Til Death Do Us Part?

One of the pleasures of having an April 30th Halloween is that the lead up is free of all the trappings that precede Halloween in October. I love the fun build up to October Halloween but I also love that the days leading up to April Halloween have special and appropriate significance for me.

April begins with April Fool’s Day which is one of my “New Year” days on which I review the journey I have been on and plan for the journey ahead. In the middle of April is Bat Appreciation Day followed by Bram Stoker’s Death Day and ANZAC Day. The month ends with both Walpurgis Night and Halloween!

Halloween is one of many different days observed around the world that is dedicated to remembering and honouring our dead. The cultural importance of these days suggests that for many, “Til Death Do Us Part”, doesn’t really work. As I get into the Halloween spirit, I remember my beloved dead and how the ties I have with them have not ended even though they have departed from this realm.

This year I began Halloween by having morning tea at the Fawkner Tearooms situated in Fawkner Memorial Park.

It’s evening now and I’m preparing mint tea and cakes for a very special Halloween Mourning Tea. To begin:

• Set a table as you would for a Silent Supper, with one place set for each guest and one place of honour set for your departed loved ones.
• Place food that reminds you of your loved ones on the table, placing a special offering on the plate for the dead. (I had coffin shaped chocolate cakes reserved for this occasion from my Deadly Surprise Cake, giving them new life by drizzling them with peppermint icing).
• Place drinks that remind you of your loved ones on the table, pouring a special offering into the cup for the dead.
• While you eat and drink, think about your departed loved ones.
• There is no right way to do a Silent Supper. Just do what feels right for you.

I created my own Mourning Tea ritual, inspired by the elaborate preparation and serving of Moroccan Mint Tea. A traditional Moroccan Mint Tea ritual combines a powerful spiritual and culinary journey that is beautifully described in this Maghrebi poem:

The first glass is as gentle as life,
The second glass is a strong as love,
The third is as bitter as death.

Mourning Mint Tea

Ingredients (enough for three guests)
small bunch mint leaves
3 cups boiling water
1 tablespoon peppermint tea leaves
1 tablespoon black tea leaves

Instructions
Place the fresh mint in a teapot.
Pour in boiling water and steep for eight minutes.
Fill the honoured guest cup a third of the way then pour a small serve of tea for each guest.
Add the peppermint tea to the teapot and steep for 6 minutes.
While the tea is having its second brew, relax and enjoy the gentle mint flavour of the first brew.
After six minutes, strain the tea into each cup following the ritual above.
Add the black tea to the teapot and steep for 4 minutes.
While the tea is having its third brew, relax and enjoy the stronger peppermint flavour of the second brew.
After four minutes, strain the tea into each cup following the ritual above.
Enjoy the bitter tea flavour of this third brew.
When you are ready to finish the ritual, pack everything up except the cake and tea reserved for your loved ones. If you can, leave them on the table overnight and then bury the cake and pour the tea in your garden on May Day.

Note: If you have a pot warmer or tea cosy, it will help keep the brew hot throughout.

Bram’s Bloody Birthday Crepes

For Halloween, Stokers Fine Pancakes issued this haunting invitation:

“Indulge in the wickedly delicious “Blood Orange Suzette” – our special Halloween dessert. Sink your fangs into fluffy pancakes topped with rhubarb blood orange compote, and watch as we pour flaming blood (made with Cointreau, vermouth, grenadine) over fresh blood orange slices swimming in a buttery sauce.”

Normally I would be running to my favourite pancake place to indulge in this creepy crepe delight! Unfortunately, a recently diagnosed health issue has meant I can no longer have alcohol. With tears in my eyes, (and drool pooling in mouth) I knew I wouldn’t be visiting Stokers for blood thirsty crepes. But never fear, inspired by their flavours, I did my own version of Blood Orange Suzette, minus the rhubarb and the flambé.

These frighteningly delicious crepes are a wonderful way to celebrate Bram Stoker’s birthday on November 8th. As an added extra, Bram’s birthday will align with the astronomical dates for Beltane in the southern hemisphere and Samhain in the northern hemisphere. If you can, flambé your crepes for a truly seasonal treat. 

