Playful yummy bakes for modern home bakers
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Halloween splatter cookies. Trick or treat definitely comes to mind here. Splatter is the optimal word for these little terrors…the process rather than the product is the true demon here. To look at them you’d think, wow, Halloween chic; Jackson Pollock meets baking, fab but the decorating can be a bit of a, hmm, witch.
This was my first experience as splatter artist, so my lesson, cover everything and you’ll be fine. The colouring does come out, promise, but man do those bad boys’ travel.
Honestly, so many conflicting thoughts came into my head when I was decorating them. As each colourful splinter launched off my spoon, I kept thinking, what am I doing and what am I encouraging others to do (??!!) all the while with a mischievous grin plastered all over my face. So much fun, naughty, naughty fun. Frankenstein bringing life to his monster, that’s all I’m saying.
Using the tried and tested Halloween trifecta, purple, green and orange, I went to town. Royal icing was my base, making all the colours pop and the deeply dark chocolatey cookie underneath acts as a reminder that we are indeed in the spooky season.
A bake to get those creative juices flowing, as long as you prep first. Have a go!
270g plain flour
55g cocoa powder
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ tsp instant coffee granules
70g caster sugar
30g light brown sugar
225g butter (cold)
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
Mixture of food colours for decoration (purple, orange and green)
Royal icing (see recipe BBC good food)
Makes approx. 12-14 cookies
To make the royal icing follow the directions in the link above. Royal icing will last in an airtight container for months, so it’s worth making the whole batch and storing what you don’t use.
Sieve the cocoa powder, flour, salt and cinnamon together.
Cut the fridge cold butter into chunks and add to the dry ingredients.
In a large bowl, rub the flour mixture and butter together with the tips of your fingers and thumb until no large chunks of butter remain and the mix resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
Add in the coffee granules, sugar and vanilla. Mix to combine.
Add the milk and gently bring the mix together into a large ball.
Cover and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
Pre-heat the oven, 160°C.
Take a piece of the dough (about 40-50g) and roll into a ball. Put them onto a lined baking tray.
Coating the bottom of a glass in cocoa powder, press down onto the ball, making round disks. Mark the cookie a few times with a fork to prevent the cookie from rising too much in the oven and then bake for about 25-30 minutes. Turn the tray half way through to evenly cook the biscuits.
Once cooked, transfer the cookies onto a wire rack to cool.
Using the back of a spoon, use a heaped teaspoon’s worth of icing and smooth out over the top of the cookie.
Cover a few of the cookies and then before the royal icing sets too much, splatter on the food colouring.
Cover the kitchen surfaces before you start to splatter!
Decorate a few cookies at a time.
Add a separate food colouring to each bowl.
Using a teaspoon, put a small amount of colour onto the spoon. Standing pretty close over the cookie, flick the spoon to create the pattern. Change up your angles to cover each cookie.
Less is more with the splatter effect, so go easy.
Don’t put too much colour on your spoon each time, the colour can run a bit when left to sit.
Use separate spoons for each colour otherwise you’ll end with a brown or grey dull looking colour base.
Get someone else to do the washing up 😊
Looking for other Halloween baking ideas? Try my Halloween cupcakes – matcha mash or my Monster cookie cups – a Halloween must have or even my Devilishly dark chocolate liquorice truffles – perfect for Halloween
Looking for Halloween drink ideas to go with all this food? BBC Good Food has some great suggestions.
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Dark chocolate liquorice truffles. This chic yet demonly dark and indulgent treat is perfect as part of a Halloween table. One for the adults perhaps but why should we miss out on all the fun? Liquorice powder, alongside vanilla and coffee, work to bring out …
I may be late to the no churn party but now I’m here I’m not going anywhere; flicking the lights on and off, walk of shame, into it.
I do have an ice cream maker but rarely use it. Not that its complicated its just the forward planning that goes into it – making and chilling the ice cream mixture in advance as well as the bowl. The psychological can often be the biggest barrier sometimes. No churn ice cream in comparison feels far easier and friendlier somehow. As long as you have the right ingredients you can whip it up any time you fancy, which is the point of comfort food after all.
I’ve tried out a few recipes recently and after some trial and error I think I’m learning some of the do’s and don’ts to ensure you get a velvety smooth texture, a good set and super flavours to match. Here’s one of my favourites so far.
This is such a treat. Rich peanut butter ice cream layered with intensely dark chocolate shavings and a smidge of Irish cream liqueur, to help everything along nicely. This will make enough to fill a one litre tub and should last 2-3 months in the freezer.
300ml double cream
½ tin condensed milk (just under 200g of the 397g tin)
90g finely chopped dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids or higher if you prefer)
30g chopped salted peanuts (for topping)
2 tbsp chunky peanut butter
4 tbsp smooth peanut butter
Pinch salt
2 tbsp of your favourite Irish cream liqueur
½ tsp cinnamon
Chop the chocolate and peanuts separately and leave to one side.
Pour all of the ingredients into a mixer and whip until it is soft but thick and does not move when you lift up the whisk attachment. This will take between 3-5minutes.
Place a layer of chocolate shavings in the bottom of the airtight container.
Layer in the ice cream mixture, alternating with 2 layers of chocolate as you go. Once all of the ice cream mixture has been added, add a final layer of chocolate and the peanuts.
Put the lid on the container and freeze for at least 6 hours or preferably overnight before digging in.
Adding alcohol is a great way to make sure you get a soft set texture, as it freezes at a much lower temperature than the rest of the ingredients. It can be left out; it just won’t be as soft so you might need to wait a bit before scooping.
Jams, curds, spreads and sauces are excellent ingredients to use in no churn ice cream. They help give maximum flavour without adding too much extra liquid. Initially I tried pureeing fruit and adding that but found that it just water logged the cream and when frozen, although very tasty, had quite a few ice crystals, which you don’t want.
Concentrated milk and caramel are fab ingredients to use as a base for ice cream in addition to your flavourings.
Chocolate is not a social creature. By that I mean, I tried a few times to make chocolate ice cream and after quite a few curdled attempts, I learnt that it just doesn’t like to be whipped into the cream like other ingredients. To get round this, like in the peanut butter ice cream, I decided to incorporate chopped chocolate instead which works very well. Cocoa powder, hazelnut spread, and other chocolate sauces work well too. Where there is greed there is always a solution.
Love peanut butter? Try my PB&J thumbprint cookies or my Vegan chocolate peanut butter scones. Looking for other indulgent chocolate recipes try my Double Chocolate Baked Doughnuts
Looking for some ice cream inspiration? Olive Magazine has some simple ice cream toppings recommendations that I think you’ll love.
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