This is a collaboration with Geeks Who Eat. Check out all their geeky recipes, including many inspired by horror!
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, based on the 2014 Archie Comics series of the same name, is coming to Netflix in just a few days and it looks positively spooktacular! It’s a darker, scarier Sabrina the Teenage Witch, but also seems to be keeping a lot of the same humor. Kiernan Shipka (who I adored in Mad Men) seems like the perfect pick for Sabrina Spellman, the half-witch half-mortal who has some choices to make on her sixteenth birthday, and I’m excited for Miranda Otto and Lucy Davis as Aunts Zelda and Hilda as well. It’s set in the 60s and has a very cool retro vibe (look at those dresses!), and takes place in the fictional town of Greendale, “where it always feels like Halloween.”
Zoeya is pretty damn witchy.
So here’s something chilling…Halloween Birthday Cake Milkshakes! The undercurrent of the show is pure soda shop, so a milkshake version of her birthday cake seemed fitting. But not just any birthday cake – this one is pumpkin spiced up so feels like Halloween. Now just imagine Sabrina and Harvey sipping one milkshake through two straws.
Side note, I snobbishly thought I’d never buy a box cake mix ever again, but something this retro, fun and kitschy screams for it.
Halloween Birthday Cake Milkshakes
2 cups ice cream
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup yellow cake mix
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Hot fudge and Halloween sprinkles
Combine ice cream, pumpkin puree, milk, cake mix, cinnamon and nutmeg in a blender. Drizzle hot fudge down the sides of two glasses (5 points for a nice pentagram), pour milkshakes and top with Halloween sprinkles.
‘Tis the season! We’ve decked the halls with cobwebs and pumpkins, and are so ready for the final confrontation between Laurie Strode and Michael Myers in 2018’s Halloween, directed by David Gordon Green.
John Carpenter’s original Halloween film (1978), is iconic. We get the fearsome, stalky villain that launched a thousand slashers, the original Scream Queen, goddess Jamie Lee Curtis, and the spooky synth soundtrack that became a genuine classic. The film is almost beyond reproach. Almost.
The one problem…it doesn’t feel like Halloween at all! The houses are barely decorated, and a few half-hearted trick-or-treaters do not a proper Halloween make. Most of the lack of seasonal feel comes from the fact that though it’s set in the Midwest in October, it was filmed in Southern California in May. The film crew struggled to find pumpkins, used artificial fall leaves on streets lined with fully green trees, and every once in a while you even get a glimpse of a palm.
Here’s hoping the new film is every bit as scary and trope-y as the first, but pumped up with pumpkin spice! To honor the original, we’re making a pumpkin pie – the official pie of Illinois (which also happens to include our fictional town of Haddonfield) – marbled with California citrus. And not just any citrus: Myers, I mean Meyer, lemons. Meyer lemons are sweeter and less sharp than your basic lemons, but they aren’t quite in season – so if you have trouble finding them, using a mixture of lemon and orange works as well. The pie has a very snappy gingersnap crust, which is unfussy and compliments the filling well. There’s also a ribbon of pomegranate molasses flowing through, a quite autumnal ingredient with a gorgeous color that I never miss a chance to use. It works particularly well here to evoke blood. Slice with a BIG SHARP KNIFE and serve!
Myers Lemon Pumpkin Pie
For the crust
9 ounces gingersnap cookies
3 tablespoons butter, melted
Heat oven to 350°. In a food processor, blitz the cookies to crumbs, then add melted butter and pulse several times to combine. Press into a greased 9 inch glass pie plate, using the heel of your hand to flatten and gently spread it up the sides of the plate, and toast in the oven for 10 minutes until golden. Cool slightly before filling.
For the pumpkin mixture
1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick butter, melted
3 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup flour
Using a hand mixer or whisk, blend together pumpkin puree, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, butter, eggs, vanilla, and heavy cream. Sift flour into the mixture and blend until combined.
For the citrus cream cheese
6 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 teaspoons Meyer lemon zest (or a combination of lemon and orange zest)
2 teaspoons Meyer lemon juice (or a combination of lemon and orange juice)
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons heavy cream
Using a hand mixture, blend all ingredients.
To assemble
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses (you can purchase this at a Middle Eastern grocer, or make it yourself by boiling down pomegranate juice to about a third of its volume and cooling)
Pour pumpkin mixture into pie crust. Spoon cream cheese mixture over top and use a knife to marble it into the mixture. Drizzle pomegranate molasses on top and give it a last swirl with the knife before putting in the oven, at 350° for 50 minutes until just set.
Allow to cool at least 3 hours and even better, overnight, before serving.
The day December hits, right on schedule, visions of Christmas cookies are dancing in my head. I love peanut blossoms, pretty linzer squares, chocolatey chili cookies – and especially a wintery spice cookie.
I don’t have one that in particular that I normally make, so this caught my eye when I saw it: Carey Nershi’s Smokey Cardamom Ginger Molasses Cookies on Food52. It had me at black cardamom; which if green cardamom is the Queen of Spices, black cardamom is the sophisticated, mellowed, and camphorous Queen Mother. This recipe not only uses the seeds as part of the spices but infuses the butter with the pods.
I have adapted nothing about this recipe – I EVEN procured bread flour when AP would probably suffice, but after some light Googling I learned bread flour is higher in protein and therefore yields chewier baked goods – but I wanted to share it because it’s spicy and lovely and will likely become a regular part of my Christmas cookie repertoire.
Crack open cardamom pods and remove the seeds. Grind seeds with a mortar and pestle and set aside.
In a small saucepan, combine butter and empty cardamom pods and heat on medium low until butter is melted and slightly foamy. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, for 30 minutes.
Remove the cardamom pods and transfer butter to a mixing bowl; let cool to room temperature.
Whisk together the flours, baking soda, salt, reserved cardamom and the rest of the spices.
Add the sugar to the butter and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the molasses and the egg. Stir in dry ingredients until just combined. Cover and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours, or up to 2 days.
Prepare a baking sheet with silpat or parchment and preheat oven to 375° F. Put 1/2 cup sugar for rolling in a small bowl. Scoop heaping tablespoons of batter, form into balls, and roll in the sugar. Place two inches apart on the baking sheet.
Bake cookies in batches for 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
These were delicious straight from the oven, but chewier and even more delicious after a couple of days. Happy holidays!
