Ghost Shortbread for reverse trick or treating

This year's reverse trick or treat was again, all about the haunting. I'm not sure that ghosts drink tea, but we decided that our reverse trick or treat recipients might like a biscuit to go with their evening cuppa. With time in short supply as usual, I simplified my usual shortbread recipe to make these quicker-to-make and less brittle so they didn't break in the cellophane bags. Late year we did Ghost Meringues.

"This year Mummy, I want to be a vampire, but I'll wear my witches hat too" With trick or treating being a relatively new thing to New Zealand, we really like the reverse trend of taking treat to our neighbours, rather than expecting them to have sweets on hand for us. That said, our little blossom was very fortunate to receive more than enough candy from our kind neighbours.  

Ghost Shortbread

240g softened butter

120g icing sugar

350g plain flour

2 heaped tablespoons of cornflour

3 tablespoons white chocolate buttons

2 tablespoons dark chocolate buttons

Approximately 45 white Marshmallows - I got two 180g bags and used all the white ones plus about 10 pink

Preheat the oven to 165deg. C. on bake. Line a large baking tray with baking paper. 

Cream the softened butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. 

Fold in the sifted flour and cornflour, and press into a ball on a large piece of baking paper on the bench. 

Place another equally large sheet of baking paper over the dough and using a rolling pin, roll the short bread out until it is about 7mm thick. 

Remove the top sheet of paper and sprinkle the short bread with a little flour. Place the top sheet back onto the dough and flip the whole thing over. Remove the second sheet of baking paper. By flouring the dough, then flipping it over, the shortbread wont stick to the bottom sheet when its cut. 

Now use a small paring knife, cut out irregular ghost shaped biscuits. I made mine about 6 to 7 cm wide. Gather up the off-cuts, press them together and repeat the process until all the dough is cut out. Use a spatula to transfer the biscuits to the lined baking tray. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. 

The biscuits will remain soft until they cool. 

In separate bowls melt both lots of chocolate. I melted mine by giving it 10 second bursts in the microwave. Once the chocolate starts to melt, stir it with a spoon and the residual heat will finish the melting process. 

Spread a little white chocolate onto the bottom of each marshmallow and position them on the biscuits.  

Using the blunt end of a bamboo stick, dot little dark chocolate eyes onto each ghost.  

Once the chocolate was cooled and set, we packaged ours in cellophane bags and attached little Happy Halloween notes for our neighbours. This recipe makes about 45 biscuits depending on what size you cut the ghost bases. We had more than enough for our Little Miss to gift a box full to her riding school instructors.   

Happy Halloween and happy baking everyone xx

Our Reverse Trick-or-Treating for Halloween

Oh what to do about Halloween? It's a bit of a dilemma in NZ. As a country we don't have a tradition of Halloween; yet our children, possibly with the aid of advertising, just can't help themselves but want to engage with it. Where else does dress ups, theatre and candy combine so beautifully? 

Anyway, Little Miss really wanted to go trick or treating this year, but I just wasn't happy with going around our neighbours effectively demanding candy when no one in our street really pays any attention to Halloween. Having heard about reverse trick or treating last year, we thought we'd give it a go. Reverse trick or treating is when you go around giving the treats to your neighbours, rather than expecting to be the recipient. We're always looking for opportunities to encourage our only child's generosity, so this was the perfect scheme. 

With a ghosty theme in mind, I made these Raspberry Ghost Meringues and some delicious Chocolate truffles to share with our neighbours. They are super easy to make and gluten free.

Raspberry Ghost Meringues

4 egg whites
a pinch of cream of tartar
1 cup caster sugar
1 tablespoon cornflour
1 teaspoon raspberry extract
2 tablespoons berry jelly crystals

Preheat the oven to 120deg. C. and line a baking sheet with baking paper.

Carefully separate the eggs to avoid contaminating the whites with any egg yolk, as this would prevent the whites from foaming up as they should. Add the pinch of cream of tartar to the whites and with the whisk attachment to the beater, beat until soft peaks form. Add the caster sugar a couple of tablespoons at a time. Beat well in between each addition. The mixture will become smooth and glossy. Beat until firm peaks hold when the whisk attachment is raised from the mixture.

Add the cornflour, beating briefly and slowly until it is combined. 

Take the bowl from the mixer. Add the raspberry extract and jelly crystals to the mix. 

Using a spatula, fold the mixture just once.

That way the raspberry is marbled through the mixture. 

Gently spoon the meringue into a piping bag fitted with a large round nozzle. 

Pipe the meringues straight down onto the tray, squeezing the bag in 'jolts' so they form little round rolls in the sides. 

Leave a gap between each meringue on the tray as they will spread a little.











Bake the meringues for 2 hours until they are crisp on the outside and chewy in the middle. At this stage turn the oven off and open the oven door. Leave them in the cooling oven for another half hour.

Once they are cold, melt some chocolate, and using a skewer or toothpick, dab two eyes onto each ghost meringue. 

We packaged our treats up in cellophane bags, wrote out some little cards, then off to visit our neighbours. 

Everyone was thrilled to receive our little gift. It was a lovely way for us to catchup with our neighbours, no-one felt pressured because they didn't have sweets in the house, and our little blossom was so happy spreading a little joy around our street. Definitely a tradition we'll be doing again next year.