This year simply flew by and it`s already Halloween preparation time. Ever since I first heard of this day I fell in love with it. It all started with simple pumpkin carving and went from there to more complicated and fun stuff. Remember last year`s Halloween cupcake wrappers, spooky jar lanterns and scary toothpicks? And of course those interesting Halloween legends? Well, this year I am even more prepared. I bought a Deluxe Pumpkin carving kit on ebay and am hoping that it will make carving even more fun. And it came with lots of cool carving paterns, too.
Due to the fact that kids come to our house for Halloween, I wanted to make something scary but sweet at the same time. I think that these pop-tarts will do the trick (or treat). :) They are, sort of like, Halloween linzers really.
Ingredients
250 g all-purpose flour
120 g butter
pinch of salt
2 heaped tbsp powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilin sugar
7 tbsp cold milk
firm apricot jam for the filling
Preparation
Combine flour, salt, sugar, vanilin sugar in a bowl. Add butter cut into small cubes. Blend with your fingers until you get rough crumbs. Add milk, mix with your hands until you form a ball. If needed, add 1 more tbsp of milk. Wrap it into cling film and leave in the fridge for about 10 minutes. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface, roll it into a circle as thin as you can (about 4 mm). With a round cookie cutter, cut as much circles as you can get. Cover them with cling film so that they don`t get dry while you`re carving. With a small paring knife, carve jack`o`lantern faces on half of your cookies. You have to find the best way to do this on your own. Holding the knife more horizontally than vertically did the trick for me.
Don`t do it like this:
Do it like this:
Spoon a small amount of apricot jam on your uncarved cookies (1 cm from the sides, do not put lots of jam because it will boil while baking and could pour out from the cut-out parts), carefully place cookie with the carved face on it and press the sides with a fork to seal any gaps. Transfer to greaseproof paper.
Bake on 200 Degrees C for about 8-10 minutes or until the sides are brownish (do not overbake because they will be hard!).
It looks complicated but if you have company it`s not that difficult. I promise! :)
I`m thinking they`re way to cute to be scary. Look at this one! Am I right or what? :)
This is the scariest I could get:
Check out how Mihaela from La casa de vainilla made them. Too cute! :)
