Mini Halloween Cheesecakes

Have you noticed that I really like Halloween? I love all things Halloween...and I especially love creating Halloween-themed goodies to share with my family and friends. These yummy little creations, though, didn't last long enough to be shared. Yes, they're that good. Yes, I admit to being selfish! I've polished off 4 of these goodies in the last 24 hours, Ben has had one and the other three are safely hidden for my consumption later this week! Ok...my mom has talked me into bringing her one tonight when I drop some other things off at her house.

Back to the goodies! I saw these Mini Halloween Cheesecakes from Lindsey of Gingerbread Bagels as part of the Top 9 on Food Buzz a few weeks ago...they caught my attention for a few reasons. First, they're Halloween-themed- Lindsey seems to love Halloween as much as I do. Second, they're cheesecake- and I don't have a whole lot of any experience making cheesecake. Third, they're super easy..the Halloween Oreos are perfect for the crust, and that eliminates the whole crust-phobia thing I have going on.

Mini Halloween Cheesecakes from Gingerbread Bagels, adapted from Martha Stewart


Printable Recipe


I halved the recipe, which gave me 8 mini cheesecakes. Original will make 16.

22 Halloween Oreos
(2) 8 oz packages of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Orange gel food coloring

Preheat oven to 275. Line 16 muffin tins with paper liners, and place an Oreo in the bottom of each liner. Crush remaining Oreos using a food processor if you have one, or place them in a ziploc bag and crush them the old fashioned way! In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese with electric mixer until smooth. Add sugar, and continue to mix until combined. Mix in vanilla extract then add eggs and sour cream, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl using a spatula, making sure everything is combined. Stir in a small amount of orange gel food coloring, adding a little at a time until the desired color is reached. Add the crushed oreos, and stir to combine.

Spoon batter into liners, filling almost to the top. Bake for 22 minutes, turning pan 180 degrees halfway through the baking time. Remove from oven, and cool completely on a wire rack. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight, before serving.

Enjoy,and let me know what you think. I can see myself making these often, Halloween or not!

Ghosts in the Graveyard

 

This project was an entry in the Nestle's Toll House Spooktacular Baking Activity Contest. The contest requirements were to create a baking activity that could be done as a family using Nestle's Toll House Refrigerated Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. I decided to do a graveyard, as I really wanted to try my hand at fondant- and ghosts seemed like an easy option!

I'm sad to say that my entry didn't move on to the top ten to be voted on by the public, but I'd still like to share it with you. I had a great time with this project, and was really pleased with the end result. I wasn't able to convince The Cooker Boy to help me with this project, but there are several elements he could have handled.

Printable Recipe

You will need:

1 Big Batch Roll of Nestle's Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

1 can chocolate icing (or make some Chocolate Buttercream, using this recipe)

20 Oreos, finely crushed

1 package white fondant

Candy Pumpkins

Royal icing

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tbsp meringue powder

2 tbsp water

Black Gel Food Coloring

Preheat the oven according to cookie dough package directions. Line a 13x9 baking sheet with foil.Set aside enough dough to make 3-4 cookies. Press remaining dough into a rectangle covering 3/4 of the baking sheet, and place cookies on bottom 1/4 of baking sheet. Bake 14-15 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool completely.

While cookies are cooling, make fondant ghosts. Knead fondant with hands until nice and pliable.Take a small piece of fondant and roll between hands to form an oval. Press on table to flatten the bottom. Repeat for desired number of ghosts, and set aside. Roll remaining fondant out to 1/16 in thickness. Cut out circles using cookie cutters or drinking glass, depending on size of ghost desired. The radius of the circle should be wider than the oval is tall. Take a circle and drape over each oval, draping to get a nice ghostly shape. Set aside to dry. When dry, use a toothpick dipped in black gel food coloring to apply faces. When not using fondant, keep wrapped in plastic wrap as it will dry out quickly.

When ready to assemble, prepare "tombstones" by using a knife to cut cookies into a tombstone shape. Prepare royal icing by mixing all ingredients except food coloring in a small bowl. Continue mixing until icing has lost its shine, and is at the desired consistency. Add more powdered sugar for thicker icing, more water to thin if needed. Add a small amount of food coloring, and stir until desired gray color is achieved.

