Halloween Treats and Snacks That Are Not Cookies
"Six treats for the people who stay: no cutters, no icing eyes, nothing that gets its Halloween from decoration instead of from what it is."
Notes From Behind the Steering Wheel
Halloween splits into two evenings that have nothing to do with each other. There is the doorbell, which is cookies and handfuls and cold air, and there is the part after it, when the door stays shut and whoever is left sits down. This list is the second evening.
The rule was simple and it cut a lot: nothing that needs a cutter, a stencil or a piping bag. If a recipe is only Halloween because somebody drew a face on it, it is not on here. What is left are things that are seasonal in themselves - caramel, pumpkin, dark chocolate, hot milk - and every one of them would still make sense on the second of November.
Sizes are deliberately mixed, because the evening is. There are eighteen of one thing and four of another and six of a third, and the last entry is not for the table at all. It is for the adults standing at the end of a driveway in the cold, waiting for children who are not finished yet.
"The one thing here that is Halloween and nothing else. Caramel cooked to a precise 280F, apples dried until the skin squeaks, and a coating that stays on the fruit instead of sliding off into a puddle overnight."
"Eighteen of them, and the cake itself actually tastes of something: a dense pumpkin pound cake with poppy seeds under an anise butter frosting, instead of vanilla sponge in an orange wrapper. Never frost them warm."
"Ten clean slices off one roll, made a day ahead. Drain the fresh puree under cheesecloth for an hour first - fresh pumpkin is wet enough to loosen the batter, and a loose batter tears the second you roll it hot."
"Twelve, and they are the daytime end of Halloween: the ones still standing on the counter on the first of November. The hour the batter rests before baking is what gives them the craggy top instead of a smooth dome."
"Four ramekins, sixteen minutes, and the only hot thing on this list. This is what goes in the oven once the door has stopped opening and it is just the grown-ups left in a house full of wrappers."
"Six of them, and they are not for the table at all - they are what you hand the parents standing at the end of the driveway in the cold. Three ingredients and a seeding trick, so the shell comes out glossy with no thermometer."
Other Collections From the Truck
Same kitchen, different occasion. Every list here was written on its own, none of them from a template.
- Halloween Cookies Without a Single Cookie Cutter
- Thanksgiving Appetizers That Never Fight the Turkey for the Oven
- Thanksgiving Sides: The Five That Earn Their Plate Space
- Thanksgiving Desserts for People Who Are Already Full
- Thanksgiving Leftovers: Five Recipes That Start With Cold Turkey
- Christmas Appetizers for a Two-Hour Arrival
- Christmas Dinner Ideas: Five Mains That Carry a Whole Table
- Game Day Food for an Ordinary Sunday
- Super Bowl Snacks You Finish Before Kickoff