Just because Halloween is over doesn’t mean we have to stop celebrating it. Lovely Indeed has a great idea for packaging up a miniature party and mailing it off to someone in need of a bit of gothic cheer.

She notes that her package contents were mainly gathered from whatever supplies she had laying around the house, and if you’ve got leftovers from other projects (or if, like me, you tend to buy likely-looking items even if you aren’t sure what to do with them) this is a fun way to use them up. Right now, however, there are still post-Halloween clearance sales at craft and party stores, and you should be able to stock up on interesting tidbits for a song.*

Just about any small, non-breakable item can be added to your “party,” so look around for DIY party favor ideas (HGTV has some attractive options) and interesting novelties. Throw in some candy, confetti, and a few plastic spiders and send some miniature spookiness to someone special.

*If you’re into gloomy crafting you should get in the habit of doing this anyway because skulls, bats, and other useful decorative items are pretty thin on the ground in February. Wait until after Halloween, buy everything at half-off, and you can craft happily all year for cheap.

This is a great way to use up partial packages of dried fruit that you may have sitting around from other baking projects.

Fruitcake Cookies
(Adapted from Bon Appetit)

6 C mixed dried fruit (currants, chopped dates, raisins, diced figs, halved cherries, cranberries, citron, candied orange peel, etc. etc.)
6 T bourbon, divided
6 T sherry, divided
1 C coarsely chopped walnuts
2 C all-purpose flour, divided
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 C sugar
1/2 C (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs

Toss dried fruit in large bowl. Mix in 4 T each bourbon and sherry. Cover; soak at least 2 and up to 24 hours.

Position rack in center of oven; preheat to 325°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper (cookies are moist and will stick).

Stir walnuts, then 1 C flour into fruit mixture, coating evenly. Whisk remaining 1 C flour, baking powder, salt, and spices in medium bowl.

Beat sugar and butter in another large bowl until smooth. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Beat in dry ingredients, then remaining 2 T each bourbon and sherry. Fold in fruit mixture. Drop batter by heaping tablespoons onto baking sheets.

Bake cookies until light brown, turning halfway through baking, about 23 minutes. Cool.

These are great as-is, but for extra decadence they can be glazed:

1 cup (packed) powdered sugar
4 tsp (approx) bourbon
4 tsp (approx) sherry

Stir together sugar and 4 tsp each bourbon and sherry until the mixture is free of lumps. If necessary, thin the glaze further by adding additional liquor in 1/2-tsp increments. Spoon glaze over cookies. Let sit at least 2 hours until glaze is set.

Cookies keep airtight for 1 week.

The Hairpin has instructions for making “albino spiders” out of deviled eggs that I think I’m going to put in the category of Trying Too Hard. I’m actually much more on board with the “usual” olive spider-decorated eggs that they dismiss as too pedestrian, since they’re easier to make and are more eye-catching. I think it’d be difficult to make enough of the larger eggs for a party. (I especially wonder about the “make 36 or so and leave them around the house in unexpected places.” Wut?)

If I were to tackle the “albino” version I’d make a few changes:

• Cut and fill the eggs before any other assembly.
• Consider quail eggs instead of cocktail onions for the heads. Alternately, forget the separate head altogether and add the eyes to the front of the larger egg.
• Definitely use something besides bits of raw button mushroom for the legs, since nobody really wants to nibble on those; something like thin strips of ham or cheese might work better.
• Instead of a plain boiled egg, possibly use tea eggs instead, since the marbled pattern would add interest.
• Add the paprika hourglass last, after all other assembly is complete.
• Since these things really aren’t at all portable, don’t attempt to make them part of a buffet. Instead, arrange one on each guest’s plate as part of an appetizer.

The time for Halloween parties may be past, but there are plenty of other holiday dinner opportunities coming up. These spiders might be just the thing for a bit of elegant spookiness.

A friend refers to these as “crack cookies;” not because they’re cracked, but because that’s what they’re as addictive as. The recipe scales up easily and they freeze well, so you can make a large batch and save some for later.

No-Bake Cookie Balls

1/2 C (1 stick) butter
1/2 C sugar
1/2 lb dates*, pitted and cut into small pieces
2 C puffed rice cereal, such as Rice Krispies
1/4 C chopped pecans (toast for a few minutes in a dry skillet if desired)
2 C sweetened shredded coconut

*The kind I usually use are the Deglet Nour variety (often just sold as “California dates”), but other types like Medjool should be fine as long as they’re dry-ish. You can sometimes find pre-diced dates too; those work fine and save time but they’re usually coated in sugar so reduce the sugar in the recipe by a Tbsp or so.

