Witch’s brew and candy corn! Get ready for a wickedly indulgent October 31.
Witch’s Brew
Serves 1
• 1 pumpkin
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 oz fresh lemon juice
• 2 oz bourbon
• ⅛ tsp fresh ginger, ground
• ⅛ tsp cinnamon, ground
• 3 oz ginger beer
Cut the pumpkin in half, remove the seeds and stringy fibres, and discard the innards. Peel, and cut into small cubes. Place in a pan of boiling water and cook until tender. Purée down to a liquid and leave to cool. Next, place 1 ounce of pumpkin purée, the honey, lemon juice, bourbon, ginger and cinnamon in a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously. Strain over ice into a whisky glass. Stir in the ginger beer, and garnish with a cinnamon stick or jellied sweets.
Candy Corn
Makes 25
• 3½ oz granulated sugar
• 3½ oz light corn syrup
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 4½ oz icing sugar
• ½ oz powdered milk
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 3 drops each yellow and orange food colouring
Combine the granulated sugar, corn syrup and ½ a tablespoon of water in a saucepan. Cover and cook for 4 minutes. Add the butter, and bring the sugar syrup to 110ºC. Remove from the heat. Combine the icing sugar, powdered milk, sugar syrup and vanilla extract, stirring to form a dough. Once cool, divide into 3 equal pieces. Add 3 drops of yellow food colouring to one piece and knead well, add orange colouring to the second and leave the third white. Roll each piece of dough into a strand about 18 inches long. Cut each strand in half and roll each piece into a strand that is about ½-inch thick and 22 inches long. Lay the strands side by side and press them together. Cut into 4-inch pieces. Then, press each piece into a wedge, keeping the orange section wide and making the white part come to a tip. Cut each wedge into individual candies.
Photos courtesy of www.wikimedia.org
Tags: candy corn, halloween treats, snacks
