This is Halloween, This is Halloween . . .

It’s October, which means it’s officially Spooky Season! So every week this month I’m going to be sharing some Spooktacular recipes and ideas. Whether you’re planning a Halloween party or just want some creepy treats to snack on whilst watching horror films, I’ll have something for you.

But before we get onto the new stuff, I’m going to show you how you can give some of my old faithful recipes a Halloween twist.

Continue, if you dare . . .

Truffle Eyes

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These yummy eyeball truffles look really impressive. Keep them in a jar in the fridge to freak out your family, or box them up and give them as a gift with a little note saying “Eye love you” to show someone how much you care . . . To far? Sorry!

Joking aside, they’re really easy to make – I’ve used my No Cream Chocolate Truffles recipe, but instead of dusting them in Cocoa powder, I poured melted white chocolate over them. Then, once they’d set I painted the details on with food colouring using a small paint brush.

I’ve used rum to make a classic rum truffle, but you could use orange juice, coffee, Malibu or anything else you like.

The original truffles are gluten free, dairy free and vegetarian. If any of these are a concern, just make sure your white chocolate coating (you can get vegan white chocolate now in the free-from aisles) and food colouring complies with your dietary requirements.

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Cheesy Bones With a Bloody Mary Dip

These are, in my opinion, the perfect snack – crispy, cheesy pastry bones dunked in a warming, spiced tomato dip – yum! They’d be perfect as party food or a starter for a Halloween themed date night or dinner party.

The bones are made following my Cheese and Poppy Seed Twists recipe, but instead of dividing the pastry into 6 to make 3 large plaits, I split it into about 16 small balls. I then rolled each ball into a small sausage shape, about 8cm long and pinched it in the middle. I then made a small cut in each end and rounded off the edges where I cut, to make the bone shapes. Then place them on a sheet of baking parchment on an oven tray, apply a milk wash, sprinkle with poppy seeds and bake as instructed.

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The Bloody Mary Dip is from my Pan Fried Prawns in a Bloody Mary Sauce recipe, minus the prawns, obviously. Just make sure you chop the onion and pepper up really finely, you could even blitz them in a food processor if you want a really smooth dip. I don’t mind it chunky though.

The Bones are vegetarian and the dip is vegan and gluten free.

Bat Dippers

These bat dippers are really cute, and would make great party food, or a lunch box item.

I used my Tortilla Dippers recipe and stamped the bat shapes out of the tortillas with a cookie cutter before sprinkling with oil and frying.

These dippers are vegan.

Happy Halloween!