- 2 months ago
Get ready for Halloween with Martha Stewart! Martha shares some of her favorite spooky season ideas, including a dark and mysterious cocktail perfect for parties. Learn unique pumpkin carving techniques, fun ways to decorate Halloween cupcakes and cookies, plus creative treats like a Jello candy bowl and white chocolate ghosts.
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00:00As we all know, Halloween isn't just for children.
00:03If you're having a grown-up party, here's a dark and mysterious cocktail.
00:07It's made with cassis and blackcurrant nectar.
00:10If you haven't seen blackcurrant nectar, well, it is a delectable drink.
00:14All these nectars, they're all delicious.
00:16They're a little on the sweet side, but when you finish making the punch,
00:20you'll want a little bit of that sweet sugar.
00:24Fill an ice cube tray because you want an undiluted punch.
00:28And if you use ice cubes made out of one of the ingredients,
00:33you will not be diluting your drink.
00:36It takes about two cups to fill an ice cube tray.
00:40Now get this right into the freezer and let it freeze until it's hard,
00:44at least three hours, so give yourself some time.
00:48We have some already frozen.
00:55Oh, that's beautiful and syrupy.
00:57And this will just let sit out.
00:59We're going to get it right into our punch bowl.
01:01In a medium saucepan, combine four cups more of this lovely blackcurrant nectar.
01:08Blackcurrants are blackberries.
01:10They are related to redcurrants and to whitecurrants.
01:14They're very pungent, and they are the basis for something called cassis,
01:19which is a French or European liqueur made out of blackcurrants.
01:26And it is often added in cocktails like a wonderful cure royale,
01:32if a little bit of cassis in champagne, or just a cure, which is cassis in white wine.
01:37We want eight fresh sage leaves.
01:40Very important that they be fresh.
01:42That's four, eight, and two sticks, two big fat sticks of cinnamon.
01:48Heat this up and simmer for 15 minutes.
01:52We already have one started.
01:54It's been sitting here on the stove, and what we want to do with it,
01:58it's really infused with the flavor of the sage and the cinnamon.
02:01Let's just strain it so that all the spices and the herbs are strained out.
02:10And this is what we're going to mix with the rest of our cocktail.
02:14Right in the punch bowl, you can combine this flavored nectar with one cup of cassis.
02:23This is that lovely, thick, syrupy cassis.
02:33Mmm, so good.
02:35One cup.
02:38You can see that it's quite thick.
02:41Two cups of sparkling cider.
02:44Sparkling cider is carbonated apple juice, but you could add champagne to this if you like.
02:57And two-thirds of a cup of ice-cold vodka.
03:09And add some club soda.
03:14Club soda makes it even more sparkly.
03:18About one cup of club soda.
03:20And now release your ice cubes and let these fall right down into your punch.
03:30And you see what I mean about not diluting your punch?
03:34And as soon as it's very cold, take a sip.
03:39You'll certainly enjoy it.
03:43Spook all your friends with a cauldron of Halloween punch with black ice.
03:48What a great place to carve a pumpkin.
03:52And Michael Nadiello is our expert carver.
03:56You can see the fantastic monsters behind us.
04:01A whole graveyard full of monsters.
04:04They're very effective.
04:06They really are.
04:07And Michael is going to show us how to carve a pumpkin.
04:10I'm doing a flying frog.
04:12And what are you doing?
04:13Doing a stationary frog.
04:15A stationary frog.
04:16And these, because we're taking away some of the flesh of the pumpkin and the hard skin,
04:21we're going to allow our lights to really kind of illuminate through the thin inner flesh of the pumpkin.
04:28Yeah, it'll look almost like a wood block print or a linoleum block print.
04:31Yeah, that's a very wonderful look.
04:33The deeper you go, the more light comes through, the brighter the line, the brighter that area.
04:38What is the best pumpkin to carve?
04:40Howdens or Connecticut Field Pumpkins.
04:42Those are the best for their thickness of skin, their low sugar content.
04:47So they don't rot.
04:47They don't rot quickly, yep.
04:49And when you're carving, it's important to make sure your tools are clean, your hands are clean,
04:53that you clean your pumpkin after you're done carving.
