Bats & Webs Potato Snacks

Did you ever notice how the people with money seem to be the people who never spend it? I'm guessing that's probably why they have money. My dad has a few pennies in his pocket, but even so, makes it his habit to shop at Aldi. Now, he isn't really a cook, but manages to eat quite well by shopping there. A couple of months ago after we had lunch out together, because he needed a few things, I suggested that we go to Aldi. After our walk-thru we met at the checkout, him with a few items in his hands, me with my cart full to bursting. What a place! I could not believe all of the goodies that they had. Wonderful, quality items, beautiful produce, and what prices! Now I'm a diehard fan.

While it may seem like it, let me assure you that this is not a sponsored post, I just love Aldi.  Today I'm popping in to tell you about the cutest, crunchiest potato snacks that are perfect for Halloween. Look at these! Fluffy and light and shaped like bats and spider webs, and check out the detail! I served these to my son the other day with barbecued beef sandwiches and ended up sending him home with the rest of the bag.

If you're looking for some last minute snacks to fill some Halloween goodie bags, or to serve for your party, swing by Aldi and grab a bag of these. They're in the Halloween candy section. Hurry!

Have a great weekend everybody.

Dracula's Dentures

It's October, my most favorite month of the year! I love it not just because it's such a welcome respite from a scorching summer, not just because it is one of the most beautiful, colorful months of the year, and not because it's my birthday month, though each of these do stand alone as excellent reasons. No, I love it because of the delightfully fun Halloween treats waiting to be baked.  Turning the colors and harvest of fall into delicious baked goods is such a comforting way to greet the season.  It’s also great fun to whip up something scary.

I will be the first to admit that I’m all thumbs when it comes to the tediously artistic task of decorating cookies, but when my son found these clever cookies on the web I knew that even I could do them.  Here, it is more about assemblage than decorating. The award-winning creation of Lori Fillmore, who took one of the top prizes in the Toll House Spooktacular Baking Activity Contest, these are both easy and fun to put together.  You can find the official recipe on the Nestle website here but I've reproduced it below for the sake of convenience.

 Dracula's Dentures

Ingredients:
1 package (18.25 ounces) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough
1/2 cup prepared vanilla frosting, tinted red
1 3/4 cups miniature marshmallows
48 slivered almonds

Instructions:
Prepare cookies as directed on package or according to your favorite recipe. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire rack to cool completely. Cut each cookie in half for a total of 48 halves.

Frost the bottoms of all cookie halves with frosting. Place 6 marshmallow teeth around curved perimeter of 24 halves. For additional support, an additional marshmallow can be placed behind the teeth. Top with remaining 24 halves.  Insert two almond slivers in between teeth for fangs. If fangs do not adhere, dip tips into frosting.

This post is linked to:

Seasonal Sunday

On the Menu Monday

Foodie Friday

Sweets for a Saturday

Baked Cinnamon Sugar Donuts

I have been enormously intrigued by the glut of donut recipes, cookbooks, and other accoutrements that have appeared on the market of late.  All of these new products take me back to my youth when, on the occasional Saturday morning, my mother would make us homemade donuts.  They were a lot of work as I recall.  First she had to make the dough, then painstakingly cut out the donuts and holes, heat up the deep fryer, fry them to a golden brown, and then drain them on stacks of paper towels, all while my nose was as close to the operation as I dared.  But boy, were they good.  Still, all of that just seems like too much work when a Krispy Kreme is a mere two miles away.  So when my cousin offered to loan me her donut pan (thanks, Kel!) I jumped at the chance.  This morning I took it for a spin.  I am sold!  In less than an hour I had a dozen hot, fresh, delicious donuts stacked on a plate.  No cutting, thanks to this clever pan, and no deep frying!  I didn't have a recipe for donuts, so flipped through my files and adapted a cakey muffin recipe.  I can't tell you how delicious these were.  When my husband got home from breakfast with his cronies he asked where I'd gotten the donuts.  He couldn't believe that I'd made them while he was gone.  Yep!

Baked Cinnamon Sugar Donuts

 1/3 cup Crisco shortening (not butter flavored)

½ cup sugar

1 extra large egg

1-1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

½ cup whole milk (do not use 2%)

½ cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

6 tablespoons butter, melted

Cream shortening, sugar, and egg together in an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until light and fluffy.  Sift together dry ingredients.  Add dry ingredients alternately with milk to the shortening mixture.  Fill greased donut pan wells half full and bake at 350°F for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown.  (I used a teaspoon to fill the wells, spreading it evenly all of the way around, because I'd run out of pastry bags, but this dough is thick enough to pipe beautifully, so that would be my suggestion.)


