Halloween pumpkin – throw nothing away!

Nämä Jack O' Lanternit virnistelivät kotonani viime lauantaina, kun vietimme pieniä Halloween-kemuja viikkoa etukäteen. Juttelin aiemmin työkaverin kanssa kurpitsalyhdyistä, ja hän kertoi väsäävänsä niitä lapsensa Halloween-juhliin. Noh, kysyin tietysti innokkaana kurpitsapiirakkafanina, että mitäs hän mahtaa tehdä sisuksista. Vastaus oli, että heittää pois! No way, Jose! Kurpitsa kannattaa pistää hyötykäyttöön siemeniä myöten. Ainakin, jos kyse on suomalaisista, syötäviksi tarkoitetuista kurpitsoista.

Itse tykkään piirtää leikattavan "hatun" sekä naaman lyijykynällä kurpitsan pintaan ennen leikkausoperaatiota. Tänä(kin) vuonna kaiverrusten kanssa tuli jäätävä kiire: vieraat olivat jo ovella, kun aloittelin. Erilaisia naamainspiraatioita on netti pullollaan, mutta nyt päädyin tällaisiin pikaratkaisuihin. Joskus olisi mahtavaa taiteilla ajan kanssa!

Kun hatut on leikattu irti, kannattaa "lypsää" siemenet hedelmälihasta ja pistää talteen. Sitten alkaakin hedelmälihan irrottaminen. Itse olen ottanut talteen sekä pehmeän hötön ja lusikalla kaiverretun kovemman massan, kunnes kurpitsat näyttävät tältä:

Sitten vaan taiteilemaan pelottavia virneitä, kynttilä sisään ja lyhty on valmis! Sisukset pistän soseeksi ja teen niistä kurpitsapiirakkaa samalla hyväksi havaitulla ohjeella joka vuosi (löytyy tästä postauksesta). Yhteen piirakkaan riittää 5 dl mössöä. Näistä kahdesta n. 3 kg kurpitsasta sain ainekset 2 piirakkaan, jotka tarjoilin kermavaahdon ja vaahterasiirapin kera. Ylimääräisestä mössöstä voi tehdä vaikka kurpitsakeittoa!  

Ja sitten ne siemenet. Myönnetään, että olen itsekin heittänyt nämä aiempina vuosina pois. Mutta nyt siis valistuneena paahdoin ne uunissa. Hakusanoilla 'roasted pumpkin seeds' löytyy kasa hyviä vinkkejä ja sekä suolaisia että makeita maustamisvaihtoehtoja. Itse sokerihiirenä päädyin seuraavaan komboon: sekoitin siementen (n. 2,5 dl) joukkoon oliiviöljyä, vaahterasiirappia (se loppu, joka ei piirakan kanssa tarjottuna mennyt), kanelia ja sokeria. Siemenet levitetään uuninpellille leivinpaperin päälle yhteen kerrokseen. Omani jäivät vähän päällekkäin, mutta ihan rouskuvia niistä tuli. 150 astetta ja n. 40 minuttia. Voi pojat, kyllä maistui! :)

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If you decide to carve a Halloween pumpkin, why not use the rest of the vegetable? I make pumpkin pie with the same recipe every year, find it here. Around 3 kg pumpkin equals one pie (5 dl mashed flesh). In case any leftovers, why not make a pumpkin soup? And the seeds. If I had known how tasty they are I'd never have thrown them away previous years. There are several tasty, both salty and sweet spice mixes you can use, but as a desperate sugar lover I ended up with this combo: seeds (around 2,5 dl) mixed with olive oil + maple syrup + cinnamon + sugar. Bake in 150 Celcius for 40 minutes and serve as party snack. Omnom!

Ghost cake pops & other Halloween must-haves!

Halloween fuss hasn't been around for too long in Finland, but every year you can see more and more spiders, pumpkins and witches decorating store windows. The Halloween bug (spider in this case?) bit me 5 years ago, when I got to spend it in the USA. There's something magical about the whole celebration, even though the idea of the souls of the deads hanging around isn't exactly that, um... tempting.

Based on conversations I hear at coffee tables, on bus or wherever, we don't really know which weekend Halloween should be celebrated in. In most countries Halloween happens on October 31st, on the eve of All Saints Day, so the "right" time would be the last weekend of October, not the first of November. Anyhow, the Finnish style to solve this dilemma is to celebrate both weekends, which doesn't get any complaints from me :). 

