To prove I haven’t totally lost it, I made something a little more normal for Halloween this year as well as the crazy brain piñata cake with oozing bloody maggots. I just can’t let the holiday pass without doing something orange.
Why is it that Halloween and the colour orange are so synonymous? Yet another question I pondered as I walked past my orange bucket filled with lollies to hand out to the adorable trick-or-treaters tomorrow night.
This year I will remember to be watered, fed and have been to the bathroom before they start arriving. Last year we had such an onslaught when Will got home I had to throw the bucket at him and race to the bathroom because I’d been handing out lollies for nearly 2 hours straight (and I was preggas).
These little bites of deliciousness combine two of my favourite things – chocolate and cinnamon along with a tip of the hat to good old pumpkins in the form of pumpkin pie spice. I make up a little jar of it every now and then and add it to all sorts of things – not just pumpkin pie.
On Sunday, Ollie had pumpkin pie porridge for breakfast and I added a bit to my choc-banana afternoon smoothie earlier in the week.
These smelled amazing as they were baking. It was a bit of a made up recipe so I wasn’t sure how they’d turn out taste-wise or appearance-wise but both got a big tick from me. They’re a fun little biscuit and you could use the recipe as a base for any holiday, tinting the orange any colour you like or just leaving it plain vanilla.
You can also make the dough log ahead of time and freeze it. I made it then realised my spiders for the photo hadn’t arrived so popped it in the freezer. The spiders never arrived sadly so I had to find a substitute which I have to say I probably like better. Who knew there was Halloween tinsel? Enjoy!
What about you? Are you celebrating Halloween? Will you be accepting trick-or-treaters?
- 85 g/3ozs butter, softened
- 140g/5ozs coconut sugar (or caster sugar)
- 1 free-range egg
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 180g wholemeal flour (or plain (AP) flour)
- Red and yellow food colouring
- 1 tbsp cocoa
- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- Beat the butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer until smooth and creamy.
- Add the egg and vanilla and mix until incorporated.
- Add the flour and mix until the dough comes together.
- Remove half the dough from the bowl.
- To the remaining dough, add a little yellow and red food colouring and mix until the dough turns orange.
- Remove the dough from the bowl, shape into a ball then flatten to a rectangle and wrap in plastic wrap.
- Return the rest of the dough to the bowl and add the cocoa and pumpkin pie spice.
- Mix until it is incorporated.
- Form the chocolate dough into a rectangle as well and wrap it in plastic wrap then refrigerate the two doughs for at least 30 minutes.
- Take the doughs out of the fridge.
- Dust the bench with flour and roll the doughs out to rectangles measuring approximately 35x28cm (14x11").
- Very carefully, lift the orange dough and place it on top of the chocolate dough. Using the rolling pin, roll them out a little to stick them together.
- Starting from the long side, roll the doughs together as tightly as possible into a log and then roll it along the bench to stick the layers together.
- Wrap the log in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour (the dough can also be frozen at this stage for up to three months).
- Pre-heat the oven to 180C (390F) fan-forced and line a baking tray with baking paper.
- Take the dough out of the fridge and trim the ends.
- Using a serrated knife, cut the dough into 1cm (0.5") pieces and place them on the baking tray leaving just a little space between them as they won't spread much.
- Bake for 10 minutes or until set.
- Leave to rest on the tray for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.