Blood Orange Crepes

Ingredients
for the crepes
1 cup flour
1 + 1/2 cups milk
2 eggs
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
30g (2 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
extra butter for frying

for the blood orange sauce
60g unsalted butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup blood orange juice
zest of 1 blood orange
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon grenadine syrup

Instructions
Mix together the flour, milk, eggs, sugar, salt and melted butter until combined.
Heat a small amount of butter in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat.
Pour in enough batter to thinly cover the base of the pan.
Tilt the pan to spread the batter evenly around.
Cook for 1 minute or until the underside is golden.
Gently loosen the edges with a spatula and carefully turn the crepe over.
Cook until the bottom is golden.
Place the crepe onto a plate and fold in half and then half again to form a triangle.
Repeat with remaining batter.
Set aside while you make the sauce.
Heat butter and sugar in a frying pan until the sugar is melted.
Lower heat and add the remaining ingredients.
Stir until sauce is hot but not boiling.
Put the crepes in the sauce and heat until warmed through.
Place crepes onto serving plates and pour the sauce over them. 
Serve with cream, ice cream or both!

A Very Smashing Halloween

October 31st is Halloween in the northern hemisphere and Beltane in the southern. I mostly follow the southern hemisphere wheel of the year but, being a Goth, I can’t resist the lure of an October Halloween. This temptation becomes stronger as Australia further embraces the trappings and celebrations of Halloween.

On Sunday I went to a Pumpkin Smash at Melbourne Zoo. Armed with my itinerary telling me which animals would be given pumpkins and at what time, I spent six hours walking around the zoo. My first animal was the snow leopard who at first was unimpressed with the seemingly vegetarian offering but then surprised the crowd by pulling a rabbit out of the pumpkin. Next on my agenda were the peccaries who absolutely loved their vegetarian pumpkin course and followed it up with some greens.

I expected a large crowd for the elephant pumpkin stomping so went early to secure a front row viewing. There was a big crowd and the elephants didn’t disappoint! An adult female proudly stomped on her pumpkin, treating us to the sight of spraying juice and flying flesh. A baby elephant tried to stomp on their pumpkin in the same manner but hilariously failed. After much stomping the pumpkin eventually became a pancake, minus the spectacle.

After a quick lunch I visited the red-tailed black cockatoos who were happily pecking pumpkins. Their stunning black and red feathers, combined with the bright orange pumpkins, beautifully showcased my favourite Halloween colours. The always adorable pygmy hippopotamus was the final stop on the pumpkin smashing shenanigans and he also put on a show for us. 

A trip to Melbourne Zoo would not be complete without a visit to the red pandas, one of my favourites. The red panda wasn’t given a pumpkin, but since its colours remind me of pumpkin spice, it is a perfect animal for Halloween.

In celebration of the pumpkin smashing, I’ve made my version of candied pumpkin, a traditional Halloween dish. The best part is that leftovers can be mashed (or smashed!) and used in cakes and puddings. I particularly like swirling the leftover syrup through ice cream, or simply poured over it if I’m in a hurry. 🙂

Candied Pumpkin

Ingredients
850g butternut pumpkin (approximately)
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup maple sugar
2 cups water
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
3 cloves
1 blood orange

Instructions
Keeping the skin on, de-seed the pumpkin and slice into small wedges. Set aside.
Add the sugars, water and spices to a large saucepan.
Add the juice and zest of the blood orange.
Bring to a boil.
Add the pumpkin slices.
Reduce to a simmer.
Cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until a fork slips easily into the pumpkin flesh.
Uncover the pan and simmer for a further 20 minutes.
Remove the pumpkin.
Increase the heat to medium and continue simmering until the liquid has reduced to a thick syrup. (Check the pan regularly to prevent burning)
Remove from heat and allow syrup to cool.
Serve pumpkin with syrup at room temperature. (You can choose to eat the skin or not)
You can also serve it with milk, cream or ice cream.
Store any leftovers in the fridge for up to three days.

A Beltane for Bram

Bram Stoker was born on the 8th of November 1847 making this Tuesday his 175th birthday!

This year Bram will share his birthday with a Full Moon in Taurus, a total lunar eclipse and Blood Moon. If that isn’t enough, the astronomical date for Beltane in the southern hemisphere, and Samhain in the northern hemisphere, will be celebrated on the eve of his birthday. Stoker’s most famous novel, Dracula, is a symphony of oppositions exploring life, death and rebirth. I think it is very fitting that Stoker’s 175th birthday falls on the eve of these most appropriate festivals.

To celebrate this very special birthday I decided to pay tribute to Bram’s Irish heritage by making an Irish milk punch called Scáiltín. It’s basically a spiced milk hot toddy. Milk and dairy are traditional foods/drinks used in both Beltane and Full Moon festivities which makes this a perfect drink for Bram’s birthday this year.

