Bonfire Night Treats

As it's Bonfire Night tomorrow night and hoards of bundled-up people across the country will be gathering round fires to mark the fifth of November, I thought it would be fun to share some scrummy recipes with you to help your own celebrations go off with a bang!

I've chosen a rather sugary selection of Bonfire Night delights here (couldn't help adding in the slight rhyme there, sorry) but I also always have a real hankering for some warm and savoury 'cosy food' at this time of year. If you're in charge of catering for friends and family this Firework Night and you need some savoury inspiration to go with your sweeter treats, why not take a quick look at a few of the yummy hearty meal ideas I've collected over on Pinterest? It honestly makes my stomach rumble just looking at them!

Anyway, on to the sweet stuff...

Sparkling Shortbread Stars

These sparkling stars are an adaptation of  this recipe that I used for the biscuits in my Cosy October Box. I left out the chocolate and nuts this time and simply covered my shortbread in some edible gold glitter for an extra shimmery, whizz-popping effect!  

To make thirty biscuits, you will need:

- 360g flour
- 250g unsalted butter
- 225g caster sugar
- 1 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 large egg
- 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
- edible glitter, optional

* Place the butter in a mixer and beat on high for three minutes. Then, add the sugar and the salt and beat for another three minutes.
* Scrape the sides of the bowl and add the egg. Beat for another five minutes.
* Add the vanilla extract and the flour and then slowly mix until everything comes together into a ball.
* Wrap the ball of dough in clingfilm and place in the freezer for around fifteen minutes. In the meantime, preheat your oven to 180c/350f.
*  Take your dough from the freezer and gently massage until it becomes ready to roll out. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to roughly half an inch thick and cut out your stars.
* Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment and bake for around twelve minutes, or until golden brown. Leave to cool.
* Once cooled, gently brush the top of each biscuit with a sparkling layer of golden glittery dust!

Gnarly Cinnamon Toffee Apples

A warming, spiced take on the traditional toffee apple, this recipe is a slightly messy one to tackle... but stick with it (haha) the results are delicious! Slightly adapted from a recipe on Waitrose.com. 

For six apples, you will need:

- 300g soft, light brown sugar
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 2 tsp. white wine vinegar
- 30g unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp. golden syrup
- mixed nuts, optional

* Scrub your apples to remove any waxy residue that will prevent the caramel from sticking. Take six, sturdy branches (with parchment paper wrapped around their tops!) and stud them into the core of the apples. If you have any trouble doing this, try jamming a chopstick into the apple first before gently wiggling the branch in. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
* Put the sugar in a heavy-based pan with 100ml cold water and the cinnamon sticks; heat gently to dissolve the sugar. Once its dissolved, bring the mixture to the boil and add the butter, vinegar and golden syrup. Boil for fifteen minutes to the soft-crack stage, which is when a little caramel dropped into cold water separates into strands that then harden.
* When your caramel is ready, remove the cinnamon sticks and take the pan off the heat. Quickly dip each apple into the caramel to coat it and then roll it in a bowl of the mixed nuts. Leave the apples on the baking sheet to set.  

Crumbly Cinder Toffee

Cinder toffee, or honeycomb if you want to be boring (!), is a lovely bubbly and crumbly treat that can be eaten as it is, or smashed up and sprinkled over ice cream for an extra special dessert! This recipe is taken from  BBC Good Food. 

For a 20cm chunk, you will need:

- butter, for greasing
- 200g caster sugar
- 5 tbsp. golden syrup
- 2 tsp. bicarbonate of soda

* Grease a 20cm square tin with the butter. Mix the caster sugar and syrup in a deep saucepan and stir over a gentle heat until the sugar has melted.
* Once melted, turn up the heat a little and simmer until you have an amber-coloured caramel, then as quickly as you can turn off the heat, tip in the bicarbonate and beat in with a wooden spoon until it's all disappeared and the mixture is foaming. Carefully pour everything into your pre-prepared tin.  
* The mixture will continue bubbling in the tin, simply leave it and in 1-2 hours. After, the honeycomb will be completely hard and ready to eat!

And that's everything! Enough sweet treats for everyone to happily munch on around the fire...
  

I hope you all have a wonderful (and safe) Bonfire Night tomorrow evening! What sort of recipes do you like to get out at this time of year? I'd love to hear all about your traditions in the comments below!

In the meantime,
All the love,

Sian x