The culinary Hallowe’en extravaganza! pt. 2

The next elements of the Halloween dinner that we’ll review are the poison apple dip, and zombie guts! The guts are startlingly easy — I saw a photo on-line of something that was captioned as “Halloween herb-bread guts.”

The bread in the original photo is on waxed paper and looks almost more glazed, like a doughnut with raspberry sauce on it — which would be an alternative possibility if you didn’t have a dessert prepared. I needed a more bready element in my planned dinner, though, so I used a roll of pre-made Pillsbury herbed pizza crust for my zombie guts. I just stretched it out on the waxed paper in the pan, and sort of molded and squirmed the bits around around until they looked vaguely like the photo and vaguely like the guts I remember seeing in biology dissection class years and years ago. Then I dabbed barbeque sauce in the folds of the guts, sprinkled some chopped parsley over the entire thing, and cooked according to the instructions on the roll.

Later thoughts: I shouldn’t have used the wax paper to cook on, but rather set the finished guts on it so everything was nice and tidy. Pulling the bready guts off the waxed paper after cooking was a bother! Also, apparently this was the dinner element that almost turned the stomach of one participant, due to how authentic it looked! :)

Poison Apple Dip

The original recipe for the poison apple dip is beautifully photographed and gorgeously made — take a moment to check it out! I chose to do things only a little differently:

Ingredients:

• 2 large apples
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup honey
• ½ teaspoon vanilla

Optional items to make it look like a poisonous, shimmering, fairy-tale apple:

• Green food coloring
• 1 egg white
• Sanding sugar (I used purple, since it was a very green-colored apple)
• 1 short black licorice stick
• 1 green gummi slice (mine was already shaped like a leaf)
• 1 toothpick
• 1 melon baller
• Lemon juice

To make the “poisonous” dip:

Let the cream cheese get to room temperature, unless you have a mixer — in which case, mix the cream cheese on medium speed until creamy. Add brown sugar, honey, and vanilla. Beat until smooth, then add green food coloring and mix until the color is even.

To make the shimmering, fairy-tale apple:

• Cut off the top quarter of the apple. Using a melon baller, carefully hollow out the inside of the top and bottom. Be careful not to cut through the apple’s sides. If the apple cup wobbles, carefully slice off a bit of the bottom to make it flat and steady, but be careful not to cut through into the interior.
• Put several drops of lemon juice into a cup of water, then immerse each piece of apple for a few seconds to prevent browning. Set all the apple sections aside to dry.
• Once the apple pieces are dry, whisk one egg white in a bowl and brush it onto the surface of the top and bottom apple pieces. Roll the apple pieces in the sanding sugar to coat.
• To make the apple “stem”: roll the licorice stick between your hands to soften and elongate it. Roll it around a toothpick and shape it like an apple stem, leaving the bottom ½” of the toothpick for inserting into the apple top.
• To make the apple “leaf”: insert another toothpick into the green gummi slice, leaving ½” for inserting into the apple top. Stick both pieces into the top of the apple.

  

Allow everything to dry on a wire baking rack. When the apple surfaces are dry, fill the hollow apple bottom with the “poisonous” dip, then set the “lid” piece on top.

Set out some crackers and slice up the other apple for dipping. Enjoy!