Halloween - Bake Star Wars For Me Style

Wow, there has just been so much going on these last few months, I've barley had time to breath, let alone bake or blog. When did life get so busy?

This last week was no exception, especially with Halloween.

Now, I know I usually blog on Talk Star Wars To Me about Halloween, but this year, I figured that here was more appropriate, considering that there was a lot of food involved and not as much costuming. 

Let's start with pumpkins. My awesome friend Jocey, invited me over for some good old fashioned pumpkin carving! Now I hadn't carved pumpkins since I was a kid, so I was super excited and kind of leery  about my pumpkin carving skill level.

But as you can see, I don't think I needed to worry, Jocey had a plan.

 And an awesome array of pumpkins, squashes and gourds

This little guy's name is Gord.

Jocey's fantastic Jack Skellington

Lou and Hillbilly Billy

My Ernie turned out pretty good if I do say so myself

 Here they are all lit up

Check out how creepy this guy turned out!

So, the day before Halloween, I made cupcakes for the night itself. We had a Call of Cthulhu RPG night planned and I wanted to make cupcakes that would go with it.

But what flavour do you make something so dark and mysterious?

I went with the only thing I could think of; Guinness. I mean, it does absorb the light around it...

Guinness Cupcakes

by My Baking Addiction

1 (12-ounce) bottle Guinness Stout
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sour cream
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa 
2 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

 Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a large mixing bowl, combine the Guinness, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Mix in the sour cream.

 In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoa, sugar, flour, and baking soda. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet Guinness mixture.

I love my mixer soooo much!

 Butter 24 muffin tins and divide the batter among the muffin tins

I used these awesome cupcake liners that I've had kicking around for a few years now and never had a good reason to use. I think they were perfect for this.

 Bake 25 minutes, until risen and set in the middle but still soft and tender. Cool before turning out of the tins.

I didn't really like the icing recipe that went with these, so I decided to make this instead.

Cream Cheese Icing
by Allrecipies

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese,
softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar.

I then tinted it red with more red food colouring than I'd like to admit.
I couldn't find my awesome piping tip so I had to ice them by hand, which leaves a lot to be desired. I then added slivered almond teeth and chocolate covered almond eyes and there you have it

THE EYE OF AZATHOTH!

Perfect for a night of Horror!

This was my costume for work. Yup, I was a business-casual Darth Vader.

I really just wanted to wear my Darth Vader dress. Can you blame me? It's pretty awesome.

We also attended a Halloween party with some friends on the weekend and were asked to bring snacks.

Instead of making something sweet, like I usually do, we decided to try something else instead.

Deep Fried Ravioli

by Chaneling Contessa

1 package store bought ravioli (about 24)

1 cup buttermilk

2 cups Italian style bread crumbs

1 tsp dried Oregano

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano

vegetable oil and olive oil for frying

fresh basil for garnish

Preheat the oil: Fill deep frying pan with two inches of oil- 3/4 vegetable oil, 1/4 olive oil. Preheat until a thermometer reads 325°. Or you can guesstimate like we did, but I don't recommend it.

While the oil heats and sauce cooks, prep the ravioli. Place the buttermilk in a shallow bowl. Place the bread crumbs, oregano, salt, and pepper in another bowl. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper for the ravioli. Dip first in the buttermilk, shaking when lifting out of the bowl, then dredge in the bread crumbs. Place on the baking sheet while you coat the remaining ravioli.

When the oil is hot, fry the ravioli in batches, turning until golden brown- about 3 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer the ravioli to paper towels to drain.

Sprinkle with extra cheese and shredded basil.

How amazing do these look?

Cheesy Marinara Sauce:

1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
1/2 onion, minced
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp red pepper flake
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup grated pecorino romano cheese

 In a medium sized saucepan, sautée the onion in olive oil over medium low heat for 8-10 minutes, until very soft. Stir in garlic and cook for about 1 minute, until fragrant. Add in the tomatoes, salt, and red pepper flake and cook over medium low heat, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.
Remove from the heat. Using an immersion blender, blend the sauce directly in the pot until mostly smooth. Fold in the  grated cheese.

You're going to want to try this recipe. It's fantastic! It was hard not to eat them all myself.
They didn't last very long at the party. Once people started trying them, they disappeared!

As for costumes, Adam and I went as Hipster Mario and Luigi

Yeah, we went there.

I love his moustache!

So hipster....

So how was your Halloween? Do/make anything special? Let me know.

English Muffins and Cupcakes - A Birthday Spectacular

Last Month was the Spectacular Jocey's birthday. She spent it at the cottage with her family, but as soon as she got back, we knew that we had to do something special.