Cover tops and sides of "tombstones"  with gray icing, and let dry. Spread a thick layer chocolate icing on big cookie, and top with crushed oreos. Reserve some of the crushed oreos to mound in front of tombstones. 

When tombstones are dry, use a toothpick dipped in black food coloring to write RIP or desired messages. Place tombstones in desired location on big cookie, and prop up with toothpicks if necessary. Mound crushed oreos in front of tombstones.

Place ghosts and pumpkins where desired. I even tried to make fondant bones. Sit back, relax, and enjoy your ghostly creativeness.

Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

Halloween Cutout Cookies!

It's almost Halloween! I love fall, but I especially love Halloween- even more so since I've become a mom. I've made Halloween treats for The Cooker Boy's Daycare since his first Halloween. Most of the mom's bring goodie bags with more candy..I take personalized cutout cookies for each of the kids. I love cutout cookies as much as I love Halloween, but I have to say that until this recipe, I've never found one that has been both user-friendly as well as tasty. I lucked out BIG TIME when I found this recipe. I found a blog post at The Way The Cookie Crumbles that took 4 different sugar cookie recipes, made them all at the same time and did a side by side comparison. That, my friends, is commitment! I read the comparisons, and decided to go with the recipe that was declared the blogger's favorite- which happened to be her own standby sugar cookie recipe. I have to say that this recipe is now also my standby sugar cookie recipe. It mixed well, rolled well, cut out well, baked evenly, and tasted great! I made one slight change in that I added an extra egg- when I was mixing the dough it didn't seem to want to bind together. It could be that my measurements were off, so I'll list the original recipe. 

This was also my first time using the outline-flood-detail method of decorating the cookies.  I've been a sloppy decorator in the past, but have always wanted to have neatly decorated cookies to share. I found a step-by-step tutorial on Brown Eyed Baker that made this process so easy! This was time consuming, but equally as enjoyable and rewarding. I took these cookies to work, and my coworkers loved them. Needless to say, I can't wait to make these cookies again for my son's Halloween Party at his Daycare..and maybe for work again if my coworkers are nice!

This is why I love Halloween...See that smile? 

Roll Out Sugar Cookies adapted from The Way The Cookie Crumbles

Printable Recipe

2 1/2 cups (12 oz) all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (7 oz) sugar

1/4 teaspoon lemon zest

Combine flour and baking powder in a medium bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, cream butter and salt with electric mixer on medium speed, mixing until smooth. Add sugar and lemon zest while mixer is running. Continue beating on medium speed until mixture is fluffy. Keep mixer running and add in egg and extracts mixing until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Decrease mixer speed to low, and add in flour slowly and mix until combined. 

Using the rubber spatula or your hands, form a ball with the dough. Place on a length of plastic wrap, and press dough into a 1 inch thick disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in refrigerator. Refrigerate at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.

When ready to roll out dough, preheat oven to 375, and prepare baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick spray. Remove dough from refrigerator,divide in half, and let one half sit at room temperature for 15-20 minutes before rolling out (place the other half back in the refrigerator until 20 minutes before you need it). Lightly flour your work surface, and place half of the dough on the counter. Cover with a piece of plastic wrap, and roll out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut with a floured cookie cutter, place similarly sized cookies on baking sheets, and bake for 5-9 minutes depending on size of cookies. Don't let the cookies brown on top- pull them out of the oven when the edges begin to brown, and the tops no longer look wet. Reroll the scraps of dough and repeat.

Let cookies rest on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring them to cooling racks. Cool completely before decorating.

Royal Icing from Brown Eyed Baker

4 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons meringue powder

6 tablespoons water

Simple, simple, simple. Dump ingredients into bowl, and mix with electric mixer until the icing loses its shine. About 7 minutes. It will be thick, but if you're doing the outline-flood-detail method, you need it thick to pipe the outlines.

I'm not about to try to recap the excellent tutorial at Brown Eyed Baker on decorating sugar cookies with royal icing. Do yourselves a favor and check it out. There are excellent directions as well as pictures. I'll just post the pictures of some of my finished cookies!

Oh, and The Cooker Boy decided that he needed to be the one to roll and cut the cookies out. I wasn't too keen on that idea. So, I did it while he was napping...and saved him some scraps. I let him roll out the scraps, cut out, and decorate his cookies. Problem solved! 

The Cooker Boy's Cookies

Enjoy, and let me know what you think!!