More than a Spread

According to Foodimentary -- a website that keeps track of food holidays -- today is World Nutella Day.  Nutella, a creamy combination of cocoa and hazelnuts, is best known as a dip or spread, but it actually has many other uses.   You can add Nutella to cakes, cookies, pies, candies, ice creams and frostings too!  It's also an ingredient in beverages, both alcoholic and nonalcoholic.

This time last year, a friend gave me the recipe for Nutter Butter Nutella Icebox Cake.  When I read the recipe, I immediately thought of tiramisu. Instead of ladyfingers and coffee, though, this recipe uses Nutter Butters -- the peanut shaped cookies I transform into ghosts at Halloween -- and milk.

The Nutter Butters are softened by briefly dipping them in milk before placing them in the pan.

I use a spring-form pan, but you can use a 9-inch square pan or layer the ingredients in a pretty glass bowl.  Depending on the size and shape of the pan you use, you may need more or less cookies.

Half the filling -- cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, Nutella and heavy cream -- is spread over the first layer of cookies.  If the dessert is scooped out of the pan, you can get away with using low-fat cream cheese.  If the cake is cut into slices, the pieces will be firmer and retain their shape better if you use regular cream cheese.

Repeat the process with a second layer of cookies and the remaining filling.

You don't have to measure the filling, but make sure you leave enough to completely cover the top of the cake.  The cake needs to be refrigerated overnight to firm up.  

The cake is plain so I drizzle some chocolate syrup on the serving plate to add a little color before adding the piece of cake.

If you want to dress it up even more, add a dollop of whipped cream, 

a sprinkling of chopped leftover Nutter Butters 

and top with additional chocolate syrup.

The next time you see Nutella in the grocery and wonder what you can do with it, remember it's more than a spread!

Nutter Butter Nutella Icebox Cake

6 to 8 servings

2 (8 oz.)  pkg. cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

1 (13 oz.) jar Nutella

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

30 Nutter Butters (plus more for garnish, if desired)

1/2 cup milk

whipped cream (optional)

chocolate syrup (optional)

In a large bowl, mix cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth.  Mix in Nutella until combined.  Add heavy cream; beat 2 minutes, or until very thick.  Dip Nutter Butters one at a time in milk.  Line the bottom of a spring-form pan with the cookies.  Top with half the cream cheese mixture. Make a second layer with remaining cookies and cream cheese mixture. Cover and refrigerate overnight.  Cut into slices and serve.  Top with whipped cream, chopped Nutter Butters and chocolate syrup, if desired. Refrigerate leftovers.

© Margaret's Morsels

Repurposed Recipes for Halloween

You don't need special ingredients to make Halloween party food.  Give everyday food a Halloween makeover by repurposing the recipe.  Most of the recipes I'm sharing today can be made ahead of time.  This makes things a lot less hectic the day of the party, because most of the work has already been done.

When I wrote about Sausage Balls, I described this simple three ingredient recipe as a "no brainer."  This term is definitely appropriate because on Halloween this appetizer turns into brains.  The brains can be baked up to five days ahead of time and reheated in the microwave or oven.  If you reheat them in the oven, you may need to cover the pan with foil to keep the tops from getting too brown.  If you want to make them look more disgusting, slightly squish the warm brains with your fingers.

Baked Mozzarella Cheese Sticks turn into fingers with the addition of sliced almonds for fingernails.  Unfortunately, you can't add lines for the knuckles because the cheese will ooze out when it's baked.  The cheese sticks need to be assembled and refrigerated at least four to six hours ahead of time.  If you're short on time, they can be assembled and refrigerated the night before.  Unlike the other recipes, fingers are best served hot from the oven.

While the fingers are baking, whip up a batch of fake blood dipping sauce with this homemade pizza sauce recipe.  This easy to prepare sauce only uses five ingredients and cooks in five minutes.  One batch is enough for 18 fingers.

For years, I've used Nutter Butter cookies to make ghost cookies for Halloween.  This year, I decided to turn these store bought cookies into monster toes.  I used a package of spooky green candy melts instead of the usual white.  Monster toes aren't pretty so you don't have to worry if the toes aren't covered perfectly with the candy melts.

The toenails are made with small pieces of black licorice.  The pieces are too thick to use out of the package so I cut them in half.

If you want to add an extra ick factor, put a chocolate chip on the toe to mimic a wart.  Normally, when I decorate with chocolate chips, I turn them upside down so the point doesn't show.  To make the wart more disgusting, I put the chocolate chip with the point right side up.  The cookies can be made a few days ahead of time and stored in an airtight container.

A festive touch for Halloween is to coat drinking glasses with fake blood made from a mixture of corn syrup and food coloring.

Instead of liquid food coloring, I use gel icing -- a concentrated paste -- which is sold in small jars in a variety of colors.  It produces richer, more vibrant colors and, because it's concentrated, a little dab will do!  The most important thing to remember when using gel icing is to use a clean toothpick or knife every time you remove some icing from the jar.  This keeps the contents from getting contaminated with frosting or, in this case, diluted with water.  Once the rim is coated, stand the glass upright on a paper towel or piece of wax paper, letting the excess drip down the glass. It takes at least eight hours for the glasses to dry.  To ensure they dry in time, I coat the glasses a day ahead of time.

With the glasses decorated, you need something to put in them.  I turn my mother's Christmas Kool-Aid Punch into Ghoul-Aid Punch, by substituting two packages of orange Kool-Aid for the cherry and lemonade called for in the recipe.

The punch can be made a few days ahead of time, but don't add the 7-Up until it's served.  To make the punch more festive, I add some orange gel icing.  

The punch on the left doesn't 
have orange gel icing.

To keep with the holiday theme, I make ice cubes using silicone Halloween ice cube trays.  

I don't use water to make the ice cubes; water will dilute the punch as the ice cubes melt.  If you make the punch ahead of time, you can use some of it for ice cubes.  You can do the same thing with pineapple juice, since it's also an ingredient in the punch.  A 6 ounce can of pineapple juice was just enough to make one tray of ice cubes.

If you don't want to fool with ice cubes, an easy way to keep the punch cold is to add orange or pineapple sherbet to the punch bowl.

The repurposed foods mentioned today don't make a well rounded meal. For more ideas, check out the Halloween blog I posted in 2010.  I posted two Halloween blogs last year and they can be viewed here and here.  For the recipes mentioned today, click on the bold words to go to the appropriate page.  Whatever you serve, may your Halloween food be ghoulishly delicious!

© Margaret's Morsels