04:55Do you put anything on your carved pumpkin after you finish?
04:58If you're doing it on small scale, your home, you can dip it in a mild bleach solution
05:03or some kind of antibacterial solution to kill the germs and bacteria, let it dry,
05:08and then coat it, as you mentioned, with petroleum base or Vaseline product,
05:12and that'll keep out bacteria, inhibit mold growth.
05:14So these are traditional wood block or linoleum block cutter tools.
05:20This is a great pumpkin scraper.
05:22Yep, these are great.
05:23These are good for wood carving, gouging, but I...
05:28Chisels you can use.
05:29Chisels.
05:30I downloaded some templates from marthastewart.com.
05:33I scaled them to fit the size of the pumpkin using a copier and a larger.
05:38I used carbon paper to transfer the design onto the pumpkin.
05:43And then I went over the carbon with the Sharpie or a black permanent marker
05:47just so I wouldn't smear the carbon, wash the carbon off so I wouldn't smudge on my hands.
05:52And start by going around the contour, the outside, with the carver
05:57by placing the carver almost parallel with the surface
06:02and giving you just a gentle push, pushing down a little deeper as you go.
06:07And try not to be overzealous.
06:10If you try to gouge too much out, it gets stuck.
06:14You can always go deeper, but you can't really add more back.
06:17So once I've established the shape, the contour, I clean up the inside.
06:25And if you wanted to, you could actually take some black paint
06:29and cover the areas that were left uncarved.
06:32And so it gives it that actual wood block effect.
06:35Oh, I love that.
06:37But you can also create a silhouette.
06:39You could just scrape the back a bit very thin.
06:41It's almost a paper thin, and that'll allow a lot of light through.
06:43So if you want to try your hand at any of these amazing carving techniques,
06:49you can just go to our website at marthastewart.com
06:52and get lots and lots of instruction.
06:55Again, Michael, thanks.
06:56This is fun.
06:56My pleasure.
06:58Pablo's going to help me make cupcakes today.
07:01There's so many different ways to decorate cupcakes
07:03with all the different Halloween candies.
07:05Start with the best cupcake of a good texture.
07:09These are devil's food.
07:10And you can make some ganache.
07:12Nice chocolate frosting.
07:14Ganache is just a mixture of heavy cream and melted chocolate
07:18that's whipped and cooled to a nice spreading consistency.
07:23And if you'd like, you can dip the chocolate cupcake into chocolate dirt
07:27because we're going to try to emulate the graveyard.
07:32And this is ground-up chocolate wafers.
07:35On top of this, you can insert a tombstone cookie.
07:39Now, this is just shortbread with chocolate bits
07:42grated right into the shortbread mixture
07:44and baked in a tombstone shape.
07:47And we can decorate, oh, let's decorate maybe with a cobweb.
07:51And you can say, boo.
07:54Use orange and black and white frosting.
07:57And you can just make kind of a cobweb shape over the top
08:04and stick that right into your cupcake.
08:10Oh, another really fun thing to do is
08:12into the top of the cupcake, dig a little furrow,
08:18frost the cake with the chocolate,
08:20dip it into the dirt and insert the worm in the hole.
08:31And remember the old joke, children.
08:34What's worse than finding a worm in your cupcake?
08:38A half a worm.
08:40And now, using a cream cheese frosting
08:42because that, too, tastes awfully good.
08:46Tint it in orange.
08:47You can make little sticks with scary images on them,
08:51bats and cats,
08:53by accessing this kind of imagery from your favorite book.
08:56This is a great book called Halloween in America,
08:59A Collector's Guide.
09:01And you can just Xerox some of these pages
09:03and cut out the color Xeroxes
09:05and paste them on stirrer sticks.
09:08But your children can draw favorite Halloween visions.
09:13All of these look great on Halloween cupcakes.
09:15Place the cupcakes on a candy corn line tray.
09:20And one last idea,
09:22decorating cupcakes with string licorice.
09:25An E and an N.
09:28Added to this,
09:30a happy Halloween cupcake board
09:32with lots of gummy worms
09:33that I think anybody would enjoy receiving.
