Simple Halloween Treats

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Looking for a couple of kid-friendly Halloween treats that are super easy to make? Here are a couple I made in less than an hour and with only a few ingredients!

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Pumpkin Marshmallows:

  • Place a lollipop stick into a marshmallow.
  • Then dip the marshmallow into melted chocolate (I used white chocolate colored with orange food coloring.).
  • Cover in sprinkles if desired.
  • I used buttercream icing to pipe on the leaves and vine.

Spider Webs:

  • Melt your chocolate in an icing bag.
  • On a sheet of parchment paper, make a few chocolate circles about the size of a nickel. These will serve as the center of the webs and help them hold together.
  • Lay 8 pretzel sticks into a star shape using a chocolate circle as the center.
  • Place a spider in the center and allow the webs to set until chocolate is dried.

 

Easy Homemade Bread Bowls

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Winter is coming so it’s time to start thinking about making soup! What pairs better with soup than a freshly made bread bowl?!  I have tried a few recipes, but this is the first one I actually will make again. The only thing I need to figure out is how to make the bowl taller….the flavor though is perfect! So let’s get started making bread bowls.

Bread bowl

 

Ingredients (makes 6 bread bowls):

2  1/4  cups warm water

2 packages of active dry yeast (5 1/2 teaspoons)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

2 Tablespoons granulated sugar

3 teaspoons salt

6 1/2 cups bread flour or all-purpose flour

 

Directions:
  • In your mixing bowl, combine the yeast and water. Let rest for about 10 minutes until yeast is bubbly/foamy.
  • Add melted butter, sugar, and salt and mix until combined.
  • Gradually add flour.
  • Once combined, allow your mixer to knead the dough for about 5 minutes.
  • Punch dough down and form into 6 equal sized balls.
  • Place on parchment paper, cover with a towel, and let rise until doubled.  Around an hour or so.
  • Preheat oven to 425 degrees and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.
  • Let cool and cut off the top, remove some of the bread from the inside and fill with soup.

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Here are the dough balls before letting them rise!

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And after baking you will have a nice bread bowl like this one!

Original Recipe can be found here!

Easy Focaccia Bread

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Want an easy bread that is sure to impress?? Well look no further because this is it. Easy to make and has tons of flavor!

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INGREDIENTS:
1 (1/4 ounce) packet active dry yeast  or 2 1/4 teaspoons of active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (105-115 degrees)
2 3/4 cups Better for Bread flour (all purpose works too)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 dash ground black pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
For the top of bread you will need:
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese (grated)
DIRECTIONS:

  • Mix the yeast and water in a small bowl. Let proof for 10 minutes (until bubbles begin to form).
  • In large bowl, stir together flour, salt, sugar, garlic powder, oregano, thyme, basil, and black pepper.
  • Add the yeast mix and vegetable oil to the dry ingredients and combine.
  • When dough has pulled together, turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic.
  • Lightly oil a large bowl, place dough in bowl, and turn to coat with oil.
  • Cover with damp cloth and let rise in warm place 25 minutes.
  • Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  • Punch dough down, place on greased baking sheet.
  • Pat dough into 1/2-inch thick rectangle (doesn’t have to be perfect).
  • Using fingertips make indentations in the dough.
  • Brush top with olive oil, then sprinkle with Parmesan.
  • Bake for 13-15 minutes until golden brown.

Original recipe can be found here.

Hand Print Spider Craft

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I love a craft that requires no prep time and is simple enough to complete with things you already have. I saw an idea for a spider craft created with kid’s hand prints and thought it was too cute! So I grabbed a Nike box and cut off the long rectangular sides. Ideally I would have used a canvas for this type of craft so that I could save it for years to come, but I didn’t have any canvas on hand so the Nike box it was! Bonus it was already orange…just like I wanted to background to be. Sure I had to paint over the Nike swoosh and a few little white words to make it solid orange but it worked and was free!  I drew each child a spider web, and then let them paint the web with a nice shiny off white paint.  Next we painted one hand minus the thumb. Place their hand down so you have a hand print. Repaint child’s hand and this time place it the opposite direction. Now you have a spider with 8 legs! Embellish with some fun googly eyes and add a smile!

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