Are ghouls and goblins haunting you this Halloween? Try giving them an evil eye. Or even a whole platter of them.
With a bit of ingenuity and basic craft skills, it's easy to create an army of eyes to watch over the season's spooky happenings.
The folks at Martha Stewart Living use radishes and green olives to create “Eyeball Highballs” – grotesque eyes frozen in cubes of ice. See marthastewart.com and search for “eyeball highball” for details.
For a sweet take on eerie eyeballs, use marzipan, a claylike paste of ground almonds and sugar. Marzipan is widely available in the baking section of most grocers.
In this recipe, the marzipan is rolled into balls. An “iris” is painted onto each eye using tinted white chocolate. A final glaze of light corn syrup gives the eyes that authentic glassy look.
Makes 12 eyes
7-ounce package cake decorating marzipan (which differs from baking marzipan)
2 ounces good-quality white chocolate (divided use)
Blue, green and red gel or paste food coloring
12 chocolate chips
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper. Set aside.
Divide the marzipan into 12 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball. If the marzipan is too sticky to work with, dust the counter and your hands with powdered sugar. Place the balls on the baking sheet.
Gently press the bottom of a magic marker into the top of each ball to create an indented ring surrounding a raised circle. This will form the iris and pupil of the eye. Leave the balls uncovered for 24 hours, during which time the marzipan will dry slightly.
After 24 hours, break the white chocolate into small pieces and divide evenly between two small glass bowls. Microwave the chocolate in 10-second intervals, stirring between each, until melted.
Use a toothpick to add blue food coloring, a drop at a time, to one of the bowls of melted white chocolate. Stir between each addition until you achieve the desired color. Repeat the process to color the second bowl of white chocolate with green food coloring.
Use small paintbrushes to paint the indented circle (the iris) of each ball either blue or green with the tinted white. Carefully press a chocolate chip, point-side down, into the center of each iris to form a pupil. Allow the chocolate to dry several minutes.
Mix several drops of red food coloring with 1 to 2 drops of water. Use a small paintbrush to paint “veins” along the whites of the eyes. Be generous to give the eyes a bloodshot look. Allow the veins to dry several minutes.
Once the eyeballs are dry, use another brush to paint the eyes with corn syrup to give them a glassy, shiny look. Once they are dry, use a spatula to transfer the eyes to a tray or small cupcake liners. Cover and store at room temperature for up to a week.
Note: For a step-by-step photo slide show of these directions, go to: www.odense.com/recipes/orr.cfm?recipeid=91
(From Andre Prost Inc., importers of Odense Almond Paste.)