Love delicious treats with a Halloween twist? check out this Halloween treat ebook – 18 spooky treats
I love pumpkin so I was super excited to make a pumpkin dessert, but graveyard? Everone else thought headstone, but personally being around the headstones has never creeped me out, BUT the fresh dirt, and bugs, and gross things that might in the GROUND in a graveyard, now THAT scares me. So my first thought went to dirt . What did you think of this Food Networks Halloween Baking Championship challenge?
When I decided to remake every challenge I decided I wanted to stick with the same idea I did on the show, just take the notes I received and make it better, or share that I had envisioned. It would be easy to change to something else that would have worked, but when your on the show you literally have just seconds to decide what to make, cause second guessing (which might seem smart when your at home watching) just wastes precious time, so get an idea and run with it.
Looking back some of my ideas DEF could have been better (store bought dough challenge comes to mind) and I probably should have added some arms coming out of my dirt, or bones or something. But to ME the creepiest, scariest thing will always be the bugs, of course the judges didn’t think so! Add to that that I went with individual dishes so I accidentally overcooked my blondies (better over cooked than raw though, right?)
In the video I had a harder time with my marshmallows that I remembered having on the show. THEN (after I had already finished) it came to me that on the show the marshmallows were SUPER FRESH. And at my house they have usually been broken into by a certain 4 yo and are starting to dry out. SO I will say for this technique, FRESH marshmallows are key for really soft and stretchy webs!
- 1/2 C butter melted
- 2 C packed light brown sugar
- 2 lrg egg
- 2/3 C Pumpkin
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 C all-purpose flour
- 1 C chocolate chips
- 1 C toasted chopped walnuts
- 1/2 C old fashioned oats
- 1/4 C all-purpose flour
- 1/2 C packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 C ground gingersnaps
- 1/2 C butter
- Toasted whole walnuts
- dark chocolate
- chocolate jimmies
- bag mini marshmallows very fresh
- preheat oven to 350
- mix butter and brown sugar and beat until smooth
- beat in egg then the pumpkin and vanilla
- add salt and stir in flour
- mix in the chocolate chips and chopped walnuts
- pour into buttered 9x13 pan
- bake 20-25 mins
- Preheat oven to 375
- Mix all the dry ingredients
- Mix in the butter by hand, don't use a mixer
- spread out on a pan and crumble
- Bake for 15-20 mins, mixing every 3-5 mins (so the edges don't burn)
- let cool and break any large chunks apart
- Melt the chocolate
- Dip the toasted walnuts in the chocolate and shake off excess
- place, flat side down, in the jimmies and pull out, let dry
- spread the crumble over the blondie
- Place a few of the chocolate bugs over the op
- melt the marshmallows (microwave is fine) and stir
- Then grabbing a little at a time pull it between your fingers to make long strings, stretch and spread over the blondie
- Add more bugs
Recipe Video
And that’s that! The final episode is Monday night 9/8c! Will you be watching? Any guesses on who wins? What do you think the final challenges will be? And of course, what would YOU have made with the themes – pumpkin and graveyard?
All the Halloween Baking Championship recreations
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