Gingerbread Witches and other Halloween Ideas.

Tomorrow is the tenth birthday of this blog, but I am quite happy to share the fun with the witches, ghouls, bats and all creepy things who also want to celebrate their special day.

May I give you a random selection of recipes suitable for the day?

Firstly, because they sound like fun, some sweet witches and savoury wizards from the Warwick Daily News of 30 October, 1948

Gingerbread Witches.

Ingredients: ½ cup butter, ¾ cup soft brown sugar, 1 egg, 2 level cups sifted, flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 2 teaspoons powdered ginger, pinch of salt, currants, blanched almonds, drained cherries.

Method:- Cream the butter add sugar, gradually add beaten egg, then stir in the sifted flour, baking powder, ginger and salt, forming a smooth paste. Knead lightly and roll thinly on lightly floured board. Place cardboard, cut, in the shape of outline of witch, on paste, and cut around edge carefully, with knife. Add rings of drained cherries for mouths, sliced blanched almonds for noses, currants for eyes, and half-moon shaped pieces ofcandled peel for hat trim. Bake on buttered baking trays in moderately hot oven until golden brown and leave on trays to cool and become crisp.

Wizard Slices

Ingredients: 8 white or brown bread rolls, 1 cup chopped gherkins or capers, ¼ lb. butter, 3 tablespoons anchovy paste, , mashed whitebait or cream cheese; 1 tablespoon lemon juice, salt and cayenne.

Method: Cream the butter and mix with the anchovy paste, cream cheese or prepared whitebait and season with lemon juice, salt and cayenne. Cut the rolls into thin slices. Spread each with a thin layer of mixture and heap the centre with chopped gherkin or capers.  Force a border of the butter mixture around each lice, using a forcing bag and tube.  

Chopped ham, crab, lobster, chicken, asparagus, or other fillings, seasoned with mayonnaise, may be used similarly.

And in case you want a more substantial dinner and pudding, here are a couple of ideas to inspire you:

Bewitched Veal.

Chop fine 3 lb. of veal take from the leg, 4 oz of pork, one breakfastcupful of breadcrumbs, three teaspoonfuls of salt, one teaspoonful of black pepper, a dash of cayenne, and a pinch of powdered cloves. Mix up with the whole two raw eggs well beaten, put into a mould, cover closely, and steam two hours; then put the mould into the oven for a short time to dry, with the door open. When old, turn out and cut in slices. Garnish with sprigs of parsley and sliced lemon.

Otago Witness (New Zealand) 18 January 1905

All Hallow’s Pudding.

Butter a large baking dish. Cut up thick slices of 6-7 large cooking apples. Take 1  ½ cups flour; ¾ cup Barbados sugar and ¾ cup loaf sugar; 1 ½ teaspoonsful cinnamon; 1 ½ teaspoonsful ginger; 1 ½ teaspoonsful mace and 1 ½ teaspoonsful nutmeg. Mix together; add 2 ½ cups of milk, stir well and pour over the apples. Blend in 1 cup of butter. Mix all, bake in medium oven for about 2 hours. Stir. Cover with sauce.

The Captain’s Lady Cookbook (1900 ed.) —Personal Journal, Massachusetts 1837-1911, Vol. II. Edited by Barbara Dalia Jasmin, Springfield, MA:

Captain’s Lady Collections, 1982.