Toffee Apples - Bonfire Night

Hi guys, so it's Bonfire night once again and in our books, one of the most Autumnal and festive nights of the year! We love this time of year and all of the accompanying traditions that it has - so, to be as traditional as possible, we have bought you our foolproof classic - Toffee Apples!

Makes 8

Ingredients:
100ml Water plus extra for boiling to cover apples
450g Golden Caster Sugar
2 tsp vinegar
4 tbsp Golden Syrup
8 Eating apples of your choice - not huge ones!
A dash of red food colouring

Method:
1. Place apples in a large bowl and pour over some boiling water to cover. This will remove the waxy coating and help the caramel to stick. Dry and twist off any stalks. Push a wooden skewer or lolly stick into the end of the apple where the stalk used to be.

2. Lay out a sheet of grease-proof paper (baking parchment) and place the apples on this. Tip the sugar into a pan along with 100ml water and put on a medium heat. Cook for 5 mins until the sugar dissolves, then stir in the vinegar and syrup. Set a sugar thermometer in the pan and boil to 140°C or the 'hard crack' stage. If you don't have a thermometer you can test the toffee by pouring a little into a bowl of cold water. If it hardens instantly and, when removed, be brittle and easy to break, it is ready. If you can still squish the toffee, continue to boil it. Quickly stir in the food colouring.

3. Working quickly and carefully, cover each apple in the hot toffee by dipping them in, let any excess drip away, then place on the baking parchment to harden. You can heat the toffee a little if it starts to set before you have finished using it. Leave the toffee to cool before eating.

Enjoy as a treat any time of the year or as a traditional Autumnal snack!

*You can use bright red and dark green food colourings (not both at the same time, but in separate toffees) to create some Christmassy festive treats!*

Apricot Eton Mess

This Recipe is perfect for Halloween. Orange in colour, perfect. Put in a cauldron/pumpkin shaped bowl and serve freshly made as a perfect halloween treat. Great for halloween parties and easy enough for the kids to just get stuck in! 

Ingredients:

Meringues

Apricot Yoghurt, Large Tub
Apricot/Peach Fruit Purée/coulis (Passion fruit coulis will also do)

Dried Apricots

Tub of Double Cream

Method:

1. Break up the meringues.

2. Whip up the double cream

3. Mix the Whipped Double cream and the apricot yoghurt.
4. Chop the dried apricots into small pieces.

5. Add the chopped apricots, fruit purée and meringues and stir.

Enjoy your classic dessert with a halloween twist!

Pumpkin Loaf

This yummy loaf is the perfect autumn dessert! Why not serve it up at a halloween party!

Ingredients:

200g Plain Flour

1 1/4 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Ground Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

255g Pureed Pumpkin

200g Dark Brown Soft Sugar

110ml Buttermilk

1 Egg

2 Tbsp Butter

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180c

2. Sift the flour, soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg into a large bowl.

3. Mix the pumpkin, sugar, butter and egg and buttermilk until well mixed.

4. Pour into a loaf tin.

5. Bake for about and hour.

6. Enjoy this baked treat warm, or cool and have the next day.

Wormy Crispie Bites

A simple recipe with a Halloween twist!

Ingredients:

50g Butter

1 tsp Vanilla

200g Marshmallows

100g Crisped Rice Cereal

2 BIG Chocolate Bars

A Packet of Gummy Worms

Method:

1. Grease a 22x33cm (9x13 in) tin with oil or butter.
2. In a large saucepan, melt the butter over low heat.

3. Add the vanilla.

4. Melt the marshmallows into the butter, stirring.

5. Add the cereal when the marshmallows have melted; stir until cereal is coated.

6. Quickly pour into the prepared tin.

7. Use a sheet of greaseproof paper to press the mixture down flat and evenly into the tin.
8. Let set for about 2 hours. Cut into bitesize squares.

9. Melt the chocolate in a microwave or in a heatproof bowl over a pan of boiling water.

10. Spread the melted chocolate over the crispie squares

11. Top the squares with a few gummy worms

12. Chill until the chocolate and serve!

Jelly Orange Pumpkins

Ingredients:

Oranges (as required)

Orange jelly mix (as required to the oranges)

Orange juice (enough to mix some in to the jelly)

Method:

1. Carefully cut a lid off the oranges.

2. Not breaking the orange skins, scoop out the insides of the oranges.

3. Make up the jelly mix as says on the packet, but with half the boiling water that it says, put the other half of the amount in as orange juice. EG. if the packet says the jelly needs 100ml of boiling water, put 50ml of boiling water and 50ml of orange juice (not boiling)

4. If you want to, you can add gummy sweets to the jelly mix.

5. Pour the jelly mix into the orange skins and wait till set.

6. Once set cut out eyes and noses out of the orange skins, so they look like pumpkins.

7. Put the lids that you cut off earlier on top of the orange pumpkins and put in a refrigerator untill need to be served.