Place butter, sugar, and dates in a saucepan and stir over low heat until the dates sort of dissolve and the mixture looks fairly homogenous. Stir in cereal and pecans. Remove from heat, then shape into balls (for single-bite cookies, use about a tablespoon, but you can make them golf ball-sized if you want). I like to wear disposable latex gloves for this, since handling the hot mixture can be uncomfortable if you’re making a lot of them.

Whilst still warm, roll the balls in coconut until covered; if they start to cool off, pop them in the microwave for a few seconds. Serve warm or place on waxed paper to cool (they can be re-warmed in a microwave later if desired).

These keep in an airtight container for about a week (they rarely last that long). For longer storage, freeze on a cookie sheet until frozen and then put in an airtight container; they’ll last at least six months in the freezer. Take out as many as you want and microwave for 5-10 seconds to reheat.

Twitter account FoodPorn_ (which you should follow only if you don’t mind gaining 50 lbs) recently tweeted this photo of embellished caramel apples, and after quite a bit of googling I finally tracked down the original source…which, annoyingly, doesn’t provide details on the actual decoration. (It does, however, have a pretty good recipe for the caramel itself, in case you’d rather use from-scratch instead of store-bought caramels.) My guess is that they’re just dipped in candy melts and then in sprinkles.

The initial search did turn up some other interesting ideas, including these aggressively-festive things, and these cute jack-o-lantern and spiderweb designs. There are also some great ideas here (photos are at the bottom of the page–I love the little ghosts).

If you’re feeling brave you could also coat them with dried mealworms, and if you’re not-so-brave (or you want your friends to still like you), use the realistic-looking gummy earthworms instead.

Just for a bit of variety, these caramel apple cupcakes sound pretty tasty. (Also, did you know there’s a caramel apple perfume?)

This is one of those things that I’d swear I posted about once, long ago, but a dig through the archives suggests I may have been hallucinating.

Barmbrack/barnbrack/brack is an Irish sweet bread which is traditionally used as the medium for fortune-telling on Halloween. Wikipedia explains:

Barmbrack is the centre of an Irish Halloween custom. The Halloween Brack traditionally contained various objects baked into the bread and was used as a sort of fortune-telling game.[2] In the barmbrack were: a pea, a stick, a piece of cloth, a small coin (originally a silver sixpence) and a ring. Each item, when received in the slice, was supposed to carry a meaning to the person concerned: the pea, the person would not marry that year; the stick, would have an unhappy marriage or continually be in disputes; the cloth or rag, would have bad luck or be poor; the coin, would enjoy good fortune or be rich; and the ring, would be wed within the year. Other articles added to the brack include a medallion, usually of the Virgin Mary to symbolise going into the priesthood or to the Nuns, although this tradition is not widely continued in the present day.

There are two main types of the bread, one a quick bread made with a chemical leavener such as baking powder and the other leavened with yeast. Both are filled with dried fruit that has been soaked in tea.

The Evening Hérault has representative recipes for both types* and a quick google will turn up loads of other examples. This one, for instance, substitutes whiskey for part of the tea.

As nearly as I can tell, there’s no traditional shape for the loaves; they appear to most commonly be baked in either round or loaf pans, but for the quick bread you could use a ring mold or any other pan that will hold the dough (it’s probably too thick for really intricately-detailed cake pans), and for the yeast version you could braid it or try other freeform shapes.

If you plan to include charms in the dough, remember to wrap each one in waxed paper before insertion. (And, obviously, since they’re choking hazards the charms aren’t suitable for small children.)

This is a lovely bread for breakfast or tea, served warm with butter.

*Incidentally, if you don’t have self-rising flour, you can make it yourself: For each cup called for in the recipe, substitute 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, and 1/4 tsp salt.

My pal Kitten Herder turned me on to this splendid party idea: A cider-based punch full of apple “shrunken heads.” How awesome would a cauldron-esque punchbowl look with these bobbing around?

The recipe was presented without attribution on Facebook, but fortunately a bit of googling turned up the original source on an old episode of the Martha Stewart Show.

I’m a bit leery of the amount of salt in this version of the drying solution, since adding a lot of heads to the punch might make it noticeably salty. All of the instructions for shrunken-apple heads seem to require at least a little salt, but since these apples aren’t thoroughly dried out you could probably get away with less salt and a slightly longer drying time.