For the spices, I used pumpkin spice instead of the traditional ginger and cinnamon to add a bit of Halloween to the drink. If you don’t have pumpkin spice you can replace it with a 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger and a 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon. I’ve also added an optional toasted marshmallow as a reminder of the bonfires that will be burning on both sides of the globe.

Happy Birthday Bram Stoker!

Irish Milk Punch (Scáiltín)

Ingredients
(Makes one generous cup)
1/4 cup Irish whiskey
1 cup full fat milk
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin spice
freshly grated or ground nutmeg for serving
1 marshmallow for serving (optional)

Instructions
Warm the whisky and milk in a small saucepan over low heat. (Do not let the mixture boil).
Add the honey and pumpkin spice and whisk until bubbly and combined.
Pour into a heatproof mug.
Sprinkle with nutmeg.
Top with a toasted marshmallow if desired.
If you don’t have access to a bonfire, you can toast the marshmallow by spearing it on a fork and slowly turning it over a low heat on a gas fire until it is toasted to your liking. (Be careful not to drop it as it softens).

A Tricky Halloween

Once upon a time, Australia didn’t really celebrate Halloween. There were no ghoulish goodies to buy, no spooky houses to visit, and no trick-or-treaters visiting on All Hallows Eve. Thank goodness times have changed!

Halloween is an Autumnal festival celebrating the beginning of Winter, so being a Pagan who lives in the southern hemisphere, I celebrate Halloween on April 30th. But I’m also a Goth so I celebrate northern hemisphere Halloween on October 31st because one Halloween just isn’t enough!

The corresponding festival to Halloween is Beltane, a festival celebrating the beginning of Summer. I’ve always felt I’m cheating Beltane by sharing it with Halloween and I’ve tried to work out ways of dealing with this tricky issue. Happily this year I have found a perfect compromise! I’m going to celebrate Halloween on the usual date and Beltane on an astronomical date. However, understanding astronomical dates can be a bit tricky too. 🙂

Halloween and Beltane (and Imbolc and Lammas) are cross-quarter festivals that mark the approximate mid points between the Solstices and Equinoxes. Like Xmas they are fixed date festivals which means they are celebrated on the same date every year. The Solstices and Equinoxes, like Easter, are moveable festivals meaning they are celebrated on different dates each year. The fixed date festivals mark the approximate midpoint between Solstices and Equinoxes but you can actually work out the exact astronomical date too. If you do this, you’ll find that the dates of the fixed festivals will now change every year as well.

This year the exact astronomical date of Beltane in the southern hemisphere falls on November 7th. I’m really excited about this date, as it is the eve of the Taurus Full Moon, a perfect symbol for Beltane. On November 8th there will be a total lunar eclipse which also happens to be Bram Stoker’s birthday. A lunar eclipse on the birthday of the author of Dracula brings me right back where I want to be – Halloween!

The Halloween “Pom” Queen

Sunday the 30th of April is southern hemisphere Halloween! There are so many ways to celebrate this most auspicious of nights. This year I’ll be celebrating the seasonal coronation of Persephone as she once again embraces her role as the Queen of the Underworld.

Persephone spends Spring and Summer in the land of the living and Autumn and Winter in the land of the dead. During the Autumn Equinox, Persephone makes her descent into the Underworld. On Halloween, we celebrate the seasonal coronation of Persephone as she regains her crown and guides us through the remaining dark half of the year.

To celebrate Persephone’s Halloween Coronation, I’m making hot chocolate. Chocolate is linked to death – and not just by the dessert Death By Chocolate! Cacao has been used in celebrations and rituals symbolising both death and rebirth for millennia. You can even buy Ceremonial Grade Cacao if you’re really keen. I’m adding mint and pomegranate to my hot chocolate which also have links to death and rebirth, so they are perfect ingredients for a Halloween drink dedicated to Persephone.

Mint is a key herb herb used in funerary rites, and also an ingredient in kykeon, a fermented barley drink used in the Eleusinian Mysteries dedicated to Demeter and Persephone. Interestingly, Minthe is the name of a nymph who was the lover of Hades. Minthe said some unflattering things about Persephone and was trampled on by either Persephone, or her mother Demeter. The herb mint sprang from the earth where Minthe was squashed. That’s a pretty powerful allegory for death and rebirth!

