of snacking).

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies were pretty much my first serious baking venture. I've made them a good 50 times (at least). I've made tiny half batches to satisfy cravings and massive quadruple batches for bake sales.
I would frequently make them from memory, and then realize that I'd forgotten an important important ingredient. (I always forgot eggs!).

It's actually been awhile since I've made chocolate chip cookies though and I got to thinking about them while I was looking for Halloween treats.

I thought I'd whip up a batch since I've got all the supplies here and this particular recipe caught my eye.

The cookies just came of the oven and it seemed like a great opportunity to write up a blog with the house still warm and smelling like peanut butter.

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies
1 cup of flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup of peanut butter (the recipe called for creamy, but I used chunky)
1/2 sugar
1/3 brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Mix the flour, salt, and baking soda in a bowl.

In an electric mixer, combine peanut butter, butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract, mix on medium for about 3 minutes.
Then add the egg.
Slowly add the flour.

Add the chocolate chips and oatmeal, but use a spoon to mix in, the dough will be pretty thick and my mixer didn't want to uniformly disperse the chocolate chips.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or spray them with non-stick spray.
Spoon generous tablespoons of dough onto the sheets, about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Let cool, devour.

Beef Stew

It is finally Fall!
So of course this means serious comfort food. It's time for some unrestrained, no holds barred home cooked deliciousness.
It's beef stew time.

I tried to show off a little bit with this one, but the puff pastry boats I made to hold the stew came apart in the oven. (I'll be tackling those again soon.) Of course this didn't stop me from cutting the puff pastry into little triangles and serving it with the stew. If it tastes good and looks decent, no one will know you made a mistake. Everyone loved the puff pastry triangles.

The stew was perfect, homey, rich and everything was on point... well except for one thing.
I forgot the carrots.
I had beautiful organic homegrown carrots in my fridge and I didn't realize I'd forgotten them till halfway through my second bowl.
So the recipe isn't very exact, and I know that one my scoff at my use of Beef Stew seasoning mix, but seriously that stuff is awesome. I want to put it in everything I make, it's pure deliciousness.

Beef Stew
4lb beef stew meat (you can buy the precut stuff, but I found some nice cheap steaks on sale and cut them up myself)
1 packet beef stew seasoning mix
48 oz can of beef broth
2.5 lbs of (any kind of) potatoes
most of a 1lb bag of frozen peas
most of a 1lb bag of frozen corn
1 medium onion
2 carrots, peeled, diced
flour
salt/pepper
1 box frozen puff pastry, thawed



Coat meat in flour and salt/pepper. Get a large pot hot and add a few teaspoons of oil.


Sear the meat in batches, browning the outside, but not cooking it through. Remove all the meat.

Add the onion and carrots to the pot (I left my in large chunks for the picky eaters). Add the beef broth, beef stew seasoning mix and the meat (and all the juices that have acumulated on the plate) and make sure to scrape the bottom of the pot for tasty bits of cooked on flavor.

Add the potatoes. Simmer on medium for about 40 minutes, until the potatoes are nearly cooked through.

Add the corn and green beans, simmer for another 10 minutes.

Now taste the stew. Enough salt? pepper? Is it thick enough? If not dissolve 2-3 tablespoons of corn starch in 2-3 tablespoons of water in a cup then add to the stew and heat it to a boil. It should thicken up perfectly.

The puff pastry triangles require basically no instructions. Thaw the pastry then unfold it, cut in along the folds and lay the pieces out on a baking sheet. Bake as instructed on the packaging.

Then cut into triangles and serve with beef stew.

Croquembouche- A true baker's challenge

Next time a guy asks me about my hobbies of what I do for fun, I'm going to direct them to this post. This is what I do for fun.

Ever since the Tiramisu post I've been looking for another classic elegant dessert to make.
I've stumbled upon this one a few times and finally had a lazy Saturday to devote to it.

What is a Croquembouche? It's a tower of profiteroles bound together by caramel.



This was my first experience with choux pastry, (the dough you use to make the profiteroles or little cream puffs). Despite my nervousness, it turned out perfectly.

