Friday, October 17, 2014

Another CreatureFeature Guide To Hallowe'en On Roku - Day #17 - FIENDISH FOOD FRIDAY (Third Course)





Welcome back, Boils & Ghouls...


... to 'Day Seventeen' of "Another CreatureFeature Guide To Hallowe'en On Roku"  and to the third instalment of "Fiendish Food Friday" in which I aim to recommend some "scary starters", "macabre mains" and "devilish desserts" plus an assortment of (ahem) "finger food", to make it easier for you to cater to the ghoulish guests at your spooky soirée this Hallowe'en season !!


So, if you're planning to host your own ghastly gathering on October 31st, you should make a point of visiting this blog EVERY FRIDAY between now and Hallowe'en for more inspirational ideas on how to conjure-up some tasteless treats (sic) to fuel the zombie horde at your Hallowe'en celebration !!


Like I said before... the great thing about entertaining at Hallowe'en is that you can really let your imagination run riot and things can still be really simple, as well as creative, and it's pretty easy to come up with a creepy creation that will feed your ghoulish guests without too much trouble! That said, even if you do happen to get a bit stuck for ideas, you'll still be able to find plenty of inspiration among the seventy or so channels which populate the "Food" category of the "Official" Roku UK Channel Store. Now, as well as offering a bit of variety, I do like to maintain a certain level of consistency between my blog posts. So, having talked about one kind of "Squishy Monster" (i.e. 'The Kraken' black spiced rum) yesterday, I've decided to share a Hallowe'en video recipe from 'The Squishy Monster' Roku channel for "How to Make Candy Corn Cookies"... the details for which are outlined below:-







THE SQUISHY MONSTER.............................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]



If you haven't already added it to your own channel selection, you'll find "The Squishy Monster" listed among the "Food" channels in the "Official" Roku UK Channel Store and it can easily be added to your Roku player(s) by navigating to the built-in 'Channel Store' from the home screen and scrolling through the options until you see the (above) channel icon. It's completely FREE-TO-ADD as well as being FREE-TO-VIEW so, once you've located it in the list of channels, just click the "OK" button on your Roku remote to select it and then click "OK" again where it says 'Add channel' to install it on your Roku player(s). Having done that, it's simply a case of launching the channel via the 'Go to channel' option and navigating the on-screen menu to access the "Home: Halloween" section. TIP: Just three or four short presses of the directional arrow marked "DOWN" (on your Roku remote) should be enough to reveal the sub-menu for the "Home: Halloween" section at the bottom of your television screen. From there, it's a simple case of using the "LEFT" and/or "RIGHT" directional arrows on your Roku remote to scroll through the video recipes until you see a thumbnail image of some triangular-shaped, tri-coloured (yellow, orange & white) candy corn cookies. Again, use your Roku remote to select the video recipe, which (in this case) is entitled "How to Make Candy Corn Cookies", then click "OK"to play the video [RUN TIME: 5m 10s] and watch the recipe to see how they are made.


A QUICK TIP: When watching "How to Make Candy Corn Cookies", it's worth keeping the Roku remote handy to pause and rewind, if necessary, as well as a pen and paper to make your own notes about the procedure as you go along. Having said that, there's no need to worry about writing down the ingredients, method, etc. as I've already taken care of that side of things for you...


INGREDIENTS:-

1/2 CUP (8 tbs) of Unsalted Butter (Softened)
1/2 CUP (8 tbs) of Sugar
1 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
1 Egg
1 1/2 CUPS (24 tbs) of Unbleached Flour
1 Teaspoon of Baking Powder
1/4 Teaspoon of Fine Salt
8 DROPS of Yellow Food Colour (Divided Into Two Lots of 4 Drops)
1 DROP of Red Food Colour


PREPARATION:-

1. Get two medium sized bowls for mixing the ingredients
2. Line a small loaf pan with clingfilm and set aside


METHOD:-

1. In a medium-sized bowl, prepare a "DRY MIX" by sifting together the flour, baking powder & salt then set this bowl to one side, while you;
2. Prepare a "WET MIX", in a separate bowl, by creaming together the butter and sugar for about five minutes before stirring in the vanilla extract and the egg.

Once you've combined the ingredients, using two separate bowls (at first) to create a "wet" mix in one and a "dry" mix in the other, you'll need to incorporate the "wet" and "dry" mixes together before dividing the resulting dough into THREE EQUAL PORTIONS and then colouring them according to the instructions below:-

1st PORTION - Add 4 DROPS of YELLOW food colouring to the middle of the dough and fold repeatedly, kneading the dough as you go, until you end up with a ball of YELLOW dough which you must then flatten into a disk shape so that it's ready to be layered into the loaf pan with the clingfilm.

