Juliet Sear's spooktacular Halloween spread
With Halloween just around the corner, Juliet Sear is joining us with a spooky spread of ghoulish goodies! From chocolate cobwebs to monster marshmallow crispy cakes, this fuss-free feast will take the horror out of your Halloween hosting.
Marshmallow monsters
Makes 8
For the marshmallow base:60g butter250g marshmallowsFood colouring of your choice1 tsp vanilla extract200g puffed rice cereal
To decorate:150g dark chocolate, melted and slightly cooledSugar eyes4 Pretzels or chocolate covered pretzel sticks
Method
1. Melt the butter and marshmallows in a large saucepan. Once melted, stir in the food colouring (if using) and vanilla extract. Pour this into the rice cereal and gently stir to combine. Pour the mixture into a lined 20cm square tin and press down firmly to compact the mixture to make it flat.
2. Leave to set for 1-2 hours or place into the fridge to set for 30 minutes.
3. Once set, cut out 8 rectangular pieces.
4. To make Frankensteins, dip the top of each piece in melted chocolate, then add the sugar eyes. Pipe on a mouth and attach the pretzels for bolt details with the melted chocolate.
Puff pastry spiders
Makes 4 spiders
Ingredients
2 x 320g packs of ready rolled puff pastry120g chocolate hazelnut spread 1 egg, beatenSugar googly eyes (or make your own with chocolate buttons or sugarpaste and black colouring)
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180℃ fan and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Unroll one pastry sheet and lay it on the lined tray. Thinly spread the chocolate spread all over the sheet. Top with a second piece of pastry then cut carefully into four equal rectangles.
3. Place a 5cm round cutter in the centre of one of the rectangles, then make a cut from one corner of the rectangle to the edge of the cutter in the middle of the pastry. Repeat for the other three corners. Use a sharp knife to cut through the bottom and top sections of the circle / cutter, then carefully remove the top and bottom pieces to leave a bow-tie shape.
4. Cut each of the two remaining side pieces into 4 and twist each one tightly, then spread them out to form legs.
5. Brush the beaten egg over the pastry with a pastry brush and bake for approximately 20-22 minutes or until golden and crisp.
6. Add little eyes before serving.
Spider web pretzel treats
Makes approximately 6 webs of different sizes.
Ingredients
300g white chocolate, melted70g pretzel sticksHalloween sprinkles to decorate
Method
1. Pipe a generous blob of melted but slightly cooled chocolate onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Snap the pretzel sticks into 6 cm lengths for small webs, 8 cm for medium and 10 cm for large webs - you’ll need about 12 -14 pieces for each web. Arrange the pretzel sticks on top of the chocolate to form the base of the web shape.
2. Starting in the centre, pipe a swirl of the chocolate over the pretzels to join the sticks in a cobweb pattern.
3. Add sprinkles and set in the fridge. Very carefully peel away the baking paper once set.