Pomegranate is a red fruit filled with seeds that oozes blood red juice when opened. Not surprisingly they are a fruit abundant in symbology. During her first trip to the Underworld, Persephone eats some pomegranate seeds which tie her forever to the realm of the dead. For each seed she has eaten, she must spend a month in the Underworld. There is no consensus on how many seeds she ate. As her journey represents a seasonal cycle of light and darkness, six seems to be an appropriate number. Pomegranate seeds bring Persephone back to the Underworld and on Halloween she reclaims her throne as Queen of the Dead. It is this for reason I call her my Halloween Pom (Pomegranate) Queen.

Mint Hot Chocolate with Pomegranate Whipped Cream

Ingredients (1 serving)
for the whipped cream
1/2 cup cream
1 tablespoon powdered (icing) sugar
1 teaspoon fresh pomegranate juice
pomegranate seeds for decorating
mint leaves for decorating

for the hot chocolate
1 cup of milk
1 tablespoon dark cocoa powder
20g finely chopped dark chocolate buds
2 tablespoons (or to taste) peppermint cordial

Instructions
Whisk the cream until slightly thickened.
Add the powdered sugar and whisk until soft peaks form.
Stir in the pomegranate juice until fluffy and combined. Set aside while you make the hot chocolate.
Heat the milk until hot, but not boiling.
Whisk in the cocoa powder until combined.
Add the chocolate and whisk until melted and combined.
Add the peppermint cordial and whisk until combined.
Pour into a heat-proof mug.
Top with whipped cream.
Decorate with mint leaves and pomegranate seeds.

A Duality Of Holidays

Halloween is my favourite time of the year – especially now that Australia has finally gotten into the spirit of things. Halloween candy and decorations compete for shelf space with xmas paraphernalia in stores, making it one of the rare times that I love to go shopping. As I go for walks around my neighbourhood, I’m rapt to see so many houses proudly showcasing ghoulish displays. The signs of Halloween are all around me, but so too are the signs of Beltane, the Spring festival that many southern hemisphere Pagans will be celebrating on October 31st.

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On one of my morning walks, I was reminded that Spring is here when I saw an adorable tiger snake on the footpath. I watched, spellbound, and then took photos and video, from a very safe distance! I kept watch as the graceful creature slithered onto the road, making sure it made it safely across. The little snake found a nice place to rest and sun-bake while I continued on my walk. While a snake is a perfect symbol for Halloween, it’s also a perfect symbol for Beltane.

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To celebrate northern hemisphere Halloween and southern hemisphere Beltane, I’d like to share a recipe that utilises apples, a fruit appropriate for both festivals. I found this recipe in a cozy mystery novel, appropriately called The Uninvited Corpse, from the Food Blogger Mystery series by Debra Sennefelder. All the recipes included in the book sounded divine, but it was the Cinnamon Apple Bread that had me heading to the kitchen.

The first time I made it I used a sweet red apple. The cake was very sweet and very delicious. The second time I used a green granny smith apple and it was perfect. To add a touch of Halloween to the recipe, I substituted pumpkin pie spice for the cinnamon. Pumpkin pie spice mix is a combination of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and sometimes allspice. I’ve made a few pumpkin pie spice mixes, but my favourite combination is:
4 parts ground cinnamon
2 parts ground ginger
1 part ground cloves
1 part ground nutmeg

Spiced Apple Bread

Ingredients
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
1 + 1/2 cups flour
1 + 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
125g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 + 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped

Instructions
Preheat oven to 180C / 350F.
Line a loaf pan with baking paper. (I used a 22cmx12cm / 9x5inch pan).
Mix together the brown sugar and spice. Set aside.
Sift together the flour and baking powder. Set aside.
Using an electric mixer, beat together the butter and white sugar until smooth.
Beat in the eggs one at a time until combined.
Add the vanilla extract and mix until combined.
Mix in half of the flour mix followed by half of the milk and mix until combined.
Repeat with the other half.
Pour half the mixture into prepared pan.
Add half the apple and half the brown sugar. Press lightly into the batter.
Repeat with remaining ingredients.
Bake for 55-65 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Allow to sit in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Happy Beltane and Happy Halloween!

Halloween on Easter

One of the quirks of celebrating Halloween on April 30th in the southern hemisphere is that it sometimes coincides with Eastern Orthodox Easter. Due to the differences between the way Orthodox and Western churches calculate Easter, they are often on different days. Halloween and Western Easter cannot fall on the same day, but that’s not so for Orthodox Easter. You can read about the complicated reasons for the differences in Easter dates in my previous post Moon Over Easter.