09:37Children seem to love all things
09:39creepy, crawly, slimy.
09:41Well, here's a fun way to indulge their passion.
09:43This Halloween, I'm going to use Jell-O
09:45and some inexpensive rubber snakes
09:47to decorate the candy bowl.
09:49See how it wiggles and jiggles?
09:51It's exactly the right thing to have.
09:53You can make this out of green Jell-O,
09:55yellow Jell-O, orange Jell-O,
09:57whatever you like.
09:59And they're kind of easy to make,
10:00but it takes a long time.
10:02First, you have to have nesting bowls,
10:05one slightly smaller than the other.
10:08And we have about an inch of space
10:11between the two bowls.
10:14And you have to make up your Jell-O.
10:16Jell-O, nothing could be easier than Jell-O.
10:18And this is lime Jell-O.
10:19And we have to add two cups of boiling water
10:22to two packages of Jell-O.
10:27So this will dissolve the Jell-O very nicely.
10:32You can buy these inexpensive rubber snakes
10:35at toy stores.
10:37You can get them in certain catalogs,
10:39and they're very cute.
10:40These come from Fun Express.
10:43A dozen costs only $4.80.
10:46Now add two cups of cold water.
10:48And now starts the actual building
10:54of the snake bowl.
10:56Place some snakes,
10:58whichever ones you really like,
11:00in the bottom.
11:02And now pour a little bit of your Jell-O to cover.
11:09And then put the other bowl on top.
11:15Now it's going to sit there.
11:19And to weight this down,
11:20put something heavy in the bowl.
11:22You can put a can of tomatoes,
11:24a can of juice,
11:26or I have this melon here,
11:28and I'm just going to keep that here.
11:30Now, if you want,
11:31you can just take this to the refrigerator,
11:34chill it,
11:35let it stay just like that,
11:36and then add your other layers.
11:38Or you could attempt to do all of it
11:41at the same time
11:41by just adding your little squiggly snakes
11:45down the side of the bowl.
11:46Leave a few hanging over.
11:50People who hate snakes
11:51will really hate this bowl,
11:54which is exactly what you want to do on Halloween.
11:57I find it a very effective punch bowl.
12:00This would be so cute,
12:02filled with apple juice
12:03or cider for the kids.
12:06And it's a little bit better in the light
12:08than out of the light.
12:09This looks pretty creepy and crawly.
12:13And now you can just
12:15pour the rest of your Jell-O
12:17carefully between the bowls.
12:24So you see why you need this heavy weight.
12:29Snakes are moving around.
12:31It might be a good idea
12:34to let them set.
12:39So I'm going to put this in the refrigerator,
12:41let it set,
12:42and then fill it all the way to the top
12:44with the Jell-O
12:46so that you get this shaky,
12:48quakey Jell-O bowl.
12:51Just imagine that bowl
12:53filled with all your candies.
12:55Kids can reach in
12:56for their assortment of treats.
13:03And it quakes, it shakes.
13:06A bowl full of Jell-O.
13:08The little goblins and ghosts
13:09that visit my house this year
13:11are going to love reaching into this bowl.
13:18Remember those spicy iced cookies
13:20in the grocery store
13:21that always looked far more delicious
13:24than they ever tasted?
13:25Well, I'm going to show you
13:26how to make the real old-fashioned kind,
13:28the kind that is full of molasses and ginger,
13:31and the kind that fills your kitchen
13:33with the most amazing fragrance.
13:35These are pumpkin spice cookies,
13:38and you can bake them
13:39in any size you like.
13:41Make the perfect cookies
13:42for you and your children
13:43to decorate for Halloween.
13:45And these are so easy.
13:47Sift together
13:48four and three quarters cups
13:50of all-purpose flour
13:51and add to this
13:52a half a teaspoon of baking powder.
13:56two tablespoons of baking soda,
14:01three quarters of a teaspoon of salt,
14:05two teaspoons of cinnamon,
14:08and one and a half teaspoons
14:12of powdered ginger.
14:15Okay, now just sift these together.
14:16Notice I'm just using a great big sieve.
14:19And now cream together
14:20three sticks of unsalted butter,
14:23and this is at room temperature.
