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

Eating Cookies, and other treats, with our Buddies

Our holiday Plunket group catch ups are an eagerly anticipated part of our social calendar. We try not to talk about it too much in advance because Little Miss 4 can't help herself but formulate elaborate plans about how she will entertain her friends and what we will serve them. This time around, having lacked small company over the holidays, we had to keep reminding her that it was not her birthday, so we were not to get too carried away with the activity planning.

Having recently dined at Harlequin Public House, LM4 was obsessed with the '10 minutes with the cookie jar' dessert, so we re-created it for our buddies - minus the stop watch of course. Here is a little exposé of what we served our Plunket buddies: the recipes are hyperlinked to the original blog posts.

The Cookie Jar, with Afghans, Shortbread and Chocolate Chip Cookies. LM4 was so excited about loading up the cookie jar. 

Quite a lot of biscuit baking happening that morning.

Sticky Lemon  Slice Its always a crowd favourite!

Passion fruit Cupcakes with Raspberry butter cream. To make the raspberry butter cream I just added 2 tablespoons of raspberry jam to the butter cream at the end of the mixing process.

Here is the Chocolate Chip Biscuit Recipe:

100g butter
75g sugar
150g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 175deg. C
Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Fold in the sifted flour and baking powder. Lastly fold in the chocolate chips. Form into biscuit shapes by either rolling into small balls and flattening or, as I have done, using a soup spoon to press the mixture into a biscuit shape. Place the biscuits onto a lined tray and bake for about 10 minutes. The biscuits will be soft until they cool, so best to leave them on the tray.

I'm not sure where the last (almost) 5 years has gone, but our little Plunket group has grown and flourished; little brothers and cousins have swelled the numbers, and now school days loom for our darling babies. Some of us have gone back to work and others stayed at home, but we are all united by the sharing of our journey into motherhood.

The best Shortbread recipe in town...

At school we have a great tradition amongst the staff of taking turns to provide morning tea to mark our colleagues significant events. About six of us at a time bring a plate to share. Everyone takes great pride and care in making a delicious home made treat. This week my name came up and, having sat on the couch for at least half an hour contemplating the possibilities, I decided on making some shortbread. This recipe is a family favourite; the first time I made it with the fruit and nut toppings, my darling partner was slightly aghast that I was messing with perfection. However sampling the product changed his mind.

Fruit and Nut Shortbread

255g butter
115g icing sugar
115g flour
115g custard powder
115g cornflour
1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons chopped preserved ginger
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons chopped cranberries
2 tablespoons slivered almonds

Preheat the oven to 150deg. C and line a large baking sheet

Cream the butter and icing sugar until pale and fluffy.

Sift the flour, custard powder, cornflour and salt.

Fold the dry ingredients into the butter and sugar and turn out onto a sheet of plastic wrap.



Use the plastic food wrap to form the shortbread dough into a large rectangular tube shape.

Place into the fridge to chill for about 15 minutes. 



Using a sharp thin bladed knife cut the tube of dough into 5mm slices. 

Arrange the slices into the baking tray allowing enough room for them to spread.

Into one third press the ginger and walnut, in the other third the cranberries and almonds, and leave the last third plain.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. The shortbread should not colour, but will be lovely, crispy and short once cooled. 

Feel free to mess with whatever topping you fancy! Happy baking xx