This year Orthodox Good Friday falls on Southern Hemisphere Halloween, which got me thinking about the similarities between those two special days. Naturally I thought about Halloween’s focus on ghosts and spirits and Easter’s focus on the death and resurrection of Jesus. How much more Halloween can you get than a story of a man dying and then returning from the dead? It doesn’t even matter if he returns as a man, zombie or ghost – it all fits with the spirit of Halloween!

Another Halloween/Easter theme is blood. Gory and scary looking food is a feature of Halloween celebrations, while the Easter tradition of colouring eggs red is meant to represent the blood of Christ that is shed on Good Friday. The hard eggshell represents the tomb Jesus is sealed in, and when you crack the eggshell, it symbolises Jesus’ release from the tomb and his resurrection from the dead. This connection of the egg with blood, death and rebirth, makes eggs perfect symbols for Halloween too.

A tasty egg dish that is traditionally served for both Easter and Halloween is Devilled Eggs. I’ve already shared a recipe for Devilled Eggs in my Dracula’s Journey post. I’ve added a Halloween tweak to the recipe, which now features pumpkin puree and pumpkin spice. I also decorated the eggs with pumpkin seed flour, pumpkin seed oil and pumpkin seeds to really pump up the pumpkin flavours. You can also drizzle with pomegranate molasses or another red sauce to give them a ghoulish look. 🙂 The great thing about Halloween food is that you can go all out with the decorating!

Pumpkin Devilled Eggs

Ingredients
6 boiled eggs
2/3 cups pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon sour cream
sea salt to taste
pumpkin spice to taste*

for decorating
pumpkin seed oil
pumpkin seed flour
pumpkin seeds

Instructions
Cut eggs in half lengthways and scoop out the yolk into a bowl.
Mash the egg yolk then add the sour cream and pumpkin puree. Mix until combined.
Add salt and pumpkin spice to taste.
Spoon or pipe mixture back into the eggs.
Decorate your eggs your way!

*you can use store-bought pumpkin spice mix or make your own. This is my version:
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg 
Mix the spices together in a small bowl.

Happy Halloween!

Scrying Times

On October 31st, many around the world will be celebrating Halloween, but if you’re a Pagan in the Southern Hemisphere, you may be celebrating Beltane instead.

Both Halloween and Beltane are seasonal festivals. Halloween is a harvest festival signifying the beginning of winter, while Beltane is a spring celebration and heralds the coming summer. I’m usually partial to celebrating Halloween in April and October, but this year I am really feeling the Beltane spirit. 

My home state of Victorian is coming out of a very long, dark winter. It wasn’t our weather, but the global pandemic. Victoria experienced a deadly second wave but after a series of restrictions, lockdowns and an overnight curfew, we managed to beat the virus down to manageable levels. We are now opening up in sensible stages and celebrating our victories. Our joyous return to the world of light and life is the essence of Beltane. As always, my Beltane festivities will include a touch of Halloween.

At Beltane, like Halloween, the veil between the worlds is thin. Communication with the spirit world is easier on these nights. 

One way of connecting wth the spirit realm is through the ancient art of divination. There are many forms of divination, but scrying is one of the most popular for Halloween. Scrying is the art of looking into a reflective surface for messages. There is no consensus or restriction on what these reflective surfaces should be. Gazing into water, mirrors, glass, crystals, stones, clouds, smoke and fire are common forms of scrying. Staring into black surfaces, darkness or the night sky are also perfect ways to scry on Halloween in particular. 

This Beltane/Halloween falls on a Full Moon in Taurus. The luminescent Full Moon is a great scrying tool and one that I love. As a child I would often gaze at the Full Moon, delighting in its beauty and seeing images reflected on its silvery surface. I am looking forward to doing some serious moon gazing this weekend. 🙂

For my Beltane recipe I have chosen a bowl of soup. Not only is it a soulful bowl of comfort and contentment, it’s also a great scrying tool. A bowl filled with water is a classic divination vessel but replacing the water with a flavoursome soup is a tasty tweak I could’t resist. For an added divination twist I’ve used alphabet pasta. Not only can you scry for images in the soup but you can look for messages scribed in pasta!