14:25Cream the butter
14:25with one and three quarters cups
14:27of granulated sugar.
14:38Scrape the bowl
14:39and the beaters down
14:40once or twice during beating.
14:42You really want the butter
14:43and the sugar
14:44to be light and fluffy.
14:45And now I'll add one egg.
14:55Beat it up a little bit.
15:02And the second egg.
15:03And one teaspoon
15:16of vanilla extract.
15:25Another scraping.
15:26And add a half a cup
15:33of dark molasses.
15:34It actually makes them chewy.
15:42And it smells so good.
15:44Now little by little,
15:46add the flour.
15:49This will yield
15:50a nice malleable
15:52but not too dry dough.
15:54The last bit of flour
16:02is in the bowl.
16:06Now don't overbeat your dough.
16:07Just get all the dry ingredients
16:09incorporated into the batter.
16:11It looks beautiful.
16:14And there.
16:18And now we're going to divide
16:19this dough into four portions.
16:22And we're going to roll
16:23each portion
16:24into a log
16:25and chill it.
16:28And there.
16:29Four portions.
16:32And we want to
16:33roll this into
16:35sort of even logs.
16:41And you will put this
16:43into the refrigerator
16:44and wait till it chills
16:46hard.
16:47Well here we're almost finished.
16:52Twist the ends
16:53a little bit.
16:54And now
16:54right into
16:55the refrigerator.
16:56And here we have
16:57four rolls
16:59that have already chilled.
17:02And now I'll get
17:03my baking sheets ready
17:04and I'll show you
17:05how to bake.
17:07Well, our cookie sheets
17:08are lined with parchment paper.
17:10It makes cleanup
17:10and baking so easy.
17:12Here's our dough
17:13all nicely chilled.
17:14Just unwrap it.
17:16And we're going to slice it
17:17in three-eighths
17:18of an inch slices.
17:19This goes very quickly.
17:32You can make
17:32an awful lot of cookies.
17:33Bake these
17:35at 350 degrees
17:36in a preheated oven
17:37for about
17:3812 to 15 minutes.
17:40And while they're
17:45still cold
17:46get them right
17:47into the oven.
17:55And I think
17:56the ones below
17:57are ready to take out.
17:59Oh yes.
18:04Oh, they look great.
18:06My kitchen smells heavenly.
18:12The spices
18:13and the aromas
18:14are just terrific.
18:16Now let these cool
18:16just a minute or so
18:18on the pan
18:19and then loosen them
18:20with your spatula
18:21and remove them
18:23to a cooling rack
18:24to firm up
18:26and cool.
18:29And now
18:30the fun begins.
18:31Take these delicious
18:33spicy cookies
18:34and decorate them
18:36for Halloween.
18:37This is where
18:38whimsy
18:38and simplicity
18:39really comes in handy.
18:41Notice what I'm doing.
18:42I'm outlining
18:43in a firm icing.
18:45This is just
18:45a royal icing.
18:46Then I'll take
18:47a wetter icing
18:49and I'll just
18:50squiggle it
18:51in the places
18:52where I want
18:53a solid color.
18:54This will dry
18:55nice and hard
18:56but it just
18:57makes it so much
18:58easier and quicker
18:59to decorate
19:00if the icing
19:01is of
19:01a more
19:02liquid consistency.
19:04And now
19:05with my little
19:06spatula
19:06just fill in
19:08around our
19:09outlines.
19:10This is a
19:10great little
19:11spatula.
19:13And really
19:13you can be
19:14very, very
19:15simple
19:16and yet
19:17still very
19:18effective.
19:20I'll try
19:20another color
19:21green.
19:24By putting
19:25a line
19:25around the
19:26exterior
19:26of this
19:27flat cookie
19:28you can keep
19:29the icing
19:30from dripping
19:30down the sides.
19:31the great
19:33cookie
19:33decorator
19:33Patty Page
19:34showed us
19:35how to do
19:35these
19:36simple
19:36but
19:37very
19:38evocative
19:39looks.
