Granny’s Cook book.
Skullduggery for Halloween
June McInnes
The McLeod River Post
With Halloween waiting in the wings I thought id get a head start this week and practise for the forth coming event. I’ve used the basic bread recipe that we used last week as its a good natured and even-tempered dough that you can easily work with. This project would be fun with your children or grandchildren or anyone who likes a bit of innocent fun.
I serve mine with hot tomato soup, even jam would look good, if I’m using soup I put in a few small sausages in it to represent intestines, out kids loved it, you could also sprinkle the bread dough with grated cheese or sprinkle some on top of their soup for extra taste.
I chose a skull and bones as it seemed fitting for this time of year, but you could mould it into whatever you’d like. one of the fun things about this recipe is the bread dough swells during cooking causing the bones to stick together, so it feels extra gory to be pulling him apart and devour him.
Basic white loaf
1 1/2 cups of water
2 tbls of butter or margarine 1 tsp of salt
1 tbls of sugar
3 1/2 cups of All-purpose flour 3/4 tsp of yeast
Preheat oven to 350F Method
I add the water and salt, sugar and margarine to a largish bowl, I then put in the flour and top if off with the yeast. I start to mix it all together until I have a smooth elastic dough. I let this sit for about 40 mins to prove then I get it out of the bowl and knead it a kittle. I confess I do have a bread maker as I have arthritis I let it do the dough mixing for me, but I get it out of there and finish the dough myself.
Once your dough is ready having proved it a second time, (letting it rise) I put it on the table and lightly flour it to make it less sticky and easier to work with, I then rolled it into and shaped it into the skull and then the bones and arranged them around the head, I floured the tray before hand to make it easier to get them off there after baking.
If you want to make your bread bones shiny, then whisk a little water into an egg white and paint that on all over the bread bones, before baking. I cooked mine at 350F until just brown.
Once cooked I put it on the table, still warm, for the kids to devour with soup in a mug. sometimes I’ll put a small sausage in there to represent intestines, our children seemed to like that idea, it’s up to you.