Alphabet Soup For The Scrying Soul

Ingredients
1 cup chicken stock*
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup alphabet pasta
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon chopped chives

Instructions
Bring the chicken stock and water to a boil.
Add the pasta and cook following the instructions on the packet.
Remove pasta from the heat and stir in the butter.
Pour into a bowl or bowls and top with cheese and chives.

*for a vegetarian version replace the chicken stock with vegetable stock

A Tale Of A Felted Koala

Since discovering the Pagan wheel of the year over thirty years ago, I’ve celebrated the harvest festival of Halloween (Samhain) on April 30th. I still remember that first, long ago Halloween held in a Victorian forest on a bitterly cold night. After the ritual we warmed ourselves by an open fire. We watched the smoke rise in waves and patterns, trying to scry for messages in the fiery air. As the logs burned, the bright red embers turned to charcoal, making strange shapes as they transformed. We drank, laughed and talked through the night. We told jokes and shared stories until the sun rose and May Day dawned.

This Halloween I would like to share a story of a tiny felted koala, an idea forged during the horrifying Australian bushfires, and created by my dear artist friend Anne Belov as a symbol of comfort, hope and rebirth – perfect symbols for a Halloween tale.

 

Many of you know Anne Belov as the creator of The Panda Chronicles. Anne is also a multi-talented professional artist (an incredible painter) who has recently branched out into the field of felted creations. Most of her creations are, not surprisingly, pandas, but in the mix there is a very special critter, Kevin the Koala, or as he is now affectionately known – Kevin the Scorched Koala. Before Kevin was born in felt he was introduced to the world in ink in a very special cartoon in The Panda Chronicles.

 

Kevin was a huge hit and when Anne toyed with the idea of making a felted version of him we all said “Yes!” When she suggested adding scorch marks to her creation the more diabolical among us said “Hell Yes!” It wasn’t long before Kevin, complete with scorch marks, moved from the world of ink into the world of felt. I’m happy to say that I am the proud caretaker of the very first Kevin the Scorched Koala.

 

To honour Kevin’s arrival to his ancestral homeland I created a special recipe that blends some Aussie ingredients (eucalyptus honey and macadamia nuts) with an imaginary cookie bar – the Binky Bar! If you’re a fan of The Panda Chronicles you’ll know that the pandas love eating and drinking and Binky Bars are one of their favourite treats. But what are they? No-one knows as it’s been left to our imaginations to visualise these tasty treats. When a Kevin fan suggested a Kevin Binky Bar would be fun I naturally volunteered to create one. Kevin’s Binky Bars feature a shortbread base topped with a sweet and chocolatey filling.

In honour of Kevin’s adorable scorch marks, I’ve served my Binky Bars with scorched macadamias. Scorched nuts are an Australian and New Zealand name for roasted nuts that are covered in layers of chocolate. Don’t worry if you can’t get them, or any other ingredients, just experiment and have fun. After all, nobody really knows what a Binky Bar looks like – or tastes like. 🙂

Kevin The Scorched Koala’s Honey & Macadamia Binky Bars

 

Special Note:
These bars need to set overnight.

Ingredients
for the shortbread base
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
125g unsalted butter, cut into pieces

for the chocolate topping
50g unsalted butter
1/3 cup double cream
1 tablespoon eucalyptus honey*
50g dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
100g Anzac biscuits (cookies), broken into various small and medium sized pieces**
1/3 cup macadamia nuts, chopped into various small and medium sized pieces

Instructions
For the shortbread base:
Preheat oven to 180C / 350F.
Line a baking pan (approximately 23cm x 17cm / 9” x 7”) with baking paper.
Place the flour, sugar and butter in a food processor.
Process until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Spread mixture into the prepared pan, pressing it down with fingers or the back of a spoon to compress it slightly.
Bake for 20 – 25 minutes or until lightly browned.
Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before adding the topping.

For the chocolate topping:
Heat the butter and cream in a medium sized saucepan over low heat.
Stir in the honey.
Add the chocolate pieces and stir until the chocolate melts.
Allow to cool for a few minutes. (You have to allow it to cool long enough so that the biscuits don’t turn to mush when added, but not too long or the chocolate will set.)
Add the broken biscuits and chopped macadamias to the chocolate mixture and stir until combined.
Spread over the shortbread base.
Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Cut into bars.
Serve with scorched macadamias.

*koalas love eucalyptus but you can use any honey you like or any other syrup such as agave, maple or golden.
**if you can’t find Anzac biscuits you can make your own or use my recipe here!