19:42I like
19:43these
19:43big mouth
19:44cookies
19:45where you
19:46just keep
19:47decorating
19:48and decorating
19:49until you
19:51have every
19:52single kind
19:53of face.
19:54And our
19:54website will
19:55show you
19:55all these
19:56different images.
19:57You can just
19:58use them
19:58as
19:58inspiration.
19:59Howling
20:00spice
20:01cookies
20:01for
20:02Halloween.
20:03No, I'm
20:04not cooking
20:04up a
20:05witch's
20:05brew.
20:06I'm
20:06actually
20:06making
20:07these
20:08very
20:08cute
20:09little
20:10ghosts.
20:11White
20:11chocolate
20:12ghosts
20:12which are
20:13great for
20:14Halloween.
20:15And if
20:15you wrap
20:16them in
20:16little
20:17cellophane
20:17packages
20:18like this
20:18they're
20:19very nice
20:19to hand
20:19out at
20:20your front
20:20door
20:20as a
20:21trick-or-treat
20:22and your
20:23children will
20:23adore them.
20:24You need
20:25some white
20:25chocolate
20:26bits.
20:27We're
20:27using one
20:27package
20:28of white
20:28chocolate
20:28bits
20:29and melting
20:29the chocolate
20:30just softening
20:31it over
20:32simmering
20:32water
20:33until the
20:34bits are
20:35melted
20:35or almost
20:37melted.
20:38And to
20:39this we're
20:40going to
20:40add
20:41one and a
20:42half
20:42tablespoons
20:43of
20:43vegetable
20:44oil.
20:44The
20:45vegetable
20:45oil
20:45tends to
20:46make the
20:47white
20:47chocolate
20:47glistening
20:48and a
20:50little bit
20:51more
20:51malleable
20:51and a
20:52little bit
20:53easier to
20:54work with.
20:54and just
20:57stir this
20:58up.
21:00See how
21:01it loosens
21:02it up?
21:03Stir it
21:04up, get
21:05those lumps
21:06out of
21:06it.
21:09And now
21:10using
21:10parchment
21:11paper or
21:12a silpat
21:12just spoon
21:15a ghostly
21:16shape.
21:18A head
21:19and you
21:21can spread
21:21this down
21:22two little
21:23arms
21:23and a
21:30tail
21:30using
21:31about
21:32oh
21:32probably
21:33one
21:34heaping
21:35tablespoon
21:36of white
21:38chocolate.
21:39Place a
21:40lollipop
21:41stick.
21:41you can
21:46put a
21:46little bit
21:47more
21:47chocolate
21:48over the
21:48lollipop
21:49stick
21:49just so
21:49it
21:49hardens
21:50nicely
21:51and holds
21:52in.
21:53And you
21:53may get
21:54something
21:54that looks
21:54like a
21:55ghost
21:55or something
21:55that looks
21:56like a
21:56little
21:56airplane.
22:06And
22:06another
22:07stick
22:07just
22:07place it
22:09into the
22:09chocolate.
22:10you can
22:10twirl
22:11the
22:11stick
22:12around.
22:17Now
22:17I usually
22:18do all
22:19of this
22:19in this
22:19costume
22:19of course.
22:25It's
22:25comfortable.
22:29It's
22:29appropriate.
22:37Oh
22:37we're
22:38going to
22:38lose
22:38his
22:39eye
22:39but
22:39half
22:40an eye
22:40is
22:41better
22:41than
22:41no
22:42eyed
22:42wouldn't
22:42you
22:42say.
22:43So
22:44keep
22:44making
22:44them
22:44and
22:44making
22:45them
22:45and
22:45as
22:45they
22:45harden
22:46transfer
22:47to
22:47the
22:48refrigerator
22:48for at least
22:49five
22:50minutes.
22:51And we
22:51have some
22:52already
22:53hardened
22:54right here
22:58and you can
23:00gently
23:00extricate
23:01out of
23:02your
23:02and
23:03and serve
23:14them up to
23:14those hungry
23:16little hordes
23:17who appear at
23:19the door on
23:20Halloween night.
23:22Our little white
23:23ghosts are almost
23:24too cute to eat
23:25but they'll be
23:26devoured
23:27nevertheless.
23:27less.
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