Candy Corn Petit Fours

Growing up so close to Salem, MA, it only feels natural to incorporate Halloween into my baking throughout October. I think of candy corn as the official Halloween candy and decided to put my own spin on this ultra-sweet confection!

1 cup All-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
7 oz. almond paste
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. almond extract
3/4 cup butter
3 eggs
yellow and orange food coloring

For filling:
2/3 cup apricot jam and 2 Tbsp. amaretto, heated.

Glaze:
6 oz. dark choc.
1 tsp. corn syrup
1 stick butter

1. Preheat oven to 350. Butter 3 8 in. cake pans and line with parchment. lightly flour.

2. Sift flour and salt, set aside.

3. Beat almond paste, sugar, and extract.

4. Add butter until all combined, then add 1 egg at a time until fully incorporated. Add flour in 3 parts.

5. Divide batter into 3 bowls. Add yellow food coloring to one, orange to the other, and leave the third plain.

6. Bake for about 12-15 min. Allow to cool completely. After removing cakes from pan, set up on a clean work surface and brush the plain cake with the heated jam. Invert the orange cake onto the plain one, and brush the top with more jam. Invert the yellow cake onto the orange. Place foil on top of the 3-layer cake and place a heavy baking dish on top. Add a few canned goods if you have them to compress the cake even more. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

7. Transfer the cake to a baking sheet lined with parchment. Combine the chocolate, butter, and corn syrup in a bowl and melt over a double-boiler. Carefully pour half the glaze over the cake. Place in the freezer to set. Once it's set, remove, invert onto clean parchment, the glaze the bottom. Freeze again until set. Trim cake and cut into desired sizes. 

PB Crispy Bars

These bars are the ultimate treat! Perfect for anyone that seriously loves the combination of peanut butter and dark chocolate. This bar is the perfect treat to bring to a Halloween party where there might be both children and adults present. Kids especially love them for the gooey rice crispy treat layer, but I'm pretty sure adults would have a hard time saying no to this too. It's a bar very reminiscent of one's childhood but looks appealing enough for a foodie. If you make it the same day you need to serve it, I would suggest making it early enough so it has a few hours to set in the freezer before cutting it. This recipe will fill a large baking dish, about 8 x 12 in. but you can always double the recipe below if needed for a larger gathering.

For the rice crispy layer:
100 grams rice crispies cereal
100 grams sugar
90 grams corn syrup
84 grams butter

For the PB layer:
213 grams milk chocolate
353 grams pb

For the chocolate layer:
128 grams dark chocolate
6 grams corn syrup
83 grams butter

1. First, spray the baking dish, line with parchment paper and make sure the paper hangs over the sides of the dish so you can easily lift up out of the pan. Spray the parchment.

2. To make the bottom layer of rice crispy, Place the cereal in a large mixing bowl and have a rubber spatula and offset spatula ready. Combine the sugar, corn syrup, and water so it has a wet-sand consistency-in a small saucepan. Cook to 235 degrees. Remove from heat and add butter, whisking to combine. Pour this mixture over cereal and working quickly, fold into cereal to combine well and then empty into prepared baking dish. Make sure to immediately spread evenly with offset spatula before mixture starts to set. Make sure layer is pressed evenly into dish and set aside.

3. In a large bowl over a double-boiler, melt the milk chocolate and pb, combining well. When completely melted, remove from heat and pour over bottom layer, again working as quickly as possible with your offset to make a nice even layer. At this point, place baking dish in the freezer to speed up the setting up process.

4. The pb layer should be completely set and hard when you pour the dark chocolate layer over. In a smaller bowl over a double-boiler, melt the chocolate, butter and corn syrup, being careful not to burn. This mixture should be very hot to touch. Again, work quickly with an offset spatula and spread as evenly as possible over the pb layer. Wrap well with plastic and place in freezer until it's very set.

5. Use a sharp knife and have hot water ready to heat the knife and cut the bars. I like cutting them into 3 x 1.5 in. but smaller squares work well too.

(If stored well in the fridge, these should keep for about a week)

~CHEWY CHAI SPICE COOKIES~

I LOVE Chai. Especially in the Fall, my favorite season. I drink it hot, iced, sometimes with milk, and usually almost always with a shot of espresso! Since I'm on this cookie craze with special orders and private parties, I thought it would be fun (and also basically genius) to make a chewy sugar cookie and give it a bold kick with spices!

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups sugar, plus 1/3 for rolling
2 oz. cream cheese, cut into small pieces
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cardamom
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
a pinch of pepper
6 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup veg. oil
1 large egg
1 tbsp. whole milk
1 tsp. vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 325. Line sheets with parchment. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together; set aside.

2. Combine 1 1/2 cups sugar with the next 6 ingredients in a bowl. Put the 1/3 cup of sugar in another bowl and set aside.  Whisk the melted butter of the cream cheese mixture just to combine, then whisk in the oil. Add the egg, milk, and vanilla. Whisk until smooth.

3. Add flour mixture. Dough will be soft.

4. Scoop dough and roll balls in bowl of sugar ad drop on baking sheets. Flatten dough balls with the bottom of a greased drinking glass. Sprinkle tops of cookies wit more sugar.

5. Bake trays of cookies one at a time, about 6 min, then rotate, and bake another 6 min. more or until they begin to brown.