I’m also not really on board with this recipe’s implication that the punch should be at room temperature; it should probably either be served heated or ice-cold. If you don’t want ice cubes or an ice ring to detract from the floating heads, thoroughly chill the ingredients before combining and then sit the punchbowl inside a plastic novelty cauldron with ice in the bottom. (For extra spookiness add a little dry ice to the outer cauldron–NOT directly to the punch–so the cauldron will “smoke.”)

Obviously, you can use any punch recipe you like, although something with a citrus component (like the lemonade in this recipe) will help keep the apples from browning.

Ingredients
2 C lemon juice
2 T coarse salt
8 large, firm cooking apples such as Granny Smith
32 whole cloves
2 gallons apple cider
2 (12-ounce) cans frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
2 C spiced rum or apple brandy (optional)

Instructions
Preheat oven to 250 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper Mix together lemon juice and salt in a bowl large enough to roll the apples around in.

Peel the apples and cut each in half through the stem; remove seeds and core. Using a sharp paring knife, carve a face on the rounded side of each apple half. Place apples in lemon mixture for one minute; transfer to paper towels to drain.

Place apple halves face-side-up on prepared baking sheet and transfer to oven. Let bake until apples are dry and begin to brown around the edges, about 90 minutes. Remove from oven and press cloves into the “eyesockets.”

Combine cider, lemonade, and alcohol (if using) in a large punchbowl; float shrunken heads on top.

(Thanks, Kitten Herder!)

Did you ever make “sand candles” as a kid? The idea was to press objects into wet sand and then pour melted wax into the resulting depression. Once cool, you wound up with a (somewhat sandy) molded candle.

Daring Baker Duluth decided to try the same idea with chocolate, using an edible substrate as the mold. The first attempt used brown sugar and she eventually tested several other substances as well; apparently flour works the best.

This is a splendid idea, and opens up all sorts of decorative possibilities. Anything small-ish without too much intricate detail is fair game for this kind of casting, and there are plenty of spooky items that would be perfect. Cast plastic novelties like bats, snakes, toads, or spiders to decorate a “witches’ brew” cake, or give a friend a box of chocolate skulls. Cast your own fingers as cake toppers or make little candy tombstones as placecards.

This is also a fun and not-too-messy activity to do with kids, so they can make their own edible decorations. Great stuff.

(via Brass Goggles)

Continuing from yesterday, here are the rest of the recipes from my Bar Supply Extravaganza.

Praline Liqueur – Makes about 4 cups

4 C pecan pieces, lightly toasted
4 C high-proof grain alcohol such as Everclear (or the highest-proof vodka you can get)
2 vanilla beans, split lengthwise
2 C firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 C white sugar
2 1/2 C water

Place the pecan pieces and vanilla beans in a jar, cover with alcohol, and seal. Let sit in a cool, dark place for two weeks, shaking daily. Line a strainer with two layers of cheesecloth (or a clean kitchen towel) and place over a bowl. Pour in the mixture, giving the cloth a squeeze to extract as much liquid as possible. Reserve the vanilla beans. (You can discard the boozy nuts or use them as an ice-cream topping if you wish.) Line a strainer with a coffee filter and place over another bowl. Pour the mixture through it a little at a time; it will drip slowly and you’ll need to change the coffee filter fairly often.

Place sugars and water in a saucepan over medium-high heat and stir until sugars dissolve. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add reserved vanilla and simmer another 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

Remove vanilla and discard, then stir in the filtered mixture. Pour into bottles and store at room temperature. This will keep pretty much indefinitely, but for best flavor it should be used within a year. It’s great in coffee or poured over baked apples.

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My pal Empress Pam had a birthday recently, and I gave her a collection of homemade bar supplies as a gift. They were a lot of fun to put together, so I figured I’d pass the recipes on in case anyone wants to try them out.

These are easy, not too expensive, and can be made over a period of several weeks. They also taste better than most commercial versions of the product, and you know exactly what ingredients are in them.

They look attractive packaged in matching containers (I used swingtop bale jars and bottles from Specialty Bottle), but they can be put in anything from thrifted vintage bottles to recycled spaghetti sauce jars. For extra appeal, especially if these are meant as a gift, you could decorate the bottles with glass paint to make them a little more match-y. Label them–I used manila tags, but you could paint the contents on the bottle or use computer-printed labels–and arrange them in a basket, wooden crate, or similar container. Decorate with a bit of ribbon and add a tag with an appropriate quote (such as, “Drunkenness is nothing but voluntary madness. — Seneca”).

Since there are several recipes, I’m breaking this into two parts; the second half will go up tomorrow.

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