Frightening Halloween Dessert Recipes

These recipes are not a comprehensive menu for Halloween, however, these ideas will add some frightening life and harpy festivity to your next ghoulish gathering, this October.

Tomato Preserves - Edible Stage Blood
equipment

saucepan
clean jam jar
tablespoon
fork
cutting board
knife
spatula

1 quart tomatoes, diced or minced
1 box sugar (4 cups) or 1 16 ounce bottle of rice syrup

Cook these over low heat, adding all the juice and flavor from the tomatoes, for 15 - 20 minutes, until tomatoes are soft. Don't worry too much about the quality of the tomatoes, using reduced produce, especially organic produce, will do.

If you cook this for a half-hour, and add 2 tablespoons of arrowroot powder, stirring the mix vigorously with a fork, this will ensure that the jam is of a thick consistency.

Bloody Jam

1 quart tomatoes, diced or minced
1 box sugar (4 cups) or 1 16 ounce bottle of rice syrup

Cook as in the above tomato preserves recipe.

2 packets of unflavored gelatin (enough to gel 2 cups of water) for those who like a little meat by-product in their jam
2 tablespoons of hot water

Dissolve each packet of gelatin into the hot water, separately, then add slowly to the jam mix, while stirring at a vivace speed with a fork. Play some upbeat music while preparing this, something lively will help. Allow the mix to cool for one hour, then add:

1 cup gummy worms or gummy spiders (these are another source gelatin, a meat by-product)

This gives the concoction a special appearance certain to catch the attention of all Halloween revelers, even tired party hosts and hostesses will note that this is the meat-lovers special.

Either of the following two recipes can easily be made while the preserves are cooking over slow heat.

Ladyfingers

Equipment

cookie sheet
spatula
butter knife

1/4 cup shelled pistachios for fingernails
canister of refrigerated sugar cookie mix

Cut the sugar cookie mix into finger shapes, press an almond into each finger for the nail and place onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake the cookies as per the directions on the package, 5 - 7 minutes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit.. Allow the cookies to cool for a few minutes, and bring out the decorations.

optional - decorative tube frosting
optional - cut gumdrops
optional - marzipan
optional - sprinkles
optional - Bloody Jam

Add decorative frosting, or cut gumdrops, or marzipan and Halloween sprinkles to decorate the "nails" of the cookies. Adding the Bloody Jam to the fingers finishes these delectables off.

Monster Finger Biscuits

Equipment

baking sheet
basting brush or unused 1" - 2" trim paint brush
spatula
butter knife

Canister of biscuit mix
1/4 cup shelled pistachios or shelled almonds for fingernails
1/4 cup juice from frozen blueberries or frozen strawberries to add color, and "warts" or "cysts" to the biscuit fingers
Tomato Preserves - Edible Stage Blood

Cut the biscuit mix into finger shapes and arrange on greased baking sheet. Brush the fruit juice onto the dough, press in fruit bits to uglify the fingers, and press one shelled almond or pistachio into each finger tip to give the finger nail to the piece.

Bake the monster fingers as per package instructions, 10 - 12 minutes at 325 Fahrenheit.

Decorate a Pancake

Equipment

Cooked pancakes
Plastic or unbreakable plates
Digital camera

cold multi-colored spaghetti (artichoke, spinach, tomato, pesto) - for hair, worms
shelled almonds or pistachios - for eyes, teeth, nails, necklaces
thawed frozen fruit (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries)
raisins (golden, currant, seedless) - for eyes, teeth, nostrils
optional - Halloween decorations
optional - Decorator frosting

The decorations will make all sorts of monster faces in the hands of imaginative children, and may help you create some new makeup effects for your next party. Be sure to take photos of this!

"Eyeball" Hard-Boiled Eggs

6 hard-boiled eggs
6 blueberries
6 strawberries without greens
1/4 cup vanilla or plain yogurt

Remove shell from six hard-boiled eggs. Soak shelled eggs in water for fifteen minutes, then rinse carefully to remove all bits of shell that might be remaining. Slice off the top of each egg. Remove the cooked yolk from each egg, replace with a spoon full of yogurt.

Hollow out a small hole in the top of each strawberry, place a blueberry inside of each strawberry, then pop the fruit bit into the egg white.

Optional: If you like, you might want to mix the cooked egg yolks together with a tablespoon of the yogurt, adding the minced cooked egg white tops, a tablespoon full of chopped water chestnuts or pickle relish or celery, and salt and pepper to taste to make egg salad sandwiches with. If you mix together a second bowl of a 1/4 cup of pickle relish, a 1/4 cup of thousand island dressing, and 1/4 cup of chopped celery, then mix these ingredients together, the mix may be given a frightening name such as "cat vomit", which teenagers will enjoy as a sandwich filling more than egg salad.