If you guys haven’t already noticed, I kind of have a thing for Halloween. Something about Halloween just makes me feel like a kid again, and I love that! In real life I’m a little too focused, a little too serious, and sometimes I just need to like, relax and have fun. Halloween (and really holidays) always take me back to my younger self. Plus, who could not love a day devoted to dressing up and eating candy? It’s genius. Now that I’m older, and probably haven’t dressed up for Halloween since I was in sixth grade, I’ve found other ways to enjoy the holiday. One of my favorite things to do is to create “spooky” recipes…and apparently cocktails too. I have so much fun with it, like so much. It’s so dorky, but I just can’t help loving it.
A couple of weeks back, little Asher was over one night just chatting my ear off like she often does… I was watching her for a bit and we decided to kill time by browsing through Pinterest and brainstorming Halloween recipe ideas. If there’s one thing I’ve passed down to Asher, it’s a love for holidays. In fact, the girl might just love them more than me. And Halloween…she LOVES it. She’ll start watching Halloween movies mid July. Her favorites are Harry Potter (obviously), all the Halloweentown movies (I used to love these as a kid…still do actually), Twitches, and Hocus Pocus. I turned her onto Hocus Pocus last October, and she has been obsessed with it ever since. So when we came across a few Hocus Pocus inspired desserts, she declared that I HAD to recreate the Hocus Pocus Spellbook, but in dessert form.
So you have Asher to thank for theses delicious and extra cute brownies. For real though, aren’t they adorable? I couldn’t believe how well they turned out for how easy they were to make. Typically I’ll find that creating holiday desserts are kind of a “pull your hair out” task, but these brownies are easy. Trust me, you can easily make them. then you and any kids you can round up will have a ton of fun decorating the “books”! Start out by making a batch of my favorite one bowl brownies. Cut the brownies into nine squares, dip through chocolate, add a jumbo candy eye, and then decorate with some lines of frosting. Simple as that. A little tip? I like to freeze the brownies for a bit to make dipping them through the chocolate a faster and easier process. Working with a cold brownie allows the chocolate to harden faster. Also? Instead of black food dye for the frosting, I like use activated charcoal so I can stay away from the store-bought food dyes (they freak me out).
The best part? Even though these brownies are cute, they also taste delicious! What could not be good about a chocolate covered brownie? It’s almost too good. Thinking our weekend plans need to include a round of brownie baking and decorating…followed by a marathon Halloween movie night. Sounds pretty amazing to me…who’s in? On thing though, brownie making must come before movies. I mean all good movie marathon nights need a yummy snack…of course.
ps. look really close at that photo up there…something is lurking in the distance…when witches are around a black cat is always sure to follow.
