justJENN recipes

This how-to is pretty simple, but it combines all the elements kids love on Halloween. Cupcakes. Cookies. Candy. I’m fairly sure it will go over just as well with adults.

ingredients:
cupcakes
frosting
sprinkles
bat cookies
dum dum lollipops

I bake the bat cookies the day before and keep them in a sealed container. It makes for quicker assembly, and who has time to be fooling around last minute?

For these cupcakes I made, seeing as it was Halloween and all, and I thought it’d go good with the chocolate bats. Chocolate bats on chocolate cupcakes would have been good too. Mmm. Chocolate overload.

pumpkin cupcakes

After the cupcakes cool, frost them. I used white chocolate and chocolate frosting to give some variation, it looked really nice when served. I edged the cupcakes in different colored sprinkles, it added a lot of color and texture too them, without going overboard on the decoration. Not a fan of going nuts with the decor, nope.

I then placed the Dum Dum lollipop towards the ‘back’ of the cupcake, to act as a little stand for the bat. Now place the bat near the front and lean it on the lollipop. You won’t really need to add anything to make it stick, it should stay put just fine.

I recommend assembly right before serving, if you do it ahead of time, your bats may get soft, the moisture in the frosting will creep into your little bats.

This is a fun party food, Trick or Treat!

I think the reason I don’t have any feeling towards carrot cake is because it has cream cheese frosting. While that is the selling point for most, it makes me recoil in revulsion. However, the cookie itself, is alright by me. If you are anti cream cheese like me, make these for your friends. Oh and keep some of the cookies for yourself.

ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup crushed pineapple, drained
3/4 cup shredded carrots
3/4 cup raisins
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

filling ingredients:
8oz. cream cheese
1/4 cup butter
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep a cookie sheet with a silpat.

Cream the butter and brown sugar. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla. Then stir in the pineapple, carrots and raisins.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt nutmeg and cinnamon. Slowly add to the carrot mixture. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepped cookie sheets.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes just until bottoms begin to brown and cookies are set. Cool on wire racks.

While the cookies are cooling, start the filling. In your mixer, combine the butter, cream cheese and vanilla. Slowly add the sugar and scrape down the sides of the mixer. Turn to high to get it nice and fluffy.

Once the cookies have cooled, spread the frosting on the flat side of one, then stick another on top, flat side down. You’ll get a hefty little sandwich.

The cookies are quite good on their own if you don’t want to go to the trouble of putting them together.

Use Vegan ChocoBATs and Vegan GingerBATs for these. The ice cream obviously cancels out the vegan-ness of these, but damn is it good.

Get your preferred ice cream (soy/tofu substitute) out of the freezer. Mush it up a bit on a cutting mat.

You can just use a knife and spread it on a cookie or go nutso with the perfectionist in you (like ME) and actually fill the cookie cutters with the ice cream, thus giving you the PERFECT bat shape…

…you know which is the easiest. So do that. And press it between two cookies and you have a YUMMY HALLOWEEN TREAT!

So after I went to all of this work, someone emailed me and said, ‘Hey great idea, couldn’t you just use the cookie cutter and cut it out of regular store bought ice cream sandwich?’ D’OH! Sure. Do that.

I like to make these in combo with the Vegan GingerBATs, the two colors look really nice together. You can also make them into ice cream sandwiches. Which cancels out the veganism completely, but, you know. Whatever.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup plain soymilk

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix together the oil and sugar until well blended.It should be a crumbly sandy consistency. Now add the honey and the soymilk, blend well, it won’t completely blend together, so don’t worry about it.

Sift all the dry ingredients together. Slowly blend the dry into the wet ingredients.

You will get a mushy chalky kind of dough. Roll it into a ball and flatten to a disc. Wrap it in plastic wrap and throw it in the fridge. The longer the better of course, but an hour will do if you are rushed. (The other dough is the Vegan Gingerbread dough.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Once the dough has chilled, roll it out onto a floured board. I like to use a slab of marble myself, cause it keeps the dough nice and cold. But a big cutting board will do just fine.

I made the ’spooky’ eyes by pressing sprinkles into the dough before cooking. Now, we used bats since it is Halloween, of course. But any cut out will do, any time of the year.

Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes. Cool on a rack. These are really tasty as is, but you can also sandwich ‘em between ice cream if you want! (see how, HERE.) However, there goes the ‘vegan-ness’ of them. I guess you could use a dairy substitute for ice cream and drink a glass of soy milk. *sigh* Give me dairy any day.

My Kid has a milk allergy. And an egg one. And a chocolate one. And, well, MANY. So I found this recipes on the post punk kitchen and tried it out. Amazingly good. You don’t even miss the butter and eggs.

