Vittoria is an Italian mum of two wonderful trilingual boys living in South West London.
She is a chef and teaches mouth-watering cooking classes inspired by her family’s Southern-Italian roots.
Vittoria shares with us 4 recipes to make for a scary-licious Halloween-themed party or a cook-along with the kids.
Pumpkin pancakes
Ingredients
- 200 gr pumpkin puree
- 150 gr buckwheat flour
- 100 gr coconut sugar
- 3g of each spice: cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and ginger
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1tsp salt
- 70 ml milk
- 55 gr vegetable oil
- 1 egg
- butter for frying
Method
- In a bowl, mix together the milk, pumpkin puree, egg, and oil. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and salt in a separate bowl.
- Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until combined.
- Heat a tsp of butter in a frying pan over medium heat and pour 1/4 cup of the batter into the pan.
- Cook for 3-4 minutes on one side before turning the mix over with a slotted turner and cook for 3-4 minutes on the other side. Cooking them slowly is key to making sure they don’t burn on the outside before the middle has cooked. Extra tip: look for bubbles to appear before turning over.
- Extra-tip: you can cut the pancakes in Jack-o-Lantern shape (here is the link for pumpkin cutters) and decorate the pancakes with chocolate chips and fruit.
Mummies pizzas
Dough ingredients
- 500g white bread flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 15g fresh yeast or 1 sachet of dry yeast (or follow instruction)
- 200ml tepid water
- 100ml milk
- 1 pinch of sugar
- 4 TBSP olive oil, plus extra for oiling
For the topping
- 100g mozzarella stripes
- 5 pitted olives
- 500g passata
- a pinch of oregano
- a pinch of salt
Method
- In a large mixing bowl, pour the flour and put the salt on one side. Slightly warm up milk and water separately. Stir sugar in the milk, and then add the yeast until it dissolves. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour in the milk mixture along with the olive oil. Add slowly the water whilst adding the flour to the liquids. Bring the dough together with your hands. As the flour is incorporated, the dough will start to take shape. Add more water if the dough feels tight or hard. Do not add extra flour. It has to be quite sticky so don’t add any flour if you think it is not dry enough.
- Turn the dough onto a clean surface and knead for 10 minutes, or until it is smooth and elastic. If it is too sticky, the trick is to turn it around quickly with the tip of your fingers and fold pieces of dough from the outside to the inside. Cut off a small piece of the dough and stretch part of it as thinly as you can. If you can see the shadow of your fingers through the dough without tearing, it is ready to prove.
- Knead the cut piece back into the dough and shape the dough into an even ball. Place in an oiled bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and allow the dough to rise in a warm place for 1½ hours, or until it has doubled in size (the temperature of your kitchen can affect the timing of this).
- In the meantime, prepare the tomato sauce by heating olive oil in a small saucepan. Once hot, add the passata. Season with oregano and salt. Let it bubble for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and put it aside. Cut the mozzarella in stripes and the olives in little circles.
- Dust a work surface with semolina. Divide the dough into smaller dough balls (75g each). Roll out each ball with a rolling pin to form small circles.
- Transfer the pizza bases onto cooking paper on a baking tray.
- Cover the surface with the tomato sauce. Drape the stripes of mozzarella over the pizza in a random way to create mummy-like patterns. Place the olives as the eyes of the mummy.
- When ready to bake, cook for 8–10 minutes at 250 degrees, or until the base is golden-brown and the toppings are bubbling.
Witch fingers cookies
Ingredients
- 100g softened butter
- 100g icing sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 280g white flour
- green colouring
- 1 pinch of salt
- 50g blanched almonds
- strawberry jam
Method
- Cut the butter into cubes. In a big bowl mix the flour and butter with your hands creating a sandy mixture. Add the egg, almond extract, and icing sugar and mix. When thoroughly combined, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 40 minutes. It is also ok to prepare the dough the day before and refrigerate it.
- Preheat your oven to 180°C. Take 60g of dough and begin rolling out one finger. Press the tip and spread some jam. Add an almond to the tip of the fingernail and press down to make sure it’s secure. Form a knuckle by squeezing a bit of dough and then use a knife to make some creases. Place on baking paper, leaving about a centimetre between them. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
- Bake for 22 minutes or until slightly golden.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. You can also keep them in the fridge to keep them for longer (about a week).
Dracula teeth cookies
Ingredients
- Your favourite chocolate chips cookies
- Philadelphia or your favourite cream cheese
- Icing sugar
- Tiny marshmallows
- Slivered almonds
Method
- Cut each cookie in half.
- Mix the Philadelphia with icing sugar. Add the food colouring to the cream cheese. Frost the bottoms and the tops of all cookie halves with cream cheese. Place 6 marshmallow teeth around the curved perimeter of the bottom halves. Top with the remaining halves just slightly behind the marshmallows so that they show. Insert two almond slivers in between teeth for fangs.
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