Booooooook!

Considering it's October, I'm still up to my old tricks and treats. You know, baking spooky things, watching Hocus Pocus at least once a day, and enjoying a seasonally appropriate gloomy, gray day (thank you, New Mexico!). If I had to pick, Hocus Pocus is my all-time favorite Halloween movie and has been since childhood. While most little girls wanted to be Sarah because she's blonde and pretty, I always loved Winifred best, even as a kid. I mean, she loves a good book, she doesn't suffer fools, and she looks fabulous in green...she's basic witch goals. That whole turning enemies into cats thing would also come in pretty handy. Since we're still getting the house set up, I didn't have a ton of free time to bake this weekend, so I opted for a quick, easy tribute to my favorite of all witches...

"Hello. I want my book. Bonjour. Je veux mon livre."

My biggest hope is the sequel sees Winifred reuniting with her book, mostly so she can slap Max Dennison upside the head with it. Kid was a real tool, that's all I'm saying. But I had nary a scare in the world as I made and decorated these Booooook! brownies. They were so much fun, and truly, done in under an hour. If you're looking for a dessert that appears to have taken all day, but takes a solid 30 minutes of work total, these book brownies fit (and hit) the spot. I wish I could say they're super low cal, but anything coated in layers of chocolate is gonna hit the macros a little hard. The recipe I used makes 12 brownies at 329 calories a piece. If you opt to leave the chocolate coating off, they're 229 calories, but they won't be as delicious...just creepin' it real. You gotta indulge every once in a while, and feasting & sweatpants season has begun anyway.

If I was actually a witch, the only spell I'd ever cast is making all desserts zero calories.

I'm still feeling out the grocery stores here to see what they offer in the way of gluten free baking mixes which has been turning into, well, a real witch hunt. BUT I was happy find Bob's Red Mill gluten free brownie mix at our health food store to test out (you know, for science). I am now absolutely hooked on this mix because it makes the fudgiest brownies. If you like cakey brownies, 1. Just no. & 2. Why not just make...a cake? Give me bricks of chocolatey fudge or give me, well, I'd still eat the cake brownies, but I wouldn't be completely happy about it. To make these, all you need is:

• 1 bag of Bob's Red Mill gluten free brownie mix (or your favorite box brownie mix)
• 1/4 cup of water
• 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce
• 3 eggs

 Whisk all ingredients together by hand until smooth. Grease an 8x8 or 9x9 pan and preheat your oven to 325. Pour your batter into your prepared pan and bake until a toothpick comes out mostly clean...a few crumbs are fine, you just don't want liquid batter dripping off the toothpick. I baked in an 8x8 pan for 35 minutes.

These brownies put me in a trance, alright.

Once baked, I put these in the fridge to fully chill so they'd be easier to cut. Unlike last week's insight into serial killers, I did not enjoy cutting these the way I did sawing through Oreo's, so I was definitely meant to be a precise, strategic psycho murderer and not just your average slasher. In either case, I definitely butchered these brownies while cutting them, so maybe freeze them instead or try using a plastic knife.

Am I trying to use eyeball sprinkles on every bake this month? Eye'd like to say yes, but this is purely coincidental.

To finish the Boooook! brownies, you'll also need some yummy chocolate chips, black candy melts, candy eye sprinkles, and a piping bag with or without small round tips. Once my brownies were chilled completely, I hacked away into 12 pieces. Hacking is actually putting it nicely. I have watched horror movies where the killer was kinder in death than I was to these brownies.

Absolutely annihilated them.

Luckily, they were both cold and fudgy (Count Chocula's working biography title), so I was able to reshape them after all this happened. I only coated 6 brownies in chocolate and left the other 6 plain for my husband because he's not really into chocolate (maybe he's the serial killer, because that's truly an anomaly). I used 175 grams of Lily's sugar free semisweet chocolate chips to coat all 6 of what we're now referring to as "my brownies." ...but, really, aren't they all?

Eye put a spell on you, and now you're mine...

I mean, just throw on Bette Midler's version of "I Put a Spell on You," and I will get so pumped up you could convince me to rob a bank. I definitely hummed that song while I melted my chocolate and prepared to slather chocolate on more chocolate (which is also a good way to pump me up. You want to add chocolate to MORE chocolate? I'm in.). 

I melted the chips for 1 minute at 50% power, then stirred until all my chips were melted and smooth. I put down cling film on the counter since I'm out of Parchment and put my cooling rack with brownies on top of this. Then I used a large spoon to heap melted chocolate on top of each brownie, using the back of the spoon to smooth out the top and let the chocolate drip down the sides of the brownies. While the chocolate was still wet, I placed one eye on eye brownie. I put them back in the fridge to set while I melted my black candy melts (I had about 1/4 of an open bag left, and I had tons leftover after decorating my booooooks). These also melted at 1 minute/50% power, but I added 1 tsp of vegetable oil to smooth things out since they weren't brand new. Then I placed this in a piping bag with a #3 round tip. You could also just place in a piping bag or plastic baggy and make a small snip at the end with some scissors.

And then I gave them all a black eye. I really put these brownies through the ringer.

I drew a small circle around each book's eye. Then I drew two small semicircles at the right-hand corners. I took my coupler off my piping bag to draw a thick line to work as the spine for each book.

I feel like it's trying to tell me something...

Then I grabbed a toothpick and "pulled" the melted chocolate out to the right to give the spine s some texture:

But maybe he's just staring at me like that because he knows I'm going to eat him.

After this, I put my coupler back on and drew a zigzag pattern in the blank space.

You know, to make it look like human skin sewn together, because that's what book was really made of, and I value authenticity.

I drew thin, tiny lines across these zigzags to make it look like a stitched pattern. Then, I let these set in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Would Winifred eat them, or would she love them too much to do so? These are the real questions.

Once set, I used a knife to gently pry them off the cooling rack (what is it with me and knives this month?!). These live in the fridge to keep the chocolate from getting melty. I take them out about 15 minutes before we're ready to eat them so the chocolate is easy to bite through but isn't melty enough to make me look like Augustus Gloop (wrong movie for this blog).

Knowledge truly can be delicious.

I had an absolute blast in this edition of arts and witchcrafts. These were so easy to make, and they fill me with so much delight. I've never done a Hocus Pocus-inspired bake for Spooktober before, so it's about time. As a Winifred-in-training, it's essential that I, too, have my wonderful book of spells. I am hoping that when the chaos of painting and decorating the house subsides, I'll be able to take on a full day's worth of baking to make a cake that is either absolutely ghastly and grotesque, or absolutely terrifying and delightful. Until that happens, I have the world's fudgiest, chocolate book brownies to keep my taste buds company. They are definitely rich, but I like to devour an entire book in one sitting anyway, so this definitely works for me. I am 100% into the Halloween groove now, and I'm gonna thank hitting the books for that. 'Til next time, my fellow eaters!

Let's just hope we don't have to wait another 300 years for those Sanderson Sisters to return.