While donuts are baking, stir together remaining ½ cup sugar with the cinnamon, to blend.  Melt butter in a wide, microwave-safe bowl.  Remove donuts from pan to wire rack, then immediately dip them one-by-one, first into the melted butter, then into the cinnamon and sugar mixture, coating well.  Place back on the wire rack to cool thoroughly.

This post is linked to:

Whole Lemon Muffins

As I mentioned at the end of last year in this post, one of my plans for the New Year was to learn cuisines with which I was unfamiliar, so I started by requesting a lot (LOT!) of books from the library.  Many I have loved, and many have been hugely disappointing.  One series of books that I have quite enjoyed is by the Texas Pastry Queen.  Don't the covers alone make you salivate?  Wait until you look inside!

Today's recipe comes from her Entertaining book.  Now I know what you're thinking, a muffin is not exotic, and that's true, but this one is quite unique in that it contains a whole lemon: the peel, the pith, the fruit.  It makes for a muffin unlike any other I've ever had, with a dense, rich texture, a touch of sweetness, and a very complex taste.  Redolent of lemon, not tart, but with perhaps a tiny touch of the bitterness one might expect from the peel and pith of a lemon.

I am not one for leaving well enough alone, as you know, so thought these benefited greatly in both taste and appearance with a little lemon juice and confectioner's sugar drizzle, and then a light dusting with even more confectioners' sugar.  These are not overly sweet muffins, so these two small additions complemented rather than overwhelmed.

Be sure to check out my GIVEAWAY here. The premier issue of WHERE WOMEN COOK can be yours.

Making Whoopie(s)!

It's been a little over a year since we were in Maine, but when we were in the planning stage of our trip, I noted the location of Wicked Whoopies. I wasn't about to go to the State known for its Whoopie Pies and not get one of the best.  I was not disappointed!  They were as delicious as they were immense, and since that day I've been telling myself that, one day, I'm going to make them myself.

As it turned out, today was the day.  I decided to go with something "Martha," and tried her recipe for Mini Pumpkin Whoopie Pies, that can be found here.  I figured it would serve two purposes: 1) to satisfy my seasonal urge for pumpkin, and 2) to satisfy my curiosity about making Whoopies.  It succeeded on both counts.

These do not spread so can be piped close together.

This is an easy recipe to make.  It mixes up fast and, if you pipe the batter onto the cookie sheet using a pastry bag you'll have them ready for the oven in no time.  I did the same with the filling and had a stack of them piled up on the plate ready for tasting with a minimum of effort.  I use the disposable pastry bags that I get by the box at Michael's; it makes clean-up a breeze!

Pipe an ample amount of filling onto each half.

The recipe claims it makes 20, but following it closely I still came out with around 40.  Not that I'm complaining, mind you, but it was more than I expected.  Both cookie and filling are light, so you're not going to be bogged down when eating more than one of these.  The filling has a delicate pumpkin taste that, when I make them again, I'm going to alter a bit by using more than just a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg, and adding pinch of allspice.

The book Martha Stewart's COOKIES -- one I highly recommend -- has another recipe for Whoopie Pies with a peanut butter filling.  I think I'll try that the next time and then after that I'll try them with a vanilla cream filling, and then...

Is it time for a cookie?

I thought it just might be. After all, you've been so patient reading through recipes for savory things that I thought a cookie just might be in order, and these are particularly good. While in appearance they look like just ordinary chocolate chip cookies, they are so much more than that. Imagine a chocolate chip cookie, kicked up with the added addition of honey-roasted peanuts and peanut butter cups. Did I mention peanut butter?  It's in there too.  Oh yeah, now that’s a cookie!

Awesome Blowouts

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened (unsalted or regular)

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

1/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate pieces

3/4 cup honey roasted peanuts

3/4 cup coarsely chopped bite-size chocolate-covered peanut butter cups (about 15)

Heat oven to 350°F.

Using an electric mixer, beat together butter and peanut butter. Add sugars, baking soda and salt. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg, milk and vanilla extract. Beat in as much flour as you can with the mixer, then stir in remaining flour by hand. Stir in chocolate pieces, peanuts and peanut butter cups. Drop by generously rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets, placing cookie dough about 2 inches apart.

Bake 10 minutes at 350 degrees F or until lightly browned. Cool on wire rack. Yield: about 2 1/2 dozen

NOTE: Wrapped peanut butter cups may be frozen for an hour, then unwrapped and chopped.

This recipe is just one of about 45 others that currently make up the new mini mystery cookbook that I recently created called Murderously Good Morsels. Others include: Badass BLT Dip, Dark & Stormy, Dracula's Favorite Tomato Bisque, C.S.Ice Cream Pie, and many more.  It’s a fun little cookbook of tried-and-true recipes with a mystery slant.