Ghost cake pops.

I decided to throw a small Halloween party for friends last weekend, and wanted to serve something yummy in the spirit of the holiday. I've made a vanilla pumpkin pie for Halloween two years in a row now, and this weekend was no exception. This recipe is simply amazing, beats many cheesecakes (my favourites cake-wise) if you ask me. I only skip the cooking-the-pieces part because I use more of the soft inside, not the hard flesh, and mash it as raw. The funniest part begins when the pie is in the oven: carving the pumpkin! I'll make another post about that soon.

For other treats to serve I went through some googling and ended up with the following menu (find recipes below pictures):

Pumpkin pie served with whipped cream and maple syrup

Ghost cake pops

Breadstick bones with pesto "blood" dip

Cheese bones with apple/cinnamon "brain" jam

Halloween spirited candies 

Purple punch

GHOST CAKE POPS (around 20, variation of this recipe, decoration inspired by this recipe)

2 tubes of Domino/Oreo mint cookies
100 g cream cheese
200-300 g white chocolate

Smash the cookies until fine. Mix with cream cheese. Put in fridge for about 1 hour until the dough is a bit harder. Roll small balls of it and put in fridge for a few minutes. Melt the white chocolate, dip the other ends of the sticks in it, stick the stick into the ball and roll in chocolate. Let dry in fridge and paint the faces preferably with black pasta colour or other powdered colour mixed with water. 

The baking store had run out of black pasta colour, so bought an edible ink pen, which turned out to be a fiasco: the colour just didn't come out of the sharp end, so I had to go back and forth with the sides of the head. I overpainted the scary little faces with dark green powdered colour I happened to have. That's why my ghosts have blurry faces!

Vanilla pumpkin pie with whipped cream and maple syrup.

VANILLA PUMPKIN PIE (for 12, find the recipe in Finnish here.)

400 g of refrigerated shortcrust pastry

2 dl crushed pecan nuts
5 dl mashed pumpkin
4 eggs
2 dl vanilla quark
1,5 dl cane sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
0,5 teaspoon ginger
hint of powdered clove
0,5 teaspoon salt

whipped cream and maple syrup

1. Melt the pastry, roll it a bit thinner and press it on the bottom and sides of a pie tray.
2. Crush the nuts and roast them on a dry pan until they get some colour. Be careful not to burn them. Pour the nuts on the pastry.
3. Cut the "hat" of the pumpkin off, remove the seeds, gouge the flesh and boil it until soft and smash it (I never boil the flesh, just smash it raw).
4. Whip the eggs until soft foam. Mix all the ingredients together and pour over the nuts. Bake at 200 C for about 40 minutes. When done, let the pie cool down completely befor cutting it.

Serve with whipped cream and maple syrup.

Breadstick bones.

BREADSTICK BONES (in Finnish here)

PASTRY
70-80 g grated parmesan cheese
3 cloves of garlic
5 dl milk or water (I used water)
1/4 pckg yeast
11-12 dl flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 dl olive oil
2 tablespoons dried herbs (eg. basilica, rosemary, thyme)

ON TOP
olive oil
grated parmesan cheese
sesame/poppy seeds
sea salt

1. Heat the milk/water until warm, crumble the yeast into the liquid. Add 8 dl of flour after the yeast has dissolved. Knead the pastry until elastic and go on for about 15 minutes.
2. Add cheese, garlic, olive oil, salt and herbs. Mix until even. Cover with a towel and let rise for half an hour. Press the pastry and let rise for another half hour. Heat the oven to 225 C.
3. Divide the pastry in four. Use a rolling pin to roll the pastry into a rectangle (15 cm x 25 cm) and cut it lengthwise into 8 pieces. Roll the pieces between hands until finger thick sticks. Place on a baking tray, brush with olive oil and sprinkle other ingredients on top.   
4. Bake for about 15 minutes or until slightly brownish. Preferably serve right away.   

I made a red dip for the sticks by mixing sour cream with red pesto.

Chocolate (pumpkin) balls, cheese boned with apple/cinnamon jam. With a bone-shaped mold these were super easy to make.

PURPLE PUNCH

Almost a whole bottle of Parfait amour liqueur (the purple one)
1/2-1 bottle of dry white whine
Red soda (eg. Fanta Exotic)
Sparkling water


Wow, that was a lot of recipes for one post! Happy and creepy Halloween! It's time for this witch to park the broom and go to bed.