2nd PORTION - Add the remaining 4 DROPS of YELLOW food colouring PLUS 1 DROP of RED food colouring to the middle of the second portion of dough and (as before) fold repeatedly, kneading the dough as you go, until you end up with a ball of ORANGE dough which you must again flatten into a disk shape so that it's ready to be layered into the loaf pan with the first portion.

3rd PORTION - Leave this one PLAIN, to create the WHITE part of the "Candy Corn", and (once more) flatten it into a disk shape so it's ready to be layered into the loaf pan with the other two portions.


When it comes to layering the different coloured dough portions in the loaf pan you should press them in well, so they cover the entire base of the loaf pan, and be sure to add them in the following order:-

1st LAYER (i.e. Bottom of Loaf Pan) = PLAIN DOUGH (i.e. The WHITE Disk)

2nd LAYER (i.e. Middle of Loaf Pan) = ORANGE DOUGH (i.e. The ORANGE Disk)

3rd LAYER (i.e. Top of Loaf Pan) = YELLOW DOUGH (i.e. The YELLOW Disk)


Once the "layering" of the tri-coloured dough is complete, you need to CHILL the loaf pan, along with it's contents FOR AT LEAST ONE HOUR but, if possible, leaving it OVERNIGHT IS BETTER and makes the dough easier to work with.


N.B. If you are taking the quick "one hour" approach to chilling your dough, then now is the time to think about preheating your oven to 350 degrees Farenheit (180 degrees Celsius). Should you prefer the (recommended) overnight method, then you'll need to remember to preheat the oven to 350 degrees Farenheit (180 degrees Celsius) ahead of taking the dough out of the fridge & cutting it into shape.


Anyway, whichever method you choose, having taken it out of the fridge you should get the dough out of the loaf pan (using the ends of the clingfilm to lift it out) and slice it into strips, along the longest length of the dough, prior to cutting each strip into smaller triangles (like mini pizza slices) to create the "Candy Corn" shape for each of the cookies. After that, you just need to bake 'em in the oven !!


BAKING TIME = !!!!!! ONLY 5 MINUTES at 350 degrees Farenheit (180 degrees Celsius) !!!!!!!


SERVING SUGGESTION:-

These "Candy Corn" cookies are best when served with a nice hot cup of tea or coffee. However, no matter which way you decide to serve your "Candy Corn" cookies for Hallowe'en, this feast of vibrant colours is sure to be a visual (as well as tasty) treat for your ghoulish guests on October 31st !!


There are several other Hallowe'en recipes on Caitlin's channel, such as "Halloween Black Velvet Cake with Chocolate Webs", "Puffy Pumpkin Cookies" and "The Walking Dead Chocolate Brains", as well as "Halloween Oreo Mummy Pops"and "Apple Cider Doughnuts" PLUS an instructional video on "How To Make A Pumpkin Dip", all of which can be found within the sub-menu for the "Home: Halloween" section on the 'Home' screen of  'The Squishy Monster' Roku channel. If you like what you've seen of  'The Squishy Monster' and would like to pass on your thoughts to Angie (the host) you can do so easily via her Twitter Feed: @aSquishyMonster. Alternatively, if you'd prefer to get social with 'The Squishy Monster' by other means, then your best bet would be to visit their "Official" Facebook Page: The Squishy Monster (Facebook) which is frequently updated with new recipe ideas. In the meantime, should you find yourself "out & about" and (therefore) unable to access your Roku, when in need of a video recipe by 'The Squishy Monster' there is always their "Official" YouTube Channel: The Squishy Monster (YouTube Channel) for quick & easy access to all the visuals. Last... but  by no means least, one additional point of reference for true fans of 'The Squishy Monster' must be the "Official" website which, if you haven't guessed already, can be found at: TheSquishyMonster.com


Finally, to round-off this third instalment of "Fiendish Food Friday" on 'Day Seventeen' of the annual 'Countdown To Halloween', I thought I'd best remind you (once again) of how NOT to approach your pumpkin carving, thanks to this short clip by that very well-known "celebrity chef" from Sweden...





REMEMBER: DON'T BE A 'MUPPET'... chainsaws are for texan-style massacres at the movies, so be sure to carve your pumpkin(s) carefully using something better suited to a task such as this !!


Anyway, that's all for today... just remember to come back in 24-hours for 'Day Eighteen' and more Hallowe'en-themed content, courtesy of "Another CreatureFeature Guide To Hallowe'en On Roku", when I will reveal your next helping of horror for "Silver Scream Saturday", and (again) this time next week for another "Fiendish Food Friday" as we continue our "Countdown To Hallowe'en" 2014...



Fangs (as always) for reading !!



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