Friday, October 9, 2015

Alucard's Bat-tastic Guide To Hallowe'en On Roku..... - Day #09 - FIENDISH FOOD FRIDAY (Second Course)






Welcome back, Boils & Ghouls...



... to 'Day Nine' of "Alucard's Bat-tastic Guide To Hallowe'en On Roku" and to the second instalment of "Fiendish Food Friday" - a series of posts in which I aim to recommend some "scary starters", "macabre mains" and "devilish desserts" plus an assortment of (ahem) "finger food" - making 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've 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 one hundred plus channels which populate the "Food" category of the "Official" Roku UK Channel Store. This time around, 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 got it in your channel selection, you can easily add it to your Roku player(s) using the recently introduced 'Roku Search' feature. Just start typing "Squishy Monster" into the text entry box within 'Roku Search' and it will soon appear in the results column on the right. In fact, you will (most likely) only have to enter the letters "s" & "q" before it pops up! For those who prefer to look it up the old-fashioned way, you'll find "The Squishy Monster" listed among the "Food" channels in the "Official" Roku UK Channel Store - itself, found by navigating to 'Streaming Channels' from the home screen and scrolling through the options - then click "OK" to access the list of "Food" channels and scroll up (or down) until you see the channel icon (as per image above). The good news is... that 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 a case of launching the channel via the 'Go to channel' option and navigating the on-screen menu to access the search function. This is found by pressing the 'Options' button on your Roku remote, identified by an "*" (i.e. asterisk, or star symbol) and choosing 'Search' from the 'Options' sub-menu which appears. From there, just type the search term "Candy Corn" into the text entry box using your Roku remote in conjunction with the on-screen keyboard and then select 'Search' at the bottom of the screen (TIP: The 'Search' can also be instigated by pressing the "PLAY / PAUSE" button on your Roku remote, at any time, from within the 'Search' screen). Having performed a search for "Candy Corn", you should then see a thumbnail image of someone holding a bunch of colourful (Yellow, Orange, & White) triangular  shapes, which are (in fact) the 'Candy Corn' cookies, situated fairly prominently among the various "Searched Results". Using your Roku remote, navigate to the "How to Make Candy Corn Cookies" video recipe and click "OK"to play the video [RUN TIME: 5m 10s] and watch the tutorial.


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 "Halloween Oreo Mummy Pops" as well as "Apple Cider Donuts" PLUS an instructional video on "How To Make A Pumpkin Dip", all of which can be found using the 'Search' option within the '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 can be found at: TheSquishyMonster.com


Finally, to round-off this second instalment of "Fiendish Food Friday" on 'Day Nine' 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 Ten' and more Hallowe'en-themed content, courtesy of "Alucard's Bat-tastic 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" 2015...



Fangs (as always) for reading !!





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