This week Donegal Daily’s cooking columnist, Chef Martin Anderson of Sonder, shares his favourite Halloween treats with us!
As promised I’m going to give you a few Halloween party food ideas, it’s not all about the nuts at this time of year, so make an ingredients list and get yourself organised.
First thing to remember is that Halloween party food should be quick and easy to eat, it should be fun and no knives or forks allowed.
Sticky, gooey & tasty – that’s the secret.
Toffee apples are a great favourite but personally I find that they are difficult to make and they are tough on the teeth especially if you have somebody young eating them.
So the best way to do them is to buy good quality milk or dairy chocolate and melt it gently in the microwave, select small eating apples and push a wooden lolly pop stick or wooden skewer through the apple, dip them into the chocolate and decorate with sprinkles, chopped nuts, m&ms or any edible cake decorations you can get. Line them up on a tray lined with baking parchment or even cling film and allow them to set, do these a day in advance but don’t put them in the fridge as they sweat.
You may also cut the apples in wedges removing the core and then dip them in the chocolate on cocktail sticks, just as tasty!
S’mores are another fantastic treat, in America they are made with crackers but you can use digestive biscuits.
Line a baking tray with digestive biscuits and place a large marshmallow on each biscuit heat gently under the grill until they begin to brown & melt, when melted remove from the grill and place another biscuit on top to make marshmallow sandwiches, squeeze them a little so they ooze out over the edge, eat them straight away, so tasty.
Date & peanut butter balls are another easy fun treat to make.
In a blender add 2 large tablespoons of crunchy peanut butter, add 20 stoned dates and blend well together – if it’s too thick you may add a little water but be careful not too much.
When blended scrape out the mix into a bowl and chill it for a half hour. When chilled divide the mix into small falls and roll them in the palm of your hand. Dip in melted chocolate and allow to set, these are so tasty and not to sweet either.
Toasted marshmallows are easy to make as well, make sure you use big marshmallows and skewer them on BBQ skewers, toast them on an open flame until the begin to brown. If you don’t have a fire a DIY blow torch will do the same job, be careful as they get really hot any you’ll burn your wee lips.
When it comes to savoury food the sky’s the limit for Halloween parties, make sure you have bite size pieces of finger foods again, I really I don’t think anyone actually makes finger foods these days, with every supermarket, deli or frozen food supplier selling these either fresh or frozen, it is impossible to recreate these such a cheap price at home and anyway who wants the bother of making food when you have all that dressing up to do!
Remember to have spicy and not so spicy food available and a few wee dips too, everyone loves to dip!
Finally at this time of year another fantastic treat is pecan pie, pecans are expensive but well worth the money, our friends at Cafe Banba make amazing pecan tray-bakes which we serve daily. Make this recipe a day in advance so that the pie is well set.
So that’s it have a great Halloween night, we will be in fancy dress tomorrow the 29th in Sonder just for fun, with donations going to charity and a prize for the best dressed adult & child.
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Pecan pie recipe
Firstly you will need to make the sugar pastry, this is the greatest sweet pastry recipe you will ever get, it was given to me by a French pasty chef in the 80’s and as given to him when he was a trainee chef in the 60’s! The old recipes are the best.
Make the pasty a day in advance to get the best results
Sugar pastry:
250g of softened butter/margarine.
180g of castor sugar
4 drops of vanilla essence.
2 large eggs.
500g of plain flour, sieved
½ tsp of fine salt
Method:
>Beat the sugar and butter together until smooth and creamy.
>Add the vanilla and mix in the eggs one at a time.
>Sieve the flour and salt and add to the mix, blend with your hand until you make dough.
>Turn out onto a floured table and knead lightly
>Refrigerate and use as required.
>Before using knead lightly, this will stop the pastry cracking.
Pecan pie:
You will need half your sugar pastry recipe.
For the filling:
3 eggs, beaten.
110g of brown sugar.
4 table spoons of golden syrup.
50g of melted butter.
200g of pecan nuts. Whole or chopped.
1 tsp of Vanilla essence.
Method:
>Pre-heat your oven to 170c
>Roll your pastry to ½ inch thickness and line your pie tin. Pricking the base of the pastry. (This stops the pastry from rising)
>In a bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, golden syrup, vanilla essence and melted butter, add your nuts and pour into your pastry.
>Bake until the pastry begins to colour and turn down and cook until set, remove from the oven and allow to cool.
>Serve hot or cold with ice-cream or why not try some crème fraiche for a tangy taste!
