Sunday, October 28, 2012

Countdown to Halloween - Candy Corn Theme

Today's theme - "Candy Corn" - marks the 11th day of the 13-day Countdown to Halloween. Here are the things that we did:

Candy Corn Pizza

This recipe came from Oprah. It's not made with candy corn...rather, it is pizza made with two different kinds of cheese - mozzarella and cheddar.

The recipe said, "When you cut the pizza into triangles, the melted orange and white cheeses produce slices that look like big pieces of candy corn."

You can use either a pre-baked pizza crust (such as Boboli), the ready-made pizza dough that is usually found in the refrigerator section of the grocery store, or homemade dough (the last option is what we did, using a recipe for pizza dough from the Betty Crocker Cookbook).

Ingredients:

• 1 large pizza crust, 1 pound pizza dough, or 1 batch of homemade dough
• 1 cup pizza sauce
• 8 ounces (2 cups) shredded mozzarella
• 4 ounces (1 cup) shredded orange cheddar cheese
• Pepperoni

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450°. Put the pizza crust (or spread the pizza dough into a round) on a baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal. (Note: we just sprayed the baking sheet with cooking spray.) Smooth the sauce over the crust.

Next, put a ring of pepperoni around the outer edge of the pizza. Then, scatter the mozzarella in a thick circle in the very center of the pizza. Scatter the cheddar around the remaining space, leaving a visible rim of sauce, pepperoni, and crust. (Keep the two cheeses as separate as possible so they melt into distinct rings of color for the best effect.)

Pizza ready to bake in the oven.

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes if using a pre-baked crust, or 20 minutes if using pizza dough. Cut into candy-corn triangles (which will show a white mozzarella tip, then an orange cheese middle and a line of red sauce and white crust), and serve immediately.

Baked Candy Corn Pizza.
The two colors of cheese look the same once they're baked.
The pre-baked version had more distinct colors.

As a side note, when we made the Candy Corn Pizza it only looked this way prior to baking. Once the pizza was baked, both the cheeses looked the same color.

Sweet and Salty Halloween Treats

This pin for Sweet and Salty Halloween Treats is linked to Cake Info. It is a very easy recipe to make, and was a dessert that we all enjoyed. We made two different versions - one with the candy corn on top and one without the candy corn. Olivia preferred the latter treat while Sophia and I preferred the former version.

Ingredients:

Mini Pretzels (we used the pretzels that are shaped like squares)
Hershey Kisses Hugs
Candy Corn

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or foil. Place pretzels on cookie sheet, not touching. Unwrap Hershey's Kisses and place on top of pretzels.

Olivia putting the Hershey Kisses Hugs
on each pretzel.

Place filled cookie sheet in oven. Bake for 3-5 minutes but no longer. You will know they are ready when the Hershey Kisses start to get shiny.

Take out of the oven and gently place candy corn on top of Hershey Kisses, pushing down very gently.

Candy corn that were just pressed down
into the melted candy. 
Don't press too hard...or the melted candy 
oozes over the edge of the pretzel.

Cool and then transfer to serving platter or wrap up as gifts.

Completed Sweet and Salty Halloween Treats.

Candy Corn Jello

This pin is linked to The Butterfly Jungle which had a nice picture of a larger serving of Candy Corn Jello. We chose to make individual servings of this dessert, so the layers are not as big as they are in the original pin.

Individual serving of Candy Corn Jello.

The bottom yellow layer of the dessert is lemon jello with pineapple. The jello needed to set for 1 1/2 hours before the canned pineapple could be added. At this point, we transferred the jello and fruit to separate serving dishes.

Once the jello is completely set, put a layer of mandarin oranges on top. Then add a layer of whipped cream on top of that.

Candy Corn Jello.

Other ideas for the yellow layer are: pineapple only or lemon pudding.

Halloween Snack Mix

Munchkin Munchies had an simple ideas for a Halloween snack mix. This pin is linked to the original recipe.

Using the recipe as a starting point, I ended up measuring each ingredient versus dumping in the entire box or container. If I had used entire boxes of food, the amount of snack mix would have far exceeded what we could have consumed.

Halloween Snack Mix

In a large bowl, mix the following ingredients:
- 2 cups 4-Cheese Cheez-Its
- 2 cups salted peanuts
- 2 cups pretzel sticks
- 10 ounces of Reese's candy bits
- 12 ounces of caramel corn
- 2 cups chocolate-whole wheate Cheerios (some are a lighter color and others are a darker color)
- 2 cups candy corn

The original recipe also calls for Cocoa Puffs and candy pumpkins.

Service Project 

We filled two containers with the snack mix and brought it to my mom/the girl's grandma.

Olivia in a sheep costume and 
Sophia as a witch.
They are with their grandma. 

They also brought their costumes and dressed up to show her what they will look like on Halloween when they go trick or treating.

2 comments:

What Remains Now said...

Every single thing you all made looks so delicious. Now I'm hungry for jello! I know their grandma had to be delighted to see the girls' Halloween costumes. They look great. I'm hope we don't have rain on Halloween. I always feel bad for the kids when they have to wear a coat over their costumes.

Rita said...

A lot of interesting recipes, that's for sure. I hope it's not so cold that they have to wear winter coats on Halloween and cover those cute costumes! :)