Here are a couple of wickedly wonderful Halloween treats for kids and adults. A whipped topping “ghost” sitting on chocolate cookie crumbs on orange mousse is enough to scare any trick-or-treater. The same goes for the “pretzel ghosts”—pretzels dipped in white chocolate and decorated as ghosts. Both can be wrapped for handing out at Halloween or for school parties.
Orange Mousse
Makes 5-6 servings
1 1/2 envelopes (1 1/2 tbsp) unflavoured gelatine
20 ml (4 tsp) orange zest
250 ml (1 cup) fresh orange juice, strained
25 ml (2 tbsp) lemon juice
50 ml (1/4 cup) sugar
375 ml (1 1/2 cups) heavy cream
Orange food colouring paste
Chocolate cookie crumbs
500 ml (2 cups) whipped topping, thawed
Chocolate icing or black food colouring
In a small saucepan, sprinkle gelatine over 75 ml (1/3 cup) water and stir. Set aside until gelatine softens. In a medium saucepan over low heat, heat zest, juices, and sugar until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat. Strain out the zest. Warm gelatine mixture over low heat until smooth and whisk into juice mixture. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and refrigerate stirring occasionally until slightly thickened approximately 15-20 minutes being careful to not let it set.
Whip cream until soft peaks form and fold into gelatine mixture until thoroughly combined. Gently whisk in food colouring paste to desired colour. Sprinkle cookie crumbs in bottom of each serving dish, and then spoon mousse onto the cookie crumbs. Refrigerate for 10 minutes until set.
Sprinkle cookie crumbs on each mousse and pipe on the whipped topping, making a point at the top. Apply dots of chocolate icing from a tube for the eyes or use a toothpick with a bit of black food colouring.