So we had a sleepover. 

And let me tell you, it was awesome! We spent almost the entire time cooking and baking. gossiping and drinking! 

The first thing we did was make english muffins. We had spent quite a bit of time the week before going over recipes and trying to find one that sounded good. This one involved a griddle, and since Jocey has one, we decided to give it a shot.

1 cup milk

2 tbsp white sugar

1 pkg dry active yeast

1 cup warm water

1/4 cups melted shortning

6 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

Warm milk until it bubbles, remove from heat (185'). Mix in sugar until disolves. Let cool until luke warm.

In a small bowl dissolve yeast in warm water. (adding a pinch of sugar and flour really helps this along) Let stand for 10 mins.

In a large bowl combine milk, yeast, shortening and 3 cups of  flour. Beat until smooth.

Add salt and the rest of the flour or enough to make the dough soft. 

Kneed.

Place in a greased bowl and let it rise.

Punch down, then roll to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut out biscuits.

Sprinkle wax paper with cornmeal and set rounds on the paper to rise. Dust the tops with cornmeal.

Heat griddle. Cook 10 mins. on each side.

They didn't cook quite as well as we hoped, so we ended up leaving them on for much longer than 10 mins.

The texture inside was not nice and airy as we had hoped. The taste was amazing, but the texture was kind of weird.

While this was going on, we also made spaghetti sauce and really great raspberry martinis (I'll have to grab the recipe off of her and blog about them. They were so good)

The next day we continued on with our cooking and baking. We finished up the sauce and made lasagna (with 6 types of cheese!) made some kick-ass garlic bread, some strawberry frozen yogurt and of course, strawberry cupcakes.

I learned how to make Butter-cream Icing finally!

2 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

4 1/2 cups icing sugar

1 1/3 cups butter

Beat until smooth, add food colouring, decorate to your liking.

Don't they look delicious? They were!

We had a lovely dinner party that night and it all went off without a hitch!

Jocey's Dad's Montreal Bagels (aka The Best Bagels In The World!)

Mmmmm bagels....

Who doesn't love a good bagel first thing in the morning? I know I do. For years now, I've been buying bagels from the grocery store or if I'm treating myself, stopping by Tim Horton's or one of the other great bagel shops in Toronto.

Well no more! I will never look at another store bought bagel the same again.

Yes, this recipe is THAT good!

It all started a few months ago when I was spending time on the internet, looking up different recipes to try.

I came across a bagel recipe, but after reading through it, I wasn't too sure that I'd be able to pull it off. I thought about it every time I put a bagel in the toaster. 

I was over at my best friend Jocey's one night and mentioned it to her. Now as I've mentioned before, Jocey is like my very own personal Martha Stewart. Her eyes lit up and she told me about her Dad's bagel recipe.

So a week or so later, we decided to give it a shot.

1 1/2 cups of warm water

5 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp canola oil

1 tbsp malt drink powder (regular Ovaltine)

1 package dry active yeast (8 g)

1 egg, beaten

4 1/2 cups unbleached flour

1 tsp kosher salt

1/2 cup honey

Combine warm water, sugar, canola oil, yeast, beaten egg and malt until yeast disolves.

Stir in salt and 1 cup flour

 

gently add enough flour to make soft dough (3 cups)

kneed dough for 10-12 mins stirring in extra flour as needed

When dough is firm and smooth, cover and let sit for 10 mins

divide dough into 12 equal parts, roll each into 10 inch rope

curve into bagel (use water if needed)

Let rise for 30 mins.

preheat the oven to 425'
(Now here's the strange part)

fill large pot with 6 quarts of water and honey and bring to boil

boil 4 bagels at a time for 90 seconds (45 on each side)

roll in topping 

(we made Everything bagels)

poppy seeds, sesame seeds, dried onion, kosher salt

 (the kosher salt it bigger than regular salt and makes all the difference in taste)

 

bake for 16 mins (flip after 8)

 

The most difficult part of this recipe is waiting the 16 mins while they're in the oven.

They may not look like much, but they are the best bagels I have ever tasted in my entire life!

Since then I have made this recipe 4 more times and each time is just as amazing as the first!

I even tried to make Millennium Falcon bagels with my Star Wars sandwich cutters.

They turned out kinda funny looking in the end

Variations that I have tried so far:

Everything

Cinnamon Raisin

Bacon, Onion and Cheese

Oh yes, they were that good!

I highly suggest that you give this recipe a try.

You won't regret it