The recipe wasn't without it's problems though.
1.) I didn't bake my profiteroles long enough and some of them deflated.
2.) My caramel ended up being too thick and made for some dangerously sharp pastries.
3.) I burned 4 fingers trying to dip profiteroles in caramel.

However, it was DELICIOUS, sure my tower was more of a ring, but it was tasty and adorable. It's a little silly, but I felt really accomplished when I finished this one.

Bonus, I made the whole thing out of baking staples I had in my house.

Expect more profiteroles from me in the future, probably chocolate covered ones, I'm a little clumsy for caramel.

Okay this is going to be a lot of steps. Start with the filling.

Vanilla Pastry Creme

6 egg yolks

1/2 cup of sugar

1/4 cup of flour

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

2 cups of milk (I used skim and it worked fine)

Mix the egg yolks and about a 1/3 of the sugar, whisk in flour until thoroughly combined.

Heat remaning sugar, milk and vanilla to a boil. Remove from heat.

Then temper the eggs by pouring about half the milk into the eggs and whisking quickly. Then add the rest of the milk and mix well then return all of it to the pot.

Whisk constantly over a medium heat, and bring it to a boil. Although it to bubble and continue whisking for 2 minutes. (It thickens up fast, so keep whisking or it will burn or boil over.)

Remove from heat, pour into a bowl and place plastic wrap right on the surface of the creme to prevent a skin from forming.

Refridgerate. (You can make it up to 3 days ahead of time.)

That wasn't tough right? Now to the real work.

This is my cat, diligently watching me cook.

Pate a Choux (Choux Pastry)

3/4 cup of water

6 tablespoons of butter

1/4 tsp. of salt

1 tablespoon of sugar

1 cup of (regular) flour
4 large eggs

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Bring the water, butter, salt, and sugar to a boil in a pot.

Remove from heat, add flour and stir vigorously.

Return to heat, stirring constantly until the batter was dried slightly and begins to pull away from the pan (about 2 minutes).

Remove from heat and pour into the bowl of an electric mixer (you can mix by hand if you want).

Let cool slightly.

Add eggs one at a time slowly, giving them plenty of time to incorporate.

Cover 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Fill a piping bag, or a big plastic baggie (that's what I used) with the dough and cut a small tip in the end.

Pipe out small balls that are about 1 inch high and 1 inch wide. Keep them about an inch apart.

(Doesn't matter if they all aren't perfect, mine ended up being totally different sizes, just keep it as uniform as you can).

With a clean finger dipped in warm water, push down any tips on the tops of the dough, so they appear smooth.

Bake at 425 degrees for about 10 minutes, until they are well puffed and slightly golden in color.

Then lower the temperature to 350 degrees, and bake for 20 minutes until well colored and dry. (Don't afraid to let them brown, I didn't leave mine in long enough and they deflated).

Remove from oven and let cool on a cooling rack.

(Cool completely before filling.)

To fill the pastries

Fill a piping bag or plastic baggie with the vanilla creme. Cut a small tip in the end.

Pierce a small hole in each pastry.

Fill each pastry (not till they burst open, but make sure each is adequeately filled). Work slowly, experimenting of a few of the uglier pastries until you figure it out.

Refridgerate while you make the glaze.

The Glaze

1 cup of sugar

2 tablespoons of water

(The recipe I followed wanted you to make a caramel with no water, but the results were sharp and hazardous to the mouth, so I'd advise adding some water.)

Combine water and sugar in a pot until it resembles wet sand. Heat on medium, until the edges begin to melt and the center starts to smoke. Stir, continue to heat and stir occasionally until the sugar is a clear amber color. Remove from heat and use immediately.

Final Assembly

Most versions call for you to dip the pastries in the caramel glaze, but I must warn you, it's extremely easy to burn yourself the glaze that way.

I burned myself pretty bad.

Instead I would suggest making a small ring of pastries on the bottom of the plate/platter you're using and then drizzling the glaze over the top of them. Then placing another layer on top of that, and drizzling glaze on top of that. And repeating until out of pastries.

If the glaze seizes up during assembly, just reheat.

Once you've finished assembling, let the glaze cool a little and experiment with making swooshing movements over the tower to make the little wasps of sugar.