8. Serve, enjoy.

Witches Fingers!

Always a great success at halloween parties, easy to make too!

Ingredients:

Sausages (normally do about 2 per person, chipolatas work great!)

15 tbsp tomato ketchup

1 red chili, finely chopped

1/2 an onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves

5 tsp garam masala

Method:

1. Cook the sausages

2. Put the ketchup into a bowl (to use as the dip) and add the chili, onion, garam masala and crush in the garlic, stir

3. Put the sausages upright in mugs and serve with the dip, Enjoy!

The Best Pumpkin Soup

I have developed this recipe out of several different versions and adapted it to the right amounts and tastes, now I will share with you all the true magical potion of Halloween!

Ingredients:

1 kilo pumpkin flesh, deseeded

25g unsalted butter

380mls whole milk

3 tsp curry powder

750mls vegetable stock

2 garlic cloves

2 large onions, chopped finely

1 red chilli, chopped finely

250g cheddar cheese

1 can sweetcorn, drained

Salt and pepper

Method:

1. In a large pan, melt the butter and saute the onions, crushed garlic, drained sweetcorn and the red chilli

until nice and soft. and add the pumpkin flesh, cheese, stock, curry powder and seasoning.

2. When the soup mixture is cooked (the pumpkin is really soft) blend the mixture using a hand blender, food processor or blender until nice and smooth.

3. Warm the milk in a separate pan, but do not boil. Then stir into the soup gently.

4. Serve at once or put aside and gently reheat when ready to eat, serve with hunks of buttered bread! 

Picture courtesy of @ciaramargolin , served with croutons here!

Submitted by: Jim

Spooky Witches Brew

A perfect halloween drink, the more glasses you want to make, the more ingredients you need!

Ingredients:

Cans of Ginger Beer, Chilled

Lime Cordial

Blackcurrant Cordial

Two Oranges, Sliced

Method:

1. Poor a splash of both cordials into glasses with a few ice cubes.

2. Top up the glasses with ginger beer.

3. Serve with a slice of Orange.

Classic Toffee Apples

As Halloween and Bonfire night approach, these toffee apples will be a treat with everyone!

Ingredients:

6 Granny Smith Apples

6 Lolly Sticks

4x 100g Packs of Toffee

2 Tbsp Water

1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract

Method:

1. Insert the sticks into the stem end of the apples.

2. Place them on a baking tray, lined with slightly greased foil.

3. Combine the toffee, water and vanilla in a saucepan over low heat, stir often till the toffee melts and the mixture is smooth.

4. Get each apple and dip in the toffee, run round edge of sauce pan to let excess toffee run off.

5. Chill in fridge until ready to serve!

White Chocolate Fondue

There are so many different things that you could do with this recipe - the possibilities are endless! If you were to take the 'Halloween Themed' approach, you could even find a large pumpkin and serve in a bowl that will fit inside the pumpkin for the ultimate table show-stopper at a Halloween party!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup double/whipping cream

12 oz white chocolate, chopped

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

1. Heat the cream in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat until hot, about 2 to 3 minutes.

2. When hot, add the chocolate and stir until it is just

melted and smooth. Stir in vanilla. Transfer to a warm fondue pot.

3. Serve with your choices of fresh strawberries, bananas, apple wedges, pound cake, ladyfingers, and biscotti. Serves 6 or more.

Variations:

At Halloween/Autumn - try adding a splash of orange food colouring and perhaps a little orange flavouring in the place of the vanilla, for a pumpkin colour-inspired Halloween mess!
At Easter - try adding a dash of pink or pastel yellow food colouring for that baby-pastel coloured Easter time colour theme!
At Christmas - substitute 2 to 3 tablespoons of kirsch, brandy, rum, or orange liqueur for the vanilla. You could even add a little pinch of cinnamon or a quick zesting of a fresh Clementine for that exceptionally distinct Christmas taste!