Who else still has kids who can’t decide what they’re going to be for Halloween? Me, too! My youngest child keeps merging two costume ideas since she can’t decide on just one, either a fairy witch… or a fairy cat… or a fairy singer. At least the fairy part has stayed the same for a month. And we’ve already got the purple wings for her outfit. If only I could convince her just to be, well, a fairy!
To help my kids use their Halloween creativity – beyond thinking up costume ideas – I try to give them a chance to make spooky treats. This year, my youngest found a skeleton chocolate mold (coincidentally right across from where we found the fairy wings) that she wanted to try out. Melting chocolate and molds are available at a number of area stores, including Meijer, Michael’s, and Jo-Ann Fabrics & Crafts.
For our skeleton brownies recipe, I do recommend picking up melting chocolate, sometimes called almond bark, instead of relying on chocolate chips to use in molds. Chocolate chips don’t tend to melt as smoothly or set up as quickly as chocolate tailor-made for molds. Plus, if you’re looking for a certain color, melting chocolate literally comes in a rainbow of options, whereas if you try mixing in food dye, the results are usually bland colors, or streaks of colors versus an even look. For skeletons, the color choice is easy: white.
To create a spooky scene using your white chocolate skeleton, bake a pan of your favorite brownies (mixes work well here, too). Before you pour the batter into the pan, line it with either waxed or parchment paper (recommended) that you’ve lightly coated with cooking spray. Once the brownies are baked and cooled, cut them into generous rectangular pieces and then flip the piece over. Using a fork, prick at the brownie to make the crumbs look like soil; then, position the skeleton pieces so that it looks like the skeleton is emerging from the ‘soil.’
And if you can’t find the skeleton mold, you can always make headstones out of oblong crackers (Flips work well, or even graham crackers), dipped into white chocolate; then, write ‘RIP’ on each using melted dark chocolate (and still use the brownie as the base).
