Halloween! She has come around yet again with all of her terror, grisliness, phobias and of course, excuses for parties. Am I right? For me, the awesome-sauce element of this holiday is that, since I’m in the midst of Christmas baking (I know you don’t like the big “C” word this early in the season but deal with it. If people can start waxing poetic about pumpkin spice season in August, then this should be perfectly acceptable), it becomes a little more difficult to justify more baking which will take up valuable refrigerator real estate when my freezer is literally already over half full of baked goods. But if I have other people who will consume any non-Christmas goodies, then I can totally bake up a storm! (and that’s the kind of weather phenomenon I can totally get behind! Hurricane Sandy-ing sugar anyone? 😉 )
For the past 5 years or so, every year around this time, I say I’m going to buy myself a little chest freezer, but then I always talk myself out of it because I would honestly have no use for it for 10+ months of the year. If I could find a small one for <$100, I’d be all over it, but even a 3.5 cubic foot one tends to be more like $200+ dollars (so, uh…if anyone out there is looking to rid themselves of a small chest freezer, I’m totally your gal. I would pay you of course, and possibly also throw in some gratefulness goodies to go along with it. Any takers? Anyone? Anyone? *crickets* 🙁 ).
Anyway, enough about my freezer woes, as I’m fairly certain that you didn’t come here to talk appliances. Let’s get back to Halloween shall we?
Kevin and I this year decided to go as Guardians of the Galaxy characters (me as Rocket Raccoon and him as Star Lord):
My costume was not as great as it probably could’ve been if I was one of those crafty folks who loves spending hours sewing and….uh…crafting? Glue-gunning? (or whatever else falls into this category). Even writing that out made it sound exhausting….I need a nap. My thinking is, if I wasn’t prepared to spend that kind of time picking out a wedding dress (another item only worn for one day), what chance do you have Halloween costume? (Yes, I speak to my clothes now. I hear this is the first step toward becoming a crazy cat lady. Luckily for me though, I only have three cats so far, so I’m still borderline on the side of sanity 😉 ).
In trying to research something unique (read: NOT witch finger cookies. Been there, done that, and though they look cool etc., that just seems to be the thing that everyone makes thinking they’re the most ingenious and original person on the planet….myself included the first time I made them, so I’m not hatin’ on anyone here 🙂 ), I stumbled across this great idea for Bone Marrow cookies. They’re basically a sugar cookie filled with marzipan. Not only do I ❤ marzipan, but these cookies also just looked so super cool that I couldn’t resist making them (also, quick side note – even if you hate marzipan, I have it on good authority from someone who doesn’t like marizpan (this means you Brenda you crazy kid!) that these cookies were still great and you couldn’t tell it was marzipan because of all the spices. So basically, don’t let that fear stop you from making these). Mine of course look nowhere near as awesome as some interwebbers but I still think they they are nonetheless amaze-bones 😉 .
I did make one other baked good for this party, for which I’m not including the recipe because they’re super simple to make, and you can basically replicate this with your favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe (or probably any cookie recipe really):
It’s the kind of dessert you can really sink your teeth into 😉 . Happy Halloween!
Yield: 2 dozen cookies
Ingredients
Bone Cookie:
- 2/3 cup vegan butter, softened
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 egg replacer
- 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- zest of one orange
- pinch of salt
- 4 cups flour
Marzipan Filling:
- 7 ounces (about 1.5 cups or 198g…basically one package) marzipan
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/4 teaspoon ground clove
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Bone Dirt Garnish:
- 2-3 cups icing sugar
- 2-4 tablespoons amaretto (or water is fine too)
- crushed slivered almonds
Directions:
- Add the butter, coconut oil, sugar, egg replacer, vanilla and almond extracts, orange zest, and salt to a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer for a few minutes until everything’s mixed together. Slowly add in the flour and continue mixing until flour is fully incorporated and dough holds its shape when pressed with your fingers.
- For the filling, combine the marzipan, vanilla, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon in a small bowl. Work the ingredients together with your fingers until evenly mixed.
- Divide the bone dough into 24 pieces and the marrow into 24 pieces. Pat the bone dough flat, then lay a short rope of marizpan “marrow” down the middle. Roll the dough around the marrow and shape into a bone if you’re not as artistically challenged as me. If you’re me, get yourself a bone shaped cookie cutter and press rolled up cookie into it. Repeat with all 24 pieces.
- Freeze for at least 2 hours, but overnight is better (it helps them keep their bone-shape when baking).
- Preheat the oven to 450F. Cook the frozen cookies on a cookie sheet for 10-12 minutes. They may look a bit underdone but that’s what you want here.
- In a small bowl, mix together the icing sugar and amaretto, adding in the amaretto slowly until you get a thinnish, pourable glaze. Drizzle over your cookies once they’re cool and sprinkle with crushed slivered almonds (or almond meal – or run almonds through a coffee grinder to get a fine flour-like texture).
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