I also adapted it and made Vegan ChocoBAT cookies AND used them for ice cream sandwiches. Not so Vegan but still DELISH.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup plain soymilk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

Mix together the oil and sugar until well blended.It should be a crumbly sandy consistency. Now add the molasses and the soymilk and vanilla, blend well, it won’t completely blend together, so don’t worry about it.

Sift all the dry ingredients together. Slowly blend the dry into the wet ingredients.

You will get a mushy soft dough. Roll it into a ball and flatten to a disc. Wrap it in plastic wrap and throw it in the fridge. The longer the better of course, but an hour will do if you are rushed. (The other dough you see is the Vegan Chocolate cookie dough.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Once the dough has chilled, roll it out onto a floured board. I like to use a slab of marble myself, cause it keeps the dough nice and cold. But a big cutting board will do just fine.

I made the ’spooky’ eyes by pressing sprinkles into the dough before cooking. Now, we used bats since it is Halloween, of course. But any cut out will do, any time of the year.

Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes. Cool on a rack.

These are really tasty as is, but you can also sandwich ‘em between ice cream if you want! (see how, HERE.) However, there goes the ‘vegan-ness’ of them. I guess you could use a dairy substitute for ice cream and drink a glass of soy milk. *sigh* Give me dairy any day.

This is a twist on my regular M&M cookie recipe. The dark cocoa looks great with these Halloween M&Ms. SPOOKY. It also makes a nice cookie for ice cream sandwiches. Say it with me, ooh, aahh.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1-1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup Valhrona cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 package M&Ms

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream together butter or margarine, brown sugar, vanilla, and sugar until fluffy. Add the 2 eggs.

Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Add to butter mixture.

Once combined, carefully stir in the M&Ms. YES, the whole bag. Drop by teaspoon on baking sheets - or if you GIANT cookies, make big balls and place about 6 on a sheet. Both work great.

Bake for 8 -10 minutes, a little longer for extra crispness. Let cool on a wire rack.

Once cooled, take it that one step further and put a scoop of ice cream in between two cookies. You won’t believe how tasty and addictive this is.

M & Ms. Who doesn’t love them? Let’s not kid ourselves, this cookie is basically just a binding agent to get as many M&Ms in yourself as possible. There’s nothing wrong with that.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 package M&Ms

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream together butter or margarine, brown sugar, vanilla, and sugar until fluffy. Add the 2 eggs.

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to butter mixture.

Once combined, carefully stir in the M&Ms. YES, the whole bag. Drop by teaspoon on baking sheets - or if you GIANT cookies, make big balls and place about 6 on a sheet. Both work great.

Bake for 8 -10 minutes, a little longer for extra crispness. Let cool on a wire rack.

These are excellent and also hold up well for gifts. They look great with seasonal colored M&Ms too, just check out these cocoa ones…

My MIL brought me some of these Hawaii Hershey’s kisses with macadamia nuts inside. Interesting. I thought they’d make great cookies. Instead of using Hershey’s cocoa powder, which I despise, I advise you to invest and use valrhona - you won’t regret it.

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup Valrhona cocoa powder
About 40 HERSHEY’S KISSES (I used the mac nut ones)

Powdered sugar

Beat butter, sugar and vanilla in large bowl until creamy. In a separate bowl, stir together flour and cocoa; gradually add to butter mixture, beating until blended.

You can refrigerate the dough if you need to, but I just use it right away. Heat the oven to 375 degrees.

Take a tablespoon or so of dough roll it into a ball. Flatten the ball in your hand and put and UNWRAPPED (hello, crazy) chocolate inside. Pull the dough up around the kiss, covering it completely. Roll into a ball again, and put on the cookie sheet.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until set. Cool on a wire rack. Roll in powdered sugar just before serving.

I make this recipe a lot, but I could never remember who gave it to me or where it came from. A quick search on the internet and good god. It’s a Rachael Ray recipe. What. I feel sickened and ashamed. I’ve changed it over time, but still. Depressed now.

This recipe always comes in handy when I don’t have eggs. It’s really easy for the kids to help out with as well.

ingredients:
3/4 packed brown sugar
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon cloves
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
2-1/4 cups flour
1 stick butter, softened
2 Tablespoons molasses
6 Tablespoons cold coffee

You can use any shape cutter you like, my kids went for the ‘transportation’ set that we had on hand.

In a mixer, slowly mix together all the dry ingredients. Then add the softened stick of butter. Be careful. My mixer likes to attack me at this point, but hold yer ground!!

Once combined, add the molasses and then the coffee, by the teaspoon. Checking to make sure you don’t add too much liquid, or too little. The dough should come together by itself. Take it out and wrap it in plastic wrap and chillax in the fridge.

Roll it out on a flour dusted surface, and use a cookie cutter - any shape - to cut your cookies. Transfer to a baking sheet and add sprinkles. Bake for 11 minutes, and move to a rack to cool. You can frost or use icing if you like